On the 18th of November, the TON Foundation named new ambassadors and board members, recognizing three community members.
Recognized Active TON Community Members
The Foundation named two community members as public ambassadors for the TON blockchain. The third individual joined as a board member of the TON Foundation.
The recognized community members specialized in creating and developing blockchain projects and solutions built on the TON ecosystem. As TON ambassadors, they will promote dialogue amongst key players in the industry.
One of the newly named ambassadors, Tal Kol, is the technical co-founder of Orbs and co-founder of Hexa, which has aided the growth of the TON ecosystem. Orbs is also a key member of the group of organizations behind the $250 million TON ecosystem fund announced in April this year. Another announced ambassador, Oleg Andreev, is a co-founder of Tonkeeper and a core developer of the TON blockchain.
The founder of Kingsway Capital and supporter of the TON ecosystem, Manuel Stotz, was invited to join as a board member of the TON Foundation. Manuel is known for advocating the implementation of blockchain technology. Manuel will work to further develop the TON ecosystem in his new role.
Stotz is not the only new board member to join the Foundation. In September 2022, TON onboarded the investor and Chairman of Cypher Capital, Bill Qian, as a new board member. Qian was also the Global Head of Fundraising at Binance Labs and the Global Head of M&A for Binance.
The TON Ecosystem is Under Intense Development
The TON Foundation is a non-commercial group of supporters and contributors who help further grow the open-source TON blockchain. TON was initially an acronym for Telegram Open Network. It was designed in 2018 by the Durov Brothers, the founders of Telegram Messenger. However, Telegram quit the project in 2020. It was later handed over to the Open TON Foundation, which has been further developing it since.
Over the past few months, the TON blockchain has undergone many developments. On August 19th, the TON Foundation announced the latest updates to the @wallet bot, which enables cryptocurrency P2P transactions directly via Telegram chats.
Telegram also announced the launch of a tokenized username marketplace built on the TON blockchain. On October 26th, the KuCoin Exchange announced the new Listing of Toncoin (TON), along with Huobi.
Also, just this week, the TON ecosystem received the attention of investors when DWF Labs committed to allocating $10 million to grow the ecosystem. In total, 50 seed investments are scheduled over the next 12 months.
On the Flipside
In 2018, the Telegram TON initial coin offering raised nearly $1.7 billion with the sale of GRAM tokens. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later took a strong stance against TON due to regulatory measures. To settle SEC charges, the company had to return $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million penalty.
Why You Should Care
Bringing attention to community members is significant, as building a solid community is essential to crypto businesses. A thriving and engaged community attracts more people, helps instill trust and innovates the ecosystem.
Read more about the newest investment in the TON ecosystem: DWF Labs Invests $10M in the TON Ecosystem
Read more about TON native coin listing on KuCoin: KuCoin Lists Native Token of TON Blockchain, Developed by Telegram Founders
