I. What Does It Solve?

In our previous introduction about Kaia, we discussed the rise of TON in 2024 but did not mention the issues surrounding TON. Today, through this article, I will address the current issues with TON.

  1. Performance and Scalability Issues: Although TON is a blockchain network aimed at high performance and low costs, its native ecosystem has not yet fully met the needs of mainstream blockchain developers.

  2. Interoperability: Ethereum and Bitcoin are significant players in the blockchain space, possessing rich liquidity and user bases. Currently, TON is not yet able to effectively attract these players.

  3. High Development Difficulty: Currently, developing on TON is still quite challenging. If developers need better integration into the TON ecosystem, they must spend time learning new programming languages, and the toolchain is not yet complete.

Now there are two paths: one is for TON to lower the difficulty itself and provide developers with better and more convenient tools to serve them, and the other is to connect with the currently mature ecosystems (such as the Ethereum ecosystem) to develop standardized tools and protocols for cross-chain development.

II. Project Overview

According to the introduction on the official website: DuckChain is the first consumer layer on TON. Many people may not fully understand what this layer is, so we will explain it below.

After reading the official project introduction, let's define DuckChain briefly: DuckChain is incubated by TON SCALE LABS and developed with the support of Arbitrum, aiming to connect TON with Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems by providing EVM compatibility, attracting more users and developers to join the TON ecosystem.

Roadmap:

III. Investment Institutions

DuckChain completed $5 million in funding on December 20, with participation from dao5, Offchain Labs, Kenetic Capital, DWF Ventures, Oak Grove Ventures, Skyland Ventures, GeekCartel, Gate, and Presto.

DAO5 is an experimental cryptocurrency investment fund founded by former Polychain Capital partner Tekin Salimi in February 2022. The fund quickly raised $125 million from native cryptocurrency investors, specifically for seed round investments. DAO5's investment strategy mainly focuses on decentralized finance (DeFi) and infrastructure, with particular attention to privacy and social sectors.

IV. Technical Architecture and Latest Developments

Technical Architecture:

  • Compatibility: DuckChain is the first consumer layer on TON that supports EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), meaning developers can create smart contracts on TON using the familiar EVM environment.

  • Scalability: By collaborating with Arbitrum Orbit, DuckChain can leverage its technology to enhance the performance and scalability of the TON ecosystem, thereby addressing high concurrency demands.

  • Innovative Mechanism: DuckChain introduces a mechanism called 'Initial Star Offering (ISO)' that tokenizes Telegram's Stars, providing unique use cases and enhancing the functionality of Stars in the Web3 environment.

Community and User Growth:

  • Testnet and Activities: During the testnet phase, DuckChain attracted a large number of users through the 'Star Season' event, successfully bringing Web2 users into the blockchain world by minting NFTs and using Telegram Stars as gas fees.

  • Mainnet Performance: After the mainnet launch, DuckChain quickly demonstrated strong user growth and trading volume, with significant increases in active wallets and daily transaction volume.

User Incentives and Participation:

  • Staking Activities: DuckChain has launched various asset staking activities, allowing users to earn Stars and Eggs through staking, with the latter being an important credential for participating in future airdrops.

  • Events and Rewards: During the mainnet launch period, DuckChain introduced a reward pool worth 1 million US dollars, where participants can complete tasks to earn various rewards, including but not limited to Eggs, USDT, and $TON.

V. How to Participate in Airdrops

The project team recently announced on X that an airdrop snapshot was taken on November 18, but still recommends everyone to try it out. I will briefly explain it below.

Step 1: Participate in the task via the link

We can use this link: https://t.me/DuckChain_bot/quack?startapp=Zp4jaZk5 to participate in the platform. Upon entering, we can see the official promotional information.

The official announcement states that the TGE will take place in January 2025, so the time is approaching, and by joining now, we might quickly obtain the airdrop.

Step 2: Complete the task

Once we enter the main page, we can see some information about your current status in the project, such as your level, eggs, scores obtained, etc. As mentioned above, DuckChain proposed the Initial Star Offering (ISO) to tokenize Telegram's Stars, so there are related tasks below, such as recharging Stars to gain chances for a lottery.

In addition to the previous tasks, we can also click on 'eran' to complete different events and daily tasks.

Benefits of DuckChain Airdrops:

  1. Low Barrier to Entry: Users can obtain tokens without the need for large investments.

  2. Rewarding Early Users: By participating in airdrops, users can engage with the DuckChain ecosystem and receive rewards.

  3. Ecosystem Participation Opportunities: For early users, airdrops are a way to join new projects and platforms.

Drawbacks:

  1. Over-competition: Airdrops may attract a large number of users, leading to dilution in reward distribution.

  2. Token Value Instability:Many airdrop tokens experience significant price fluctuations at the beginning, posing high investment risks, and the token rules are not very clear at present.