Telegram public chain Ton is gaining momentum. Will it become a challenger to Solana?

Author: Hamster, Source: Author's Blog

Recently, the TON public chain has finally experienced a long period of downturn. At the beginning, the total locked-up amount exceeded 78 million, a record high. In addition, a large number of Memecoins have emerged in its ecology, and the TON Foundation has also announced the recruitment of Memecoin ecology leaders, which means to vigorously develop the Meme ecology. However, this move has also sparked some controversy as to whether Ton can replicate the Solana Meme craze? After all, unlike the Solana ecosystem, TON's DeFi ecosystem is still in its early stages. Current DeFi applications and tools are relatively limited, and there are also challenges of centralization issues and insufficient capital efficiency.

Introduction

TON (The Open Network) is a decentralized network that aims to In building an open Internet environment for everyone, originally conceived by Telegram founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the development of TON has become community-driven. This shift emphasizes its fundamental principles of decentralization and the broader community’s commitment to its growth and innovation. Although Telegram later distanced itself from the project due to regulatory challenges with the SEC, the network remains closely associated with the messaging app, integrating various blockchain-based services such as cryptocurrency payments and storage solutions directly into Telegram in the ecosystem.

Integration with Telegram

The combination of TON and Telegram begins with the vision of a new blockchain platform (Telegram Open Network) developed by the Telegram team since 2017 and its native cryptocurrency Grams. The goal of this project is to improve the speed, efficiency, and security of everyday business transactions through TON blockchain technology, making Grams a true complement to traditional currencies. Telegram hopes the TON blockchain will create a stable ecosystem and represent a major improvement in speed, usability, and scalability.

However, due to legal conflicts with the US SEC, Telegram had to abandon this project. Nonetheless, TON did not end because of this, and in May 2021, adeveloper community called NEWTON took over Telegram’s unfinished TON project and continued its research and development independently of Telegram. This team formed spontaneously by members of the Telegram community was later renamed the TON Foundation (TON Foundation) in 2021, marking a new starting point for the project. With this major change, the project name has also been updated from the original Telegram Open Network to The Open Network, reflecting its wider application and openness. At the same time, the project’s native encryption token was also renamed from Gram to Toncoin. This series of changes demonstrates TON’s determination and pace to transform into a more decentralized and open network.

The development of the TON ecosystem has been widely supported by the Telegram community, which is particularly evident in its integration with Telegram.Telegram has no Seam has integrated a TON-based crypto wallet into its ecosystem, allowing Telegram’s nearly one billion users to now easily make cryptocurrency payments and access numerous Toncoin-based DApps. This not only increases Toncoin’s adoption and visibility, but also provides Telegram users with a highly practical and convenient way to explore and participate in the Web3 economy.

In addition, theTON Foundation and Telegram announced a formal partnership between the two parties at last year's Token2049 event in Singapore, demonstrating their efforts through Toncoin The ambition to transform Telegram into Web3, and Telegram’s support and commitment to the TON ecosystem.

With such an integration, the partnership between TON and Telegram not only advances Toncoin’s market position, but also provides new opportunities for the cryptocurrency community on Telegram. motivation. As more products and applications are launched and integrated, the partnership between TON and Telegram will continue to expand its reach, further increasing Toncoin’s adoption and awareness, and energizing the entire ecosystem.

Technical analysis

Technical architecture

1.Sharding technology: TON’s architecture uses sharding technology to divide the blockchain into multiple shard chains (shardchains). Each shard chain can be independent Processing transactions and smart contracts, greatly improving the ability to handle large volumes of transactions.

2. Main chain and working chain: TON includes a main chain (masterchain) and up to 2^32 Each work chain has its own set of rules, which cover account address formats, transaction protocols, and virtual machines that execute smart contracts.

3. Hypercube routing: TON uses slow hypercube routing and instant hypercube routing technologies to implement sharding chains Effective message passing betweenensures the scalability of the network and the needs for instant communication. Among them, the slow hypercube routingensures that the distribution of messages among multiple shard chains can logically grow as the number of shard chains increases, which means that when the network grows, the message delivery time increases. are minimized, ensuring scalability. Instant Hypercube routing is used in scenarios that require instant messaging between shard chains, supporting nearly instantaneous communication, which is critical for operations that rely on real-time data exchange and coordination of different network parts.

4. PoS consensus mechanism of Byzantine fault tolerance variant: Combining Byzantine fault tolerance technology with PoS consensus mechanism, TON’s consensus mechanism< strong>While improving network security, it also ensures efficient network operations and lower energy consumption. Validation nodes need to stake tokens to participate in the consensus process, which not only provides economic incentives, but also increases the economic cost of malicious behavior, thereby enhancing the security of the network. In addition, by introducing BFT technology, TON can maintain the normal operation of the network and ensure the correctness and consistency of transactions and data even in the face of node failure or malicious attacks.

Technical features

1.< /strong>High efficiency and scalability: Through sharding technology and efficient routing mechanism, TON is capable of processing millions of transactions per second while maintaining low latency and low costs, solving the challenge of blockchain scalability.

2.Security and Decentralization: TON’s governance model is inherently decentralized ization, The decision to modify the network requires the approval of the majority of verification nodes, which is achieved through the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. This mechanism further strengthens the security and decentralization of the network.

3. User-friendliness: TON provides a variety of services such as TON DNS, TON Storage, etc., allowing users to use more intuitive , use blockchain technology in a convenient way.

4. Ecosystem Diversity: TON not only supports cryptocurrency transactions and smart contracts, but also aims to create an ecosystem that includes decentralization An ecosystem of various decentralized services such as storage, anonymous networks, DNS and instant payments promotes the development of blockchain.

Other services and features

1. TON DNS:Enhance user experience by converting complex blockchain addresses into easy-to-understand names, similar to the traditional domain name system in the cryptocurrency field, and using ".ton" as its exclusive domain name suffix . This mechanism allows users to access DApps with the help of short and easy-to-remember domain names without having to memorize or enter lengthy alphanumeric strings. Additionally, users can associate these domains with their wallet addresses, simplifying access to blockchain resources.

2.TON Storage:Distributed file storage system, its operating mechanism draws on the principles of the Torrent network, through distribution technology to store and distribute files. Users can participate in the storage of files by providing their own disk space and are rewarded with TON. If users need more cloud storage space, they can also get it by paying $TON. To ensure the security and anonymity of storage channels, TON Storage utilizes encryption technology and TON Proxy’s IP address masking technology to protect data and prevent censorship and tracking. Based on its architecture, TON Storage supports the development of a variety of distributed applications, including video streaming services, providing users with a platform that integrates video streaming, search, catalog and recommendation systems.

3.TON Payments: The internal payment system built based on TON, although it mainly uses Toncoin as the transaction currency, it also Supports transfers between different cryptocurrencies within the ecosystem. It is not only suitable for wallet transfers between users, but also supports micropayments within DApps, TON Proxy payments, and fee settlement for DNS and file storage services. TON Payments achieves a fast, efficient and secure payment process through decentralized and distributed technology, allowing users to conduct various transactions and payment operations freely and securely within the TON ecosystem.

In summary, the TON blockchain combines advanced technology and a wide range of application scenarios to provide a high-performance and scalable blockchain platform. By working closely with Telegram, TON further leverages Telegram’s large user base, simplifying cryptocurrency transactions and enhancing the ease of use and accessibility of blockchain technology. This collaboration not only drives the adoption of TON but also promotes the diffusion of blockchain technology into mainstream society.

Will it become the next Solana?

In this cycle, many public chains are imitating Solana and attracting users through the wealth creation effect of memes, and TON is also one of them. In recent days, FISH has led the memecoin surge in the ecosystem, and many people believe that TON will become the next Solana.

At the time of writing,Toncoin was on CoinMarketCap  It ranks 11th with a market capitalization of $17.1 billion, while Solana, in fifth place, has a market capitalization of $78.3 billion, five times further away. Also comparing trading volume, SOL’s daily trading volume reached $2.21 billion, while TON’s was $333 million. In addition, encryption researcher Riyue Xiaochu analyzed TON's on-chain chips and said that the total number of TON is 5.1 billion, with 3.8 billion in circulation. The project side has about 960 million in hand, and the early low-cost Miners own more than 1 billions. And some of the early miners were foundations. This distribution model highlights that the development team and stakeholders retain a significant portion of the tokens, which may be used for future development, marketing, and ecosystem rewards. But it also points to the fact that the TON ecosystem relies on these key supporters in its early days.

When discussing whether TON can replicate Solana's successful trajectory, we can divide the discussion into pros and cons.

Positive view: TON has its unique advantages and potential

Technical innovation and scalability: TON's architectural design has native sharding support, which can theoretically reach a processing speed of 104,715 transactions per second and maintain High efficiency. Furthermore,TON’s multi-chain structure and ability to support custom working chains provide strong flexibilityfor different types of applications.

1. Integration with Telegram:TON largest The advantage may be its tight integration with Telegram. Backed by Telegram’s 900 million monthly active users and its mini app function, TON is able to provide a unique user experience in the social and gaming fields, which is difficult for other blockchain projects to copy.

2. Growth of community and ecosystem: Although TON is a latecomer, it It is rapidly developing its ecosystem and provides a wealth of development tools and resources. TON’s vision is to drive the development of the ecosystem through the power of the community, rather than relying on a single development team or company.

Opposite view: TON faces challenges and limitations

Market competition and technical challenges: Although TON has a high TPS in theory, there are stability issues in actual operation. And, while the TON blockchain has shown growth potential in the DeFi space, it still faces some challenges and disadvantages. The DeFi ecosystem is still in its early stages, and current DeFi applications and tools are relatively limited and suffer from centralization issues and insufficient capital efficiency. These factors may affect TON’s appeal and credibility in the highly competitive DeFi market. TON’s TVL is not comparable in absolute terms to other networks like Polygon or Solana.

1. Legal and regulatory risks: Previously, the founder of Telegram stated that it intended to gain market share in the stock market through an IPO. Can going publicavoid repeating past mistakes and avoid legal and regulatory risks? If not, it will limit TON’s development space.

2. Market manipulation and network security risks: Early low-cost miners have 1 billion chips, which may lead to market supply and price fluctuations of instability. When these early miners decide to sell large amounts of their cryptocurrency holdings, itmay cause a sharp drop in market prices, affecting the interests of other investors. In addition, over-concentration of currency may also increase the risk of the network being manipulated by a few people, thus affecting the decentralization characteristics and security of the blockchain network.

Comprehensive analysis

Although TON has its own uniqueness in social networking and gaming through the Telegram platform, and its technical advantages cannot be underestimated, the many challenges it faces are also obvious. In sharp contrast, Solana relies on its outstanding performance in technological innovation and developer-friendly environment to develop in the DeFi, NFT market and high-frequency trading. A strong ecosystem has been established in many fields. Solana's success is largely due to its ability to handle ultra-high transaction speeds and reduce costs - something TON has not yet fully achieved demonstrated ability.

In general, Although TON has its unique market advantages in the social and gaming fields that combine Telegram, it faces Technical challenges, legal risks and market competition may become obstacles for it to repeat Solana's successful path. Therefore, investors and market observers should remain cautiously optimistic and continue to pay attention to the potential development of TON in the social media field. At the same time, they need to be alert to the various risks it faces.