The Open Network (TON) of the social media platform Telegram is a decentralized blockchain designed to facilitate payments within the app's ecosystem. Here's an overview of the TON network and its controversial history.
In January 2018, Pavel Durov, the founder of the social media app Telegram, introduced the TON project in an official blog post. Following this announcement, Telegram conducted a significant Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in February 2018, raising a substantial sum of 1.7 billion USD for its cryptocurrency, Gram. This ICO became one of the largest fundraising events of its kind in history. However, the subsequent battle with regulators would prove to be pivotal and delay the platform's development by years.
Subscribe to our newsletter
The best articles of the week, directly delivered into your mailbox.
Fall and rise spanning years
On April 30, 2018, Telegram supported the TON project by publishing a comprehensive 132-page whitepaper, providing a detailed overview of the technical intricacies of the TON blockchain and its broader vision. However, legal challenges arose in October 2019 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated legal action against Telegram Group Inc. and the TON project. The SEC claimed that the Gram tokens sold during the ICO constituted unregistered securities, marking one of the first prominent crypto lawsuits by the SEC.
Ultimately, on October 11, 2019, Pavel Durov made the difficult decision to terminate the TON project due to significant legal obstacles and regulatory issues. The official end of the original project came on May 12, 2020, when Durov announced a compromise between Telegram and the SEC, involving an 18.5 million USD fine and the repayment of 1.2 billion USD to investors, signifying the official end of the project in that form.
TON becomes Open Network
The transition from Telegram's TON to "The Open Network" occurred on August 3, 2021. This decision was made because Telegram could no longer work on the project and in response to the community's (The Open Network) request to transfer all resources to them as the primary developers. The new team planned to continue the project as originally envisioned by Telegram and ensure adherence to the implementations outlined in the original documentation.
TON was intended to be a platform with integrated blockchain technology designed for peer-to-peer interactions, extensive storage, and versatile service hosting. A new whitepaper addresses the features of today's TON platform. With the ability to handle millions of transactions in fractions of a second, TON is not only user-centric but also oriented towards service providers.
Web3-Ökosystem auf Telegram ausgeweitet
Similar to other smart contract platforms, TON is described as an extensive, decentralized supercomputer capable of providing a range of services on a large scale. The platform includes several integral components such as the TON blockchain, DNS, storage, and hosted websites. At its core is the social media app Telegram. Various applications promise seamless blockchain integrations directly through the platform. Additionally, standard DeFi and NFT applications are also present on TON.
The Toncoin serves as the medium of exchange within the TON ecosystem. The token facilitates transactions and provides incentives for node operation. This aligns with TON's overall goal of offering a decentralized platform for a variety of applications and services, with Toncoin serving as its financial backbone.
