Regardless of gathering little consideration all through the bear market, Telegram-integrated blockchain, The Open Community (TON), is the quickest rising main Layer 1 chain in 2024.
TON’s whole worth locked (TVL) has elevated 27 instances to $386 million from $14 million this yr, outpacing all competing Layer 1s and Ethereum Layer 2s on a proportion foundation. The community’s native token, Toncoin, has surged too, boasting the fifth largest year-to-date acquire among the many prime 50 tokens per CoinMarketCap, displacing competing Layer 1 Cardano from the highest 10.
The Open Community’s speedy ascent started in February with the launch of its Open League incentives program. The community’s ad-sharing program and Tether partnership have additionally pushed exercise and token value. TON’s progress showcases how a web2 app can efficiently be a basis for a powerful web3 ecosystem, particularly with a pre-existing consumer base of over 900 million month-to-month energetic customers (MAU), like Telegram has.
SEC Scrutiny
Initially based in 2013 by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, Telegram is the 4th hottest messaging app on the planet by MAU.
Lately, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said: “We’ll probably cross one billion monthly active users within a year now”.
The official Telegram staff launched its blockchain, TON, in 2018 however confronted scrutiny from the Securities and Change Fee (SEC) and was compelled to close down operations.
In 2021, the mission restarted improvement below the stewardship of the TON Basis, which operates adjoining to Telegram.
TON of Incentives
Nevertheless it’s been the previous couple of months when the ecosystem began taking off. Bootstrapped by its incentives program known as the “Open League”, the TON basis is offering a multi-season rollout of $TON incentives.
The Open League will distribute over $150M in rewards throughout the course of this system, break up amongst quite a lot of classes corresponding to DeFi, NFT, Token, and App ecosystems.
As of March, Telegram introduced its ad-sharing program constructed on TON. Channel house owners that qualify will obtain 50% of the income that Telegram makes from advertisements displayed within the respective channels, and fee distributions and withdrawals are moved completely by the TON blockchain.
Constructed on Telegram
Nearly all of TON”s infrastructure is constructed on prime of the messaging app, Telegram, to leverage its present consumer base. TON-native pockets options corresponding to Tonkeeper can function straight inside the messaging app. Tonkeeper wallets are additionally obtainable as a separate cell app or as an online utility, and is at the moment the #1 ranked finance app on Google Play.
Tonkeeper transactions are routed by a Telegram channel, just like how different Telegram bots operate. These wallets enable for self-custody, funds, transfers, and entry to functions corresponding to NFT marketplaces, however as an alternative of interacting with an put in browser extension, like most different Layer 1 chains, the capabilities are hosted in Telegram.
TON raised $250 million in a 2022 spherical together with Masks Community, FJ Labs, and MEXC Enterprise. The community additionally has strategic assist from companies corresponding to Animoca Manufacturers and OKX. Final month, Pantera Capital introduced their funding into TON, citing it as their “largest investment ever”.
Pantera associate Ryan Barney wrote in a Could 8 letter, “By leveraging Telegram’s vast user base and seamless UX with the vibrancy of TON’s emerging ecosystem, we believe TON has the potential to become one of the largest crypto networks.”
DeFi on TON
Nonetheless in its infancy, TON’s on-chain economic system is small in comparison with Toncoin’s market cap of $17 billion. Whereas its TVL soared this yr, rivals corresponding to Sui boast 85% extra belongings held in sensible contacts and extra native dApps, regardless of being valued practically 70% decrease.
A large quantity of the on-chain exercise on TON takes place on the chain’s largest native decentralized alternate (DEX), STON.fi, which hosts 67% of the full TVL. Exterior of STON.Fi, and TON’s main liquid staking answer, Tonstakers, DeFi on The Open Community is proscribed to some small lending and derivatives platforms.
Asynchronous Funds
TON runs an asynchronous fee channel through two interacting networks known as shard chains, that finalize transactions independently, after which verify their states to the fee channel’s sensible contract.
That is completely different from different community designs, together with Solana’s and Ethereum’s, which have synchronous funds, the place one can not start the following transaction in a contract with out affirmation of the preliminary transaction.
On TON, the execution of sensible contract capabilities will happen in a future block versus the block the transaction is confirmed in. This might help the community deal with excessive volumes of advanced sensible contract interactions.
TON’s developer neighborhood is small. Electrical Capital cites 175 month-to-month energetic builders on TON as of Dec. 31, 2023, in comparison with Solana’s 1,615. Regardless of this, TON touts the second-highest two-year progress proportion by way of energetic builders, surpassed solely by Celestia.
The Way forward for TON
One of many main objectives for 2024 will likely be cross-chain interoperability, by integrating compatibility with Ethereum token commonplace ERC-20 , a founding member of the TON Core Dev Crew, generally known as Dr. Superior Doge on social media, stated on the Web3 Competition held in April.
The developer additionally stated the staff is constructing bridge assist for different blockchains, together with Bitcoin and Solana.
In the meantime, the token continues to outperform. Toncoin was the thirteenth greatest performer out of the 100 largest cash by market cap up to now seven days, based on CoinGecko.
The Open League incentives program remains to be underway and getting ready to start its Season 4. Season 3 concluded on Could 29, and the TON basis is at the moment accepting and reviewing functions for the following season’s individuals.
