Welcome to The Open Network
TON is a third-generation proof-of-stake blockchain designed in 2018 by the Durov brothers, the founders of Telegram Messenger. Later, it was handed over to our open TON Community, which has been supporting and developing it ever since.
TON was designed for lightning-fast transactions. It's ultra-cheap, user-friendly, and fully operational.
Key Components
Apart from processing millions of transactions per second, TON blockchain-based ecosystem has all the chances to give rise to a genuine Web3.0 Internet with decentralized storage, anonymous network, DNS, instant payments and various decentralized services.
The backbone of The Open Network is a scalable multi-blockchain that is designed to process millions of transactions within seconds. It uses the Proof-of-Stake consensus and can contain up to 292 accompanying blockchains.
TON Payments is a platform for micropayments and a micropayment channel network. It can be used for instant off-chain value transfers between users, bots, and other services. Safeguards built into the system ensure that these transfers are as secure as on-chain transactions.
TON Proxy is a network proxy/anonymizer layer for TON nodes. Similar to I2P, it allows building decentralized VPN services and blockchain-based TOR alternatives to achieve anonymity and protect online privacy. Combined with the TON P2P Network and TON DNS, TON Proxy gives decentralized apps immunity to censorship.
TON DNS makes blockchain mainstream by assigning human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts, services and network nodes. With TON DNS browsing blockchain becomes similar to surfing the World Wide Web.
TON Storage is a distributed file-storage technology accessible through the TON P2P Network. Think a better version of Dropbox for simplicity. This torrent-like technology relies on smart contracts for availability and has a strong potential with regard to storing and exchanging large amounts of data.
TON Services provides a versatile platform for third-party services. It enables smartphone-like friendly interfaces for decentralized apps and smart contracts, as well as a World Wide Web-like decentralized browsing experience. TON provides a searchable registry of decentralized services and applications.
TON consists of the masterchain and up to 232 workchains with different rulesets, i.e. different formats of account addresses and transactions, virtual machines for smart contracts and basic cryptocurrencies, etc. Yet, workchains can still interact using consistent basic rules. Today there is a wide variety of operating blockchains that are loosely connected to one another. Current attempts to use Bridging to establish interaction between them leave much to be desired in terms of both performance and decentralization levels. TON design will allow pooling all existing blockchains into a unified decentralized network.
TON Commandments
Exchanging value should be as easy as exchanging information and blockchain technology ideally service the purpose. With this goal in mind we worded the key principles of TON design and development:
- Speed and scalability to process millions transactions per second, accommodating an unlimited number of active users and sustaining operations of numerous apps.
- Intuitive user interfaces to make blockchain about people, not geeks and nerds, to help everyone buy, store and transfer assets in a convenient, familiar way.
- Decentralization to ensure reliability, stability and safety and to take steps towards a safer, self-governed world.
Telegram argued SEC claims were ungrounded but agreed to postpone the network and coin launch till all legal matters are resolved.
Investors accepted Telegram’s suggestion to revise the launch date.
The company then made it up with investors and suggested a money back road-map. It was then that independent developers and teams picked up the TON flag and continued the project.
More developers who never worked for Telegram, members of the open developer community, validators, winners of public TON Blockchain Contests and crypto enthusiasts from all over the world joined them.
Stable and secure blockchain with the necessary services
ETH-TON Bridge
TON Payments
TON extra-curriencies and tokens
TON DNS
TON DeFi
TON Proxy & TON Sites
TON Developers Program
Core optimization
TON Storage
Bitcoin & EVM Workchains
TON Foundation
After Telegram was forced to quit the project, the open-source developer community led by EmelyanenkoK and Anatoliy Makosov went on developing and supporting the blockchain sticking to the original whitepapers where possible.
By now over 40 independent non-incorporated developers from various geographies work on the project as TON Foundation not-for-proft community funded by donations. You can find their profiles on GitHub section People.
We welcome all developers to join TON Foundation and contribute to the technology.
Governance
TON design ensures that network modifications are only possible if approved by the majority of validators via Proof-of-Stake consensus.
There is no way to change network software, configuration or state bypassing the vote.