Blockchain analysis

TON, Solana, and Ethereum are examples of Proof of Stake blockchains. But key design and implementation differences mean TON comes out ahead on performance, versatility, and design.

Introduction

Introduction

Since the original TON whitepaper in 2017, blockchain technology has evolved. Here, we compares TON with two other prominent layer-1 blockchains: Solana and Ethereum. Both Solana and Ethereum position themselves as ideal platforms for mass adoption. However, it remains to be seen if they can meet the high expectations of developers and users.

TON

TON is a multi-chain project that supports a wide range of transactions.

Ethereum

In 2022, Ethereum underwent a significant upgrade, introducing the Beacon Chain with up to 64 shard chains. However, this upgrade offers limited cross-chain communication.

Solana

Solana is a single-chain blockchain designed for high-speed, specialized transactions.

End-users primarily value transfer fees and reliability, but they also rely on the technical parameters analyzed here.
Read the whitepaper

Comparing TON, Ethereum, and Solana

Block time 
Time-to-finality 
Simple transaction performance 
Complex transaction performance 
Sharding support 
Cross-shard communication 
TON
5 sec.
Under 6 sec.
High
High

Max. 260 shards per workchain

Near-instant
Ethereum
12 sec.
Potentially high
Low

Max. to 26 shards

Slow time-to-finality
Solana
1 sec.
6.4 sec.
High
None
None

TON

Ethereum

Solana

Block time 
5 sec.
12 sec.
1 sec.
Time-to-finality 
Under 6 sec.
6.4 sec.
Simple transaction performance 
High
Potentially high
High
Complex transaction performance 
High
Low
Sharding support 

Max. 260 shards per workchain

Max. to 26 shards

None
Cross-shard communication 
Near-instant
Slow time-to-finality
None

Block and finalization time

Block and finalization time

Block time and time-to-finality are key indicators of transaction speed, essential for consumer products. Quicker block generation means shorter waits for money transfers or smart contract executions.

TON

TON creates a new block on each shardchain and the masterchain roughly every 5 seconds. Blocks on all shardchains are made almost at the same time, while the masterchain's block, containing the latest shardchain block hashes, follows about a second later.

Ethereum

Ethereum uses slots and epochs to manage time. A slot lasts 12 seconds, during which a validator can propose a new Beacon Chain or shardchain block. An epoch consists of 32 slots, totaling 6.4 minutes. Block finality in Ethereum requires at least two epochs, leading to a minimum time-to-finality of 12.8 minutes.

Solana

Solana claims to create one block every second or faster, but it has a longer block finalization process. A block typically finalizes after 16 voting rounds, each round taking about 400 milliseconds, leading to a finalization time of approximately 6.4 seconds.

Performance

Performance

Blockchain performance is key to processing smart contracts on a large scale, essential for complex applications like DeFi, GameFi, and DAOs.

TON

TON is a Turing-complete, high-performance blockchain designed to handle complex transactions on both its masterchain and all workchains.

Ethereum

Ethereum's Turing-complete EVM operates on the Beacon Chain, capped at 15 transactions per second. The absence of cross-shard interactions restricts additional transactions from being processed in a fully decentralized manner.

Solana

Solana, while Turing-complete, excels primarily with a high volume of simple, predefined transaction types that only modify account balances. Its performance is optimal when all account data fits into RAM; deviations from this can lead to operational issues.

Scalability

Scalability

Scalability is closely linked to the number of users and their activities, including transactions, smart contract executions, and infrastructure requests.

TON

TON features workchains and dynamic sharding, allowing for up to 232 workchains. Each workchain can split into as many as 260 shardchains, facilitating nearly instant communication across shards and chains. This structure enables the processing of millions of transactions per second.

Ethereum

Ethereum will support up to 64 shardchains and the Beacon Chain. At this stage, it is unclear what the exact capabilities of the new 64 shardchains will be and how the shardchains will interact with one another. However, if messaging among shardchains is ever introduced, one would have to wait for 10–15 minutes until the finalization of the shardchain block originating a message before that message can be processed on another shardchain. Furthermore, the additional shards are currently not supposed to be able to run EVM smart contracts at all. Instead, they are supposed to be used as additional data storage in a distributed ledger.

Solana

Solana does not support sharding or workchains.

Conclusion

Conclusion

TON stands out as one of the few truly scalable blockchain projects. It is one of the most advanced in its ability to handle millions, and potentially tens of millions, of true Turing-complete smart contract transactions per second. For further analysis of TON, Solana, and Ethereum, refer to the PDF linked below.
Read the whitepaper
Last updated: February 21, 2023
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