As a fast-growing blockchain project, TON (The Open Network) has attracted widespread attention due to its advanced technology and rapidly growing user base. However, participating in such a phenomenal project requires in-depth analysis, judgment and interpretation of its risks. This report aims to provide in-depth risk analysis and compliance interpretation for users and potential participants in the TON ecosystem.
Background
With the popularity and development of blockchain technology, TON has quickly attracted the attention of users and developers around the world due to its unique technical architecture and broad application prospects. TON is committed to building a decentralized Internet platform that provides efficient, transparent and secure blockchain services. However, due to the complexity of blockchain technology and the differences in laws and regulations in various countries, TON faces many compliance and technical challenges in its development. By analyzing in detail the current status and challenges of TON in terms of legal compliance, technical implementation, user experience and cross-chain interoperability, we can help users make more informed decisions when participating in the TON ecosystem.
Technical risk analysis
1. Smart Contract Vulnerabilities
Smart contract vulnerabilities are one of the main risks facing TON blockchain technology. Common vulnerabilities include reentrancy attacks, integer overflows, and access control issues. We will decompose and analyze TON's technical risks for each possible risk and vulnerability to determine whether TON's ecosystem is facing threats of flaws as it becomes more and more prosperous.
1.1 Language Complexity
FunC Problem:
Design of FunC language: FunC is a low-level language similar to Lisp. As the main programming language of TON smart contracts, FunC focuses on efficiency and flexibility. This low-level programming language allows developers to directly operate memory and perform sophisticated resource management.
Increased complexity: Due to the low-level nature of FunC, developers need to manually manage memory and handle low-level operations, which places high demands on developers' programming skills and security awareness. If developers are not careful, they may introduce problems such as memory leaks and buffer overflows, resulting in potential security vulnerabilities in smart contracts.
risk:
Memory management errors: Manual memory management increases the possibility of introducing errors, such as memory leaks, buffer overflows, etc. These errors can be exploited by malicious attackers, causing unexpected behavior in the execution of smart contracts.
Code complexity: The low-level programming nature of FunC increases the complexity of the code, making debugging and maintenance more difficult, which in turn increases the likelihood of vulnerabilities.
Tact Language:
Higher-level programming language: To address the problems with FunC, the community introduced and supported a higher-level programming language, Tact, which is similar to TypeScript and Rust. It provides higher-level abstractions and simpler syntax, making it easier to learn and use than FunC.
Advantages: By providing a more friendly development environment, Tact lowers the threshold for smart contract development and helps attract more developers to join the TON ecosystem.
Fift Language
Features: Fift is a low-level assembly and debugging language used to interact directly with the TON Virtual Machine (TVM), suitable for low-level debugging and testing of smart contracts.
Challenges: Since Fift is still in its early stages, its tools and documentation may not be perfect, and developers may encounter more challenges and problems during use.
1.2 Smart contract vulnerability risks faced by TON
Reentrancy attack: This is a common vulnerability in smart contracts. A malicious contract can recursively call the same function before a function call is completed, resulting in resource exhaustion or data tampering.
Example: The classic DAO attack was due to the exploitation of a reentrancy vulnerability, which led to the theft of a large amount of funds.
Precautions
Check-Effect-Interaction mode: TON official documents emphasize the use of this mode to ensure that all state updates are completed before external calls are made, thereby avoiding reentrancy attacks. The core of this mode is to check the conditions (Check) first, then update the state (Effects), and finally interact (Interactions) to ensure that the internal state of the contract has been updated before any external calls.
1.3 Integer overflow and underflow problems
Integer overflow and underflow: In smart contracts, if the operands of arithmetic operations exceed the representation range of the data type, integer overflow or underflow will occur, resulting in incorrect calculation results.
Example: Some DeFi projects have had large amounts of funds stolen due to integer overflow vulnerabilities.
Precautions
Safe arithmetic library: TON does not have a SafeMath library similar to Solidity. However, developers can use standard libraries (such as stdlib.fc) to simplify development and ensure the safety of arithmetic operations. Although there is no dedicated SafeMath library, developers should still customize security functions and perform strict input validation and bounds checking to prevent integer overflow and underflow.
1.4 Access Control Issues
Access control issues: If the access control of smart contracts is not designed properly, it may allow unauthorized users to access sensitive functions or data.
Example: Due to access control vulnerabilities, some contracts are exploited by malicious users to perform inappropriate operations.
Precautions
Access control policy: TON provides detailed permission management and access control policies to ensure that only authorized users can perform key operations. Developers should implement strict access control policies and conduct regular access control audits to ensure the security of contracts and prevent unauthorized access.
In addition, we noticed that other technical safeguards were mentioned in the TON developer documentation:
Strict testing: TON encourages developers to conduct comprehensive unit testing, integration testing, and stress testing, and provides corresponding testing frameworks and tool support.
Formal Verification: Although TON does not require formal verification, developers are encouraged to use formal verification tools to prove the correctness and security of smart contracts.
Security Audit: TON recommends that developers conduct a third-party security audit before releasing the contract to ensure the security of the contract. The official documentation provides advice on how to choose an audit service and conduct an audit.
2. Node Attack
TON node distribution map Source: TON official website
The TON network uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. As of June 3, there are 347 nodes in more than 30 countries around the world, especially in Europe and the United States. The total staked amount exceeds 526 million TON, accounting for nearly 20% of the total circulation. At least 300,000 Ton is required as a stake, and at least 400,000 Ton is required in the election. There is also a penalty mechanism, that is, any network participant can file a complaint against the behavior of the validator, and other validators vote to decide whether to pursue it.
In this case, TON’s node technology ensures on-chain security:
TON’s high staking requirements and validator election mechanism reduce the risk of Sybil attacks.
TON's global node distribution and network monitoring mechanism help defend against DDoS attacks.
TON uses a diverse node connection strategy to ensure that each node remains connected to enough other nodes, reducing the risk of isolated Eclipse attacks.
3. Technical complexity and implementation risk
3.1 Complexity of multi-chain architecture
Implementation and coordination complexity: The TON blockchain improves flexibility and scalability through a multi-chain architecture, but requires efficient and reliable mechanisms to ensure seamless interoperability and data synchronization. Developers need to create cross-chain communication protocols to ensure real-time and accurate data transmission and consistent consensus mechanisms.
Security risks: The frequent interactions of multi-chain architectures increase security risks, and malicious actors may use these interactions to find system vulnerabilities. Therefore, the security of each blockchain and interactive interface is critical.
Solution: TON introduces reliable consensus algorithms (such as BFT) and strict verification mechanisms, adopts efficient data synchronization protocols and optimized cross-chain communication mechanisms (such as instant hypercube routing), as well as dynamic sharding mechanisms to improve scalability and performance.
3.2 Sharding Technology Challenges
Security and integrity: Sharding technology improves scalability, but shards may become targets of attack, and strong security measures must be designed to protect each shard. TON adopts a bottom-up infinite sharding paradigm, treating each account or smart contract as an independent shard, and achieving communication between shards through a message system.
Load balancing and transaction routing: Each shard needs to process its own transactions and coordinate transactions with other shards. TON introduces strict sharding conditions and merging rules to ensure automatic sharding under high load and automatic merging under low load. The global state is determined by the main chain block hash value to ensure data consistency and security.
Data consistency and availability: Cross-shard data synchronization and coordination issues need to be resolved to avoid data inconsistency or latency issues. TON uses instant hypercube routing technology to achieve efficient message delivery and cross-shard communication, ensuring that data is quickly synchronized to the target shard.
TON's multi-chain architecture and sharding technology have brought significant technical challenges and risks. TON has improved the flexibility, scalability and efficiency of the network by introducing efficient consensus algorithms, dynamic sharding mechanisms and optimized cross-chain communication strategies. safety. These measures ensure the stability and reliability of the TON network to a certain extent.
4. Network performance and scalability
4.1 Transaction Throughput Limitation
TON chain daily transaction volume Source: tonstat
Transaction volume: The TON network processes over 5 million transactions per day. This shows TON’s ability to handle high-frequency transactions, but also demonstrates the need for efficient processing and scalability.
Transaction throughput limitations: Although TON currently has a high transaction volume, as users and applications increase, the pressure on transaction throughput will also increase. Continuous optimization and innovative solutions are needed to ensure that the network can handle higher transaction volumes and maintain its performance and stability.
Network congestion: When the transaction volume increases dramatically, the network is prone to congestion, which affects the overall performance. Although the TON network has a dynamic sharding mechanism and instant hypercube routing technology, the risk of resource limitations still exists. High transaction volume and complex sharding may cause some nodes to run out of resources and be unable to efficiently process all requests.
Protocol limitations: The design of the TON protocol may have bottlenecks, such as the efficiency of the consensus mechanism and the overhead of inter-node communication. As the transaction volume increases, these bottlenecks may become more prominent and affect the overall network performance.
Scalability challenges: In order to cope with the increasing transaction volume, TON needs to expand its network architecture. This includes increasing the number of nodes and improving the consensus algorithm, but these improvements need to ensure that they do not undermine the stability and security of the existing system.
4.2 Network Latency and Stability
The TON blockchain pursues low-latency, instant transactions to support real-time applications, but there are many challenges and potential bottlenecks in achieving this goal:
Network delay: In a decentralized network, nodes are geographically dispersed, and network transmission time will inevitably be affected. Synchronization delays between nodes and reliability of data transmission will cause transaction delays.
Node synchronization: Nodes need to maintain a consistent ledger state, which requires frequent communication and data synchronization. Delays or failures in any node will affect the response time of the entire network.
High transaction load: When transaction volume increases, it becomes more difficult to process transactions instantly. The system may take more time to verify and confirm transactions, thereby increasing the risk of delays.
Potential attacks: Maintaining low latency and high stability is more difficult in the face of potential network attacks, such as DDoS attacks. Attackers may intentionally cause network congestion by sending a large number of transactions, thereby affecting the quality of service.
Reliability assurance: Ensuring that the network remains stable and reliable under high load and potential attacks is a huge challenge, requiring complex monitoring and rapid response mechanisms.
To sum up, although the TON blockchain has many innovations in design, it still needs to solve challenges in transaction throughput, network latency, stability, etc. in actual deployment in order to truly achieve its expected high performance and scalability goals.
5. Technology upgrade and maintenance
5.1 Upgrade Compatibility
Technology upgrades are key to maintaining the security and performance stability of the TON blockchain system and meeting new functional requirements. However, compatibility issues may bring a series of technical risks:
Version connection issues: Technology upgrades need to ensure that the new version can seamlessly connect to the old version. Any interface changes, data structure adjustments, or protocol updates may cause compatibility issues. If backward compatibility cannot be ensured, nodes may split the network (i.e., fork) due to version inconsistencies.
Data migration risk: Data migration is an important task during technology upgrades. During the migration process, data loss or inconsistency may occur, which may affect user experience and even cause a crisis of trust. A strict data backup and verification mechanism needs to be implemented to ensure the reliability of data migration.
Node restart and network stability: Technology upgrades often require node restarts. Frequent node restarts may cause temporary network instability, affecting the real-time and continuity of transactions. A detailed restart plan needs to be formulated, and upgrades should be performed when the system is under low load as much as possible. A complete rollback mechanism should be ensured so that the system can be quickly restored to a stable state in the event of an unexpected situation.
Planning and coordination: The technical upgrade of a large blockchain system requires careful planning and coordination. It involves the synchronous operation of many nodes, and any mistake in any link may lead to irreversible consequences. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the details of each step and conduct sufficient communication and training for all participants.
5.2 Code Quality and Auditing
TON chain’s Github interface Source: Github
As an open source project, the code quality and audit mechanism of TON blockchain directly affect the security and stability of the system. According to the current data status of TON GitHub, we can see how its code quality and audit mechanism maintain the security and stability of the system.
Code Quality and Auditing
Code readability and maintainability: TON's GitHub repository is active, regularly updated and maintained. The code is clear, well-structured, and has detailed comments, making it easy for developers to get started and maintain. The use of static code analysis tools (such as stdlib.fc) and automated testing tools further improves code quality.
Internal Audit: The TON development team implements a multi-level code audit mechanism. Each code submission needs to be reviewed by peers and senior developers, which can timely discover and fix potential problems and reduce the occurrence of vulnerabilities.
Third-party security audits: TON regularly invites professional third-party security organizations to conduct comprehensive audits of the code. This can identify issues that the internal team may have missed and ensure the security of the system. The audit reports are open and transparent, which enhances community trust.
Open source community feedback: TON collects and processes community suggestions and vulnerability reports in a timely manner through a bug bounty program and an open community governance mechanism to continuously improve code quality.
TON has adopted multi-level and multi-angle safeguards in terms of code quality and auditing, including strict coding standards, internal multi-level audits, third-party security audits, and active feedback from the open source community. These measures work together to ensure the security and stability of the TON blockchain system, and its ability to cope with complex technical environments and ever-changing security threats. In addition, the use of static code analysis and automated testing tools further enhances code quality assurance and reduces potential security risks.
6. Decentralization Risks
6.1 Node Centralization
The TON network uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus model to ensure its security and stability. Here is a deeper look at its degree of decentralization:
Global Location
The number of nodes is one of the important indicators to measure the degree of decentralization of a blockchain network. A larger number of nodes means that power and control are more widely distributed, representing a higher degree of decentralization. However, the quality and geographical distribution of nodes are equally important. If the nodes are highly concentrated in a certain geographical area or controlled by a few entities, the effect of decentralization may be weakened. As can be seen from the figure, TON verification nodes are distributed in more than 30 countries around the world, with a particularly high concentration in Europe and the United States. Such a geographical distribution helps to resist geopolitical risks and physical attacks, and enhances the reliability and resilience of the network.
Number of nodes and stake amount
Verification node data Source: Tonstat
As of July 5, there are more than 365 nodes with a total stake of more than 566 million TON, accounting for nearly 20% of the total circulation. The wide distribution of node numbers and staked amounts is an important indicator of a decentralized network because it means that no single entity can easily control or attack the entire network.
TON's node count is relatively small compared to mature networks such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which have tens of thousands of nodes, but it is a reasonable starting point for a relatively young or still evolving network.
Validator threshold and election
Anyone who has enough Toncoin (at least 300,000 Ton) and wins the election (at least 400,000 Ton) can become a validator. High staking requirements can ensure the sincerity and contribution of participants, but it relatively reduces the possibility of participation by ordinary users. While this high threshold setting improves security, it may also limit the growth of the number of nodes, so it is necessary to find a balance between attracting more participants and maintaining network security.
However, although this threshold is not low, it still maintains a certain degree of openness compared to some other blockchain systems. The additional validator election process also further prevents the monopoly of a few nodes.
Rewards and Inflation
Validators are rewarded by verifying transactions and generating new tokens, with an average daily income of about 120 Ton and an overall annual inflation rate of about 0.5%. A reasonable reward mechanism and a low inflation rate help ensure the enthusiasm of validators and the economic stability of the network.
Penalty Mechanism
The penalty mechanism for validators includes penalties for non-participation in block creation and malicious behavior, thereby ensuring the honesty and active participation of validators. At the same time, any network participant can file a complaint against the behavior of a validator, and cryptographic evidence is required, and other validators vote to decide whether to pursue the complaint. This self-regulatory mechanism further enhances the fairness and transparency of the network.
The TON network has good decentralization in terms of globally distributed nodes, high validator threshold, reasonable reward mechanism and strict penalty mechanism. These factors work together to ensure the security, stability and fairness of the network and prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a few people. However, the authenticity of the data information about TON's node validators needs further verification and confirmation.
6.2 Governance Mechanism Risks
In order to maintain the stability and sustainable development of the network, a good sustainable project needs to address risks including decision-making transparency, stakeholder conflicts and governance deadlocks at the governance level. From the interpretation of TON’s governance mechanism, we can see that TON has taken a variety of measures to solve the above three difficulties to ensure the security and stability of the system:
Public voting and recording functions, as well as automatic execution of smart contracts, ensure that the governance process is transparent and open.
Multi-level governance structure and reasonable proposal and voting mechanism balance the interests of different stakeholders and reduce conflicts.
Set time limits for proposals and voting, and use smart contracts for automatic arbitration to avoid governance deadlocks and ensure a smooth decision-making process.
These measures work together to maintain the effectiveness and fairness of TON’s governance mechanism, ensure the healthy development of the project, and make the governance system operate relatively reasonably and fairly.
Legal and compliance risks
1. Current status of TON and regional risk analysis
After the legal battle between Telegram and the SEC, the TON (The Open Network) public chain was taken over by community members for continued development. Despite its huge development potential, TON still faces severe compliance challenges in different jurisdictions around the world. The following is an analysis of the regulatory environment and related risks in several major regions:
> USA
Regulators: SEC, CFTC, FTC, IRS, FinCEN
Main regulations: Securities Law, Commodity Trading Law, Anti-Money Laundering Law, etc.
Risk analysis: Due to strict US regulation, TON's tokens (such as Gram) may be considered securities and need to be registered and comply with relevant laws and regulations. Previous SEC lawsuits have shown its compliance risks. TON needs to ensure that future token issuance and transactions comply with US securities laws, anti-money laundering regulations and other requirements.
> Singapore
Regulator: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
Main regulations: Securities and Futures Ordinance, Payment Services Act
Risk analysis: Singapore is relatively friendly to Web3 projects, but TON needs to clarify whether its tokens belong to digital asset products defined by MAS and comply with relevant regulations. Due diligence and anti-money laundering measures must be strictly implemented to ensure compliance operations.
> Hong Kong, China
Regulator: Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)
Main regulations: Securities and Futures Ordinance
Risk analysis: Hong Kong has introduced a series of policies in recent years to support Web3 projects, but TON needs to obtain the necessary licenses and ensure that its exchange and related businesses comply with Hong Kong's regulatory requirements. In addition, attention should also be paid to user data protection and compliance with privacy regulations.
2. Legal compliance and regulatory risks in TON operation
2.1 Securities Law Compliance
Risk Description: The issuance and trading of TON tokens may be regarded as securities transactions and must comply with the registration and disclosure requirements of securities laws in various countries.
Detailed analysis: In the United States, Gram tokens are considered securities by the SEC and need to be registered or exempted. TON needs to clarify the legal attributes of tokens in various countries to ensure compliance with securities laws. Legal issuance channels, such as registration or exemption, can reduce legal risks caused by unregistered securities issuance.
Current measures: TON has made it clear that its token issuance and trading comply with the legal requirements of various countries. Although Gram tokens have not been issued, the compliance of Toncoin currently used by TON is still strictly monitored in different jurisdictions. TON uses a legal consulting team to ensure that the issuance and trading of its tokens comply with securities law requirements.
2.2 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC)
Risk description: Countries around the world have strict anti-money laundering and KYC requirements. TON needs to ensure that its platform is not used for money laundering and terrorist financing activities.
Detailed analysis: As a decentralized platform, TON has users from all over the world and needs to implement AML and KYC measures in various jurisdictions. Specific measures include: establishing a user identity authentication mechanism, a transaction monitoring system, and regular risk assessment and reporting to ensure that the platform is not used for illegal activities.
The TON platform implements strict AML and KYC measures, using advanced machine learning and AI technologies for transaction monitoring and risk assessment to ensure real-time identification and prevention of suspicious activities. TON has established a global unified KYC standard to meet the legal requirements of different countries.
2.3 Data Protection and Privacy
Risk Description: Global data privacy regulations are becoming increasingly stringent, and TON needs to ensure that user data processing complies with the data protection laws of various countries.
Detailed analysis: In the EU, TON must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and in the United States, it must comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). TON should take measures to ensure the security of user data, including encryption and anonymization, establishing data protection policies, and conducting regular security audits to prevent data leaks and illegal use.
TON has adopted the latest data encryption technology and anonymization measures to ensure the security of user data during transmission and storage. It conducts regular data protection audits and cooperates with third-party security companies to conduct independent security assessments and vulnerability repairs to prevent data leakage and illegal use.
2.4 Investor Protection
Risk description: TON needs to ensure that investors obtain sufficient information disclosure to avoid legal disputes caused by insufficient information.
Detailed analysis: TON needs to ensure transparent disclosure of user information, including the project's financial status, risk factors, etc. Legal risks can be reduced by establishing effective user protection mechanisms, such as transparent disclosure of investment information, investor education, and consulting services.
TON has established a dedicated investor relations team to regularly publish project progress and financial reports. Through the official website and social media channels, it ensures transparent and timely information disclosure. TON also provides an investor education platform with multilingual support to help investors understand project risks and returns.
3. Compliance recommendations
3.1 Framework Construction
Although the TON chain was taken over by the foundation in the later period, and TG was separated to seek development on its own, its token distribution mechanism is still not clear enough.
In addition, global data privacy regulations are becoming increasingly stringent, such as Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These regulations may affect advertisers' data collection and advertising strategies, requiring them to pay more attention to compliance and user privacy, but the data on TON can be encrypted and anonymized to ensure that users' privacy in advertising interactions is protected, so that advertisers can advertise without exposing users' personal identities. TON provides secure digital identity authentication capabilities so that advertisers can better understand users' interests and behaviors without directly collecting personal data. Smart contracts can automatically execute the distribution and payment of advertising revenue. This transparent and traceable mechanism can reduce the risk of data leakage and protect the interests of users and advertisers. TON's decentralized advertising platform allows advertisers to interact directly with content creators or users, reducing intermediaries. This model can improve the accuracy of advertising and reduce excessive collection of user data.
3.2 Legal risk management strategy
TON has sufficient users and traffic, but continued development still needs to follow a compliant path. TON's move of its headquarters to Zug, Switzerland is generally seen as related to the Swiss authorities' generally positive attitude toward the cryptocurrency industry.
Regulatory risk remains a factor. However, it is believed that the Foundation and investors have experienced and anticipated the risks given their previous experience with the SEC. Although not much has been disclosed, Telegram is clearly working hard to integrate the token system into the platform, and it is reasonable to expect that Telegram has conducted legal and regulatory consultations and compliance measures to ensure that its current and future TON operations comply with necessary legal requirements.
Future trends and innovation risks
TON development roadmap Source: TON official website
According to the future development trends mentioned in TON's roadmap and blog, there are still some shortcomings in the development of the TON ecosystem:
1. Insufficient ecological diversity
Although the TON team has been developing and integrating a variety of technical tools and applications, many core tools and services are still in the development stage. For example, key components such as the Stablecoin Toolkit, Jetton Bridge, and Extra Currencies have not yet been fully implemented. This limits the usability and attractiveness of the ecosystem, and hinders the rapid implementation and user participation of more applications and services.
Difficulty of technical implementation: Developing and integrating these core components requires solving complex technical issues such as cross-chain protocols, asset exchange mechanisms, and multi-currency support. This requires not only a high level of engineering investment, but also long-term iteration and optimization.
Legal compliance: During the development process, compliance requirements of different jurisdictions need to be taken into account to ensure legality worldwide.
2. User experience needs to be improved
Many user interaction interfaces in the TON system (such as wallets and smart contract interfaces) still need to be improved in terms of usability and user experience. When ordinary users manage assets, operate smart contracts, and participate in decentralized applications, the operation experience may still not be intuitive and friendly enough. This requires the TON team to invest more energy in designing and optimizing the user interface and user experience (UX/UI) to reduce the user's learning curve and usage threshold.
Difficulty of technical implementation: The optimization of wallet and smart contract interface requires in-depth understanding of user needs and the use of advanced interactive design and visualization technology. At the same time, the realization of innovative functions such as "no gas fee" transactions requires substantial transformation of consensus mechanisms and transaction models.
Legal compliance: While optimizing the user experience, it is necessary to ensure compliance with user data protection and privacy, and comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR.
3. Insufficient cross-chain interoperability
Although TON has planned to introduce cross-chain bridges such as ETH, BNB, and BTC to transfer assets between different blockchain networks, the existing cross-chain interoperability still needs to be further strengthened. The cumbersomeness and security issues of cross-chain asset management and operation remain a major challenge.
Difficulty of technical implementation: The development of a cross-chain bridge needs to address multiple technical challenges such as security, reliability, and performance, and requires deep docking and coordination with multiple heterogeneous blockchain networks to ensure the secure transfer and interoperability of assets.
Legal compliance: Cross-chain operations involve cross-border financial activities and need to comply with the financial regulatory requirements of various countries, especially in terms of payment and securities laws, to ensure the legality of cross-chain asset transfers.
4. Privacy Protection
The implementation of privacy protection technologies such as zero-knowledge proof and homomorphic encryption is technically difficult. These technologies need to ensure user data privacy while not affecting system performance and availability.
Difficulty of technical implementation: Implementing these technologies requires a high level of research and development, involving complex mathematical algorithms and encryption techniques.
Legal compliance: The application of privacy technology needs to comply with the laws and regulations of different countries and regions to ensure compliance with data protection and privacy policies.
5. Performance expansion
As the number of users and transaction volume increases, the TON blockchain needs to continuously improve its performance and scalability to support high concurrency and large-scale applications.
Difficulty of technical implementation: Performance expansion involves optimization of the underlying architecture and technological innovation to ensure that the system can run stably under high load.
Network security: While expanding network performance, it is necessary to guard against potential network attacks and security vulnerabilities to ensure the stability and security of the system.
6. Developer Support
Although TON provides a wealth of development tools and resources, it still needs to be continuously optimized and updated to meet the ever-changing needs of developers.
Tools and resources: More comprehensive and easy-to-use development tools and documentation need to be provided, supporting more programming languages and development environments.
Education and training: Improve developers’ understanding and application capabilities of TON technology, provide effective education and training resources, and help more developers master and utilize TON blockchain technology.
7. Disintermediation and Insufficient Security
The TON system still has some deficiencies in terms of decentralization and security. For example, the separation mechanism between validators and collectors has not been fully implemented, which may lead to the system being less than ideal in terms of decentralization and anti-censorship capabilities.
Difficulty of technical implementation: The design and implementation of mechanisms such as separation of validators and collectors and Slashing Optimization require in-depth transformation of the consensus protocol, involving complex network security and economic incentive system design.
Legal compliance: While transforming and optimizing the consensus mechanism, ensure compliance with regulations on financial security and anti-money laundering, and operate in a legal and secure manner.
Although TON has taken positive steps in ecosystem diversity, user experience, cross-chain interoperability, privacy protection, performance expansion, developer support, decentralization and security, further improvement and perfection are still needed to meet future challenges.
Summary and suggestions
As an innovative and fast-growing blockchain project, TON has demonstrated great potential. However, it still has shortcomings in terms of ecological diversity, user experience, cross-chain interoperability, and compliance. Despite this, TON has demonstrated strong adaptability and a spirit of continuous innovation in its development.
As a project that was once running vigorously but was shut down due to regulatory issues, it can be seen that it attaches great importance to compliance after its restart. Through a series of measures, TON has made a comprehensive layout in legal compliance, aiming to ensure the legal operation of its platform worldwide, reduce legal risks, and enhance user trust.
Although TON has taken positive measures in terms of compliance, the highly encrypted and anonymous communication features of the Telegram platform have attracted a large number of illegal activities. In addition, the privacy of the blockchain and the de-banking nature of finance have facilitated illegal activities, making it a breeding ground for gray and black industries. Although KYC is required for withdrawals from TON chain wallets, it is difficult to completely eliminate illegal activities by simply providing an ID.
The regulatory challenges in the future remain severe, and TON must continue to pay attention to and adapt to the ever-changing global regulatory environment to avoid the risk of being shut down again. The more prosperous the ecosystem becomes, the greater the regulatory risk it bears. All projects must face the challenges of technical security, user privacy protection, and compatibility with traditional financial systems.
TON’s road to risk reduction is long and arduous.
供程：Mat / Riffi / Sylvia / Shawn / Darl / Biu
Editing and proofreading: Punko
Special thanks: Thanks to the above partners and friends for their outstanding contributions to the creation of this issue.
references
Securities Act of 1933: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/securities_act_of_1933
Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): https://gdpr.eu
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa
TON Open Network Documentation: FunC Language Guide
TON Blockchain Development Document: Smart Contract Vulnerability Analysis