TON blockchain: how it was born and how the Telegram crypto network works

In this article, we retrace the origins of Telegram’s crypto network, up to what we know today as the TON blockchain.

We then delve into the technical characteristics of this project, highlighting all the dynamics that have led it to success in the web3 sector.

Let’s see everything in detail below.

Telegram and the first (failed) approach to the world of crypto in 2017

The first encounter between Telegram and the crypto world dates back to 2017, when the founders of the social media began to explore new solutions in the blockchain field.

At that time, there was, in fact, no cryptographic network capable of supporting the entire user traffic of the platform, estimated in billions of units.

Pavel and Nikolai Durov, brother founders and owners of Telegram, decided after a year of research to launch their own project.

In 2018, the blockchain known as “Telegram Open Network” comes to light, along with the GRAM token (later renamed TON).

This last resource, sold publicly through an ICO, was launched as a form of venture capital financing for the company.

In short, with the proceeds from the public sale, the Telegram team would have enhanced its servers and services intended for the crypto sector.

Over 80% of the funds raised had been planned to be spent on equipment, bandwidth, collocation, and user verification costs. 

The problem arose when, only 2 years later, the Durov brothers were forced to exit the project following an injunction from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The US regulator had detected in the activity of the Russian entrepreneurs the presence of a public offering of an unregistered “security”.

The SEC fined Telegram an amount of 18.5 million dollars and the whole project was (almost) abandoned to make room for other opportunities.

The Durov brothers were also forced to return the money to the investors of the ICO, amounting to about 1.7 billion dollars.

The open source blockchain of TON is born

As mentioned, the initial Telegram project was abandoned by the founders themselves, and the new crypto GRAM ended up in the forgotten.

However, from 2018 to 2020 the social media had made great strides in designing the blockchain network The Open Network, also achieving important milestones.

Until the arrival of the sanction from the SEC, the product had been improved several times. The development team had released a lite version of the blockchain network client, published a complete source code for nodes on Github and launched a testnet.

Since the crypto network was practically ready to debut on the market, the founders of Telegram thought it wise to decentralize the project.

All the codes have been distributed in an open source manner to the developers, just as Tesla did with the liberalization of patents for electric cars a few years earlier.

From there was born what we all know as the TON blockchain, even though it has kept the name Telegram Open Network.

GRAM was renamed TON (Toncoin), with the only difference being that the token was no longer controlled by the company itself, but had become a free resource.

This transition has led to a radical shift. From a centralized initiative tied to a corporate entity to a decentralized project managed by the community.

This change has allowed Telegram to evolve independently, continuing to expand and innovate in the world of cryptocurrencies

As of today, the crypto network is known for its extraordinary transaction processing capability.

Characteristics of the crypto network: integration and scalability with the Telegram app

With the launch of Telegram’s crypto network in 2020, several very interesting technical implementations were inaugurated.

Its architecture features several cutting-edge characteristics, such as the use of a dynamic sharding mechanism.

This feature allows the blockchain to manage transaction processing load more efficiently, resulting in a high-performance scalability.

Furthermore, the developers of the Telegram community have implemented an instant routing mechanism that ensures rapid propagation through the network.

This means minimizing latency and improving the end user’s experience.

It should also be noted the presence in Ton of a particular Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism called “Catchain Consensus”.

This model ensures reliability in achieving distributed consensus, contributing to ethical behavior on the part of the node structure.

Very important to also mention the presence in this sense of Proof of Stake which allows maintaining the integrity of the network in the crypto world.

Just like on Ethereum, the Ton blockchain also features its own virtual machine, called the TON Virtual Machine (TVM). It is responsible for executing smart contracts and provides an operational framework for the development of dapps.

One of the most interesting aspects is, however, its perfect integration with the messaging app Telegram. 

The network has indeed been designed to be complementary to the structure of the social media, being able to adapt to its high performance.

The crypto TON plays a fundamental role in this field: it represents the gas token of the chain as well as the currency used for payments.

Users can send and receive Toncoin directly within the Telegram app, through a very simple and intuitive process.

The same resource is used to reassure the network through staking, as well as to tip content creators and developers. Payments can also be made via bot, thanks to features like Telegram Stars.

The majestic growth of Telegram’s crypto ecosystem in 2024

Although the Telegram crypto network was officially launched in 2020, it is only from 2024 that it has reached true mainstream adoption.

After some marketing stunts, the Foundation managed to bring a good user base to the network, becoming the 20th chain by total value locked (TVL).

For example, in February 2024, Telegram decided to share 50% of its advertising profits with channel owners through payments in TON.

This has allowed the crypto TON to be elevated, bringing it to the attention of the general public, given its new utility.

In March then, the team announced the allocation of 30 million TON in rewards to the community, for a value of 115 million dollars.

Furthermore, in April the stablecoin USDT was integrated into the network, providing users with a new onboarding resource.

The real success, however, came with the introduction of play-to-earn games based on Telegram. Games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat have created a lot of engagement given the possibility of earning money for free.

Their success has allowed this trend to expand, attracting hundreds of millions of players to a blockchain product.

This is a true record on user numbers: no blockchain until then had managed to bring such traffic.

Today TON appears as one of the most promising chains in the crypto landscape, potentially capable of reaching mass adoption.