TON (The Open Network): How Does TON Work?

TON, or The Open Network, is a decentralized platform and ecosystem of services that use blockchain technology to provide a secure and efficient way to interact with online services. This network enables users to securely store assets, send payments, and use applications without registering with centralized authority.

Let’s check whether scalability and speed make it ideal for developers looking to build complex decentralized applications or businesses requiring high throughput

Background

Telegram launched the TON project in 2018 as an open-source project. It sought to create an entire ecosystem for distributed applications (dApps), smart contracts, decentralized storage solutions, and other innovations. With no central control over the network and its features, TON provides the perfect environment for developers to create uncensored and trustless applications.

SEC vs. Telegram

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had a long-running dispute over Telegram’s Gram cryptocurrency. The SEC argued that since Gram was an investment product rather than a currency, as advertised by Telegram, they should have registered it as a security. As a result of this legal battle, Telegram was forced to abandon its plans to issue Gram tokens and decided to create the TON network instead.

In a dramatic turn of events, 2020 saw the Telegram Open Network unable to meet its 30 April 2020 launch deadline. As a result, on 12 May 2020, the company withdrew from active involvement with TON. 

On June 11, 2020, to settle the dispute with SEC, Telegram agreed to return $1.22 billion as “termination amounts” in Gram purchase agreements, pay an $18.5 million penalty, and notify SEC of any plans for issuing digital assets.  They also agreed to refund all investors involved in the project accordingly over the next three years.

Post Telegram – The Open Network

Telegram’s commitment to their project grew unclear by May 2020, so other projects started developing the technology instead. Free TON was one of those projects aiming to use the available source code under GNU GPL and further development of the Telegram Open Network.

By January 2021, an enthusiastic community of over 30,000 members had gathered around the project. A token titled “TON Crystal” or just “TON” was distributed to appreciate their participation and contribution to growing the network.

They distributed the issuance of 5 billion TON tokens into 85% for users, 5% for validators, and 10% for developers, with 5% dedicated only to TON Labs – the developers behind TON OS middleware.

By 2022, TON had solidified its transition to The Open Network (TON) and made its mainnet fully operational.

How does TON work?

The TON blockchain is an innovative project consisting of two blockchains: a master blockchain and several working blockchains. The master chain stores information on the protocol, validators, work chains, and their shards, while the working blockchains maintain data regarding transactions and value transfers running through the network. 

TON Network runs on a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, adding an extra security layer against malicious actors. This system allows users to access a secure ledger quickly and easily with minimal transaction fees.

Sharding technology is an innovative addition to the workchains mechanism, allowing individual transactions to be processed more efficiently. 

The idea behind sharding is simple – rather than processing all account transactions through a single blockchain, the network splits into several shard blockchains or shardchains, each handling a subset of accounts.

Sharding allows for a much lighter workload on the network and faster transaction times—furthermore, the risk of congestion and issues with scalability reduce significantly due to this process. 

The core components of Ton include:

• TON OS – A software development kit allowing developers to create applications similar to those found on Ethereum or other smart contract platforms;
• TON Virtual Machine – An execution environment used for running smart contracts;
• TON Storage – A distributed storage network providing secure data storage solutions;
• TON Payments – A payment layer for sending money worldwide instantly and without fees;
• TON Blockchain – A distributed ledger technology serving as the network’s backbone.

TON POS consensus

The Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism is a distributed ledger technology that enables participants to validate transactions and ensure network security by staking their tokens as collateral. Participants who stake their tokens earn rewards through new tokens, which are released periodically.

The PoS consensus mechanism also helps ensure that all transactions on the network are valid and secure by requiring all participants to prove their ownership of their staked tokens cryptographically. The process helps protect the network from malicious actors attempting to manipulate or disrupt it.

Block and finalization time

The shardchains of the TON network are highly efficient, with a new block generated on each chain approximately every 5 seconds.

To further ensure consistency and reliability, these new blocks are created nearly simultaneously–an impressive feat of technology. The masterchain, however, sees a minor lag since it is a checkpoint for all transaction hashes; it has one extra second to compile information from all of the shardchain blocks and ensure that the chains use the latest data. This synchronous setup provides quick transfer times and an extremely secure network.

Performance

TON is a Turing-complete system that can leverage complex smart contracts to apply various applications. Furthermore, its high-throughput masterchain facilitates the creation of multiple secondary workchains to process transactions and increase transaction throughput for highly complex operations.

Scalability

The TON blockchain platform has made impressive strides in scalability to meet modern demands for speed and size. Combining the ability for up to 2³² separate Workchains and subdividing them into 2⁶⁰ Shardchains, TON can effectively process millions of transactions per second.

Toncoin (TON)

Toncoin is a native cryptocurrency of the TON Network. The total supply of Toncoins is limited to 5 billion tokens. You can buy TON on KUCoin, Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Huobi, Gate.io, and Poloniex.

The TON token has a variety of uses, ranging from its primary purpose of providing transaction processing fees and cross-chain transaction fees to being used as the governance token of the network.

As proof of stake blockchain, validators also stake the token to secure the network.

In the future, developers will add new functions to the TON Network, creating new use cases for TON.

Features and Benefits

The TON Network has many features that make it attractive for developers, businesses, and users alike:

* Speed – The blockchain is optimized for faster transactions with four different types of blocks, allowing for parallel transaction processing.

* Security – The network is built on multiple layers of encryption, making it highly secure and tamper-proof.

* Scalability – The network can quickly scale to accommodate more users and transactions without degrading performance.

* Flexibility – There are no restrictions or limitations on what developers can create with the Ton platform, allowing maximum creativity and innovation.

* Low Fees – Transaction fees are kept low to make the platform more attractive and accessible.

* Governance – the community uses Ton’s native token to vote on network changes and upgrades, ensuring that the network is always working in the best interests of its users.

* Interoperability – The TON Network provides easy cross-chain transactions, allowing for the development of more complex applications.

Conclusion

TON is a highly scalable, secure, and flexible blockchain platform with a native cryptocurrency, Toncoin. It offers users fast transaction times and reliable security measures backed by its revolutionary consensus mechanism. Its scalability and speed make it ideal for developers looking to build complex decentralized applications or businesses requiring high throughput. Furthermore, with the open-source TON Network, the possibilities of its utility are virtually limitless.