What Is $TON ?
TON, short for The Open Network, is a decentralized ecosystem that has the TON Blockchain as its core component. Created by the team behind Telegram, TON aims to address the limitations of existing blockchains, such as scalability, speed, and usability.
History of TON
The development of TON started in 2018, led by Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, and his brother, Nikolai Durov. At first, the project aimed to integrate a blockchain-based cryptocurrency (Gram) into the Telegram ecosystem, allowing users to make transactions and access #decentralized applications (DApps) directly from the messaging app.
Despite initial enthusiasm and a successful fundraising campaign, legal challenges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) forced Telegram to halt its involvement in the project in 2020.
The project was later revived by the open-source community and rebranded as The Open Network (TON). Today, TON is maintained and developed by a community of developers and enthusiasts.
How Does TON Work?
Consensus mechanism
TON uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, where validators are selected based on the number of TON tokens they hold and stake as collateral. Validators are responsible for verifying transactions and adding them to the blockchain. In return, they earn rewards in the form of TON tokens.
Multi-chain architecture
TON adopts a multi-chain architecture that includes the TON blockchain as the masterchain and smaller chains known as workchains.
The TON masterchain is responsible for managing the core ecosystem data, including protocol updates, blockchain validations, and operations between different chains. The workchains are customizable networks that can operate independently and serve different purposes
