Hey! Real Quick. What’s your favorite top 25 crypto project that isn’t Bitcoin or Ethereum? I bet lots of you are thinking of Polygon, Cosmos, Polkadot, or maybe an alt Layer 1 like Avalanche or Solana. But I am very confident you are NOT thinking of this project. But you should be.
It has a built-in user base, great apps, and great chain performance, and it’s under the radar. What project in the top 25 could possibly have all those things? It’s TON, The Open Network. And today, why you should give this excellent project a look.
What is the TON Network?
TON or The Open Network is a Layer 1 blockchain and ecosystem with some special properties. For one, it has a natural HUGE built-in audience. A platform with 55 million daily active users, including almost everyone here at Altcoin Buzz, and 550 million monthly active users.
What am I talking about? The Telegram app. More on that below but the project has common ownership with Telegram. But more than just Telegram, TON is just quietly building.
Along with Cardano and Polkadot, who also don’t hype their projects very much, The Open Network might be the least talked about the project in crypto’s top 25. Yes, it’s Toncoin, symbol $TON is the 24th most valuable coin in crypto. Surprised? I was. At its current price of $1.98, it has a market value of just under $3 billion.
TON Offers Modularity
We just saw this recently with our friends at Venom. The Open Network has the same blockchain structure:
- Master chain.
- Workchains.
- Shardchains.
This means TON is a modular blockchain. It might be one of the first ones in existence as well as one of the largest. Like with Cosmos Hub, which now offers security to their ‘zones’, the Master chain helps secure the entire network.
Then, the workchains are their own L1 chain that can do whatever they want. They can issue tokens, build an EVM or other virtual machine, or whatever other purpose it is.
102/
January saw the highest number of successful SDK integrations in Q1.
These included several interesting SDK Footsteps undertakings, all of which are detailed in our January Developer Report in addition to the following newly developed SDKshttps://t.co/OnGKz6a6F3
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) April 26, 2023
Also, the shardchains use sharding to process transactions faster. MUCH MUCH faster. This is why transactions on TON are so fast and cheap. Modular blockchains are a big narrative in crypto now. We expect their story only to grow more from here as there is no reason every blockchain must perform every single function itself. It’s great for Bitcoin but not every chain needs it.
TON Ecosystem
And there’s a whole ecosystem too. Many of the apps are useful right now. Utility today can be hard to find in crypto. Many projects are built for what they think 3-5 yrs will look like. But some of the useful services people like right now are:
- Anonymous eSIM service to give you mobile data access on your phone when you travel.
- The affordable TON VPN, Connecton VPN, or anonymous VPN4TON
- And 100+ more
💎💎💎
TON Community Weekly DigestHere’s a roundup of the most exciting news from the past seven days in The Open Network $TON Ecosystem.
Network Growth:
💎 The number of registered #TON accounts has increased from 2,602,852 to 2,625,204 (+0.9%) between May 8 and May 14,… pic.twitter.com/PrPLUqFaQT
— Aleksei Solovev 💎 (@yogasolovey) May 15, 2023
Have you used The Open Network before? Do you have a favorite app you use? Let us know in the comments below.
The Telegram Connection
The connection between TON and Telegram is by blood. The Durov brothers, the founders of Telegram Messenger, also founded TON. They released the Telegram Open Network whitepaper as early as 2018. During this period, Telegram was developing this blockchain all the way up to 2020.
Do you see it?
Do you see the future unfold?#TheOpenNetwork https://t.co/CjNaBqzXln
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) May 10, 2023
Why did Telegram stop developing TON? You can thank the SEC in the US for that. In October 2019, only weeks before its launch the SEC made a statement. Our “friends” at the SEC stepped in and sued Telegram. This more or less destroyed the project. The Durov brothers put up a legal fight at first. But then gave up after 9 months in court and $18.5 million in fines. And as a side note – even 3 years later the SEC still doesn’t know if crypto is security. I’m guessing that’s because they have too many PhDs there.
But all was not lost. Because here comes the power of crypto. Some developers still believed in a project and kept working on it. There were some initial hiccups with a couple of forks. But then The Open Network rose from the ashes as the most useful solution.
Now comes the crazy part. Despite all this TON and Telegram are still joined at the hip. The coolest recent development showcasing this is the built-in Telegram wallet. Try it out now with me.
💎@ton_blockchain 🤝 @BITCryptoXchg have joined forces to enhance their ecosystems!
As part of the partnership, @Telegram bot @wallet users will enjoy seamless integration with BIT exchange & BIT users paying fees with #toncoin will enjoy 10% off🎉#ton #web3 #Binance #news pic.twitter.com/ZBh51MIWCL
— 💎 TON Daily News (@TonDailyNews) May 9, 2023
More About the Telegram-TON Integration
Open your Telegram and enter @wallet in the search bar. With a little bit of fiddling around, you’ll be able to send & receive transactions in BTC, TON, and USDT on Telegram in no time. Now think about how simple it was for you to learn how to operate your Telegram wallet right now. And now imagine that Telegram has over 550 million users. What if only 1 in 10 start using it?
The closest comparison would be to compare Telegram with the Chinese web2 app WeChat. WeChat had 1.3 billion users in 2022 and WeChat Pay – a built-in payment system in WeChat – had 900 million users. That’s 70% of WeChat users using their in-build “wallet”. Of course, it’s much easier for fiat payment solutions to onboard users. But if Telegram onboards only 10% of its users for their wallet? They have 550 million active users per month.
Unlock the power of #TON
🎉We're thrilled to announce the launch of our new token #bridge – the first unlimited bridge that enables seamless transfer of ERC-20 tokens to TON's Jetton💎 (fungible token standard of TON)!
Get started at https://t.co/OzhNq4df3e 💙
[1/3] pic.twitter.com/psux1C871z
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) April 17, 2023
That alone equals 55 million users for their Telegram wallet. Just for comparison, that would be 2 times more than Metamask. And that’s one of the biggest crypto wallets. How much would extra 55 million users affect $TON’s price? And, what is easier onboarding than somebody who already uses Telegram? All you have to do is type @wallet in the search bar and start paying & receiving money from your friends via the Telegram app. What’s easier than that?
⬆️ For more cryptocurrency news, check out the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel.
⬆️ Our popular Altcoin Buzz Access group generates tons of alpha for our subscribers. And for a limited time, it’s Free. Click the link and join the conversation today.