The Open Network (TON) is a flexible multi-blockchain platform with Turing-complete smart contracts, upgradable formal blockchain specifications, multi-cryptocurrency value transfer, support for micropayment channels, and o-chain payment networks that can process millions of transactions per second. The TON project is a multi-chain endeavor that supports all transactions uniformly.

TON is a layer 1 platform made for a brand new ecosystem built on the Telegram network. TON was proposed by Telegram founder Nikolia Durov in 2018 but was held back due to SEC regulations, and after a nine-month-long lawsuit was halted for a while, Telegram was forced to refund investors of its initial offering and agree to a settlement.

TON has since then risen to a 1.2 billion market cap, sitting comfortably in the top 30 market-cap cryptocurrency blockchains. TON is no longer a Telegram-based project but completely open-sourced, and codes and plug-ins can be found on GitHub, making it even more friendly toward regulation. TON is completely independent, meaning developers can build on the open-source network.

Ton is a blockchain positioned to rise to the very top, although it sits at the Top 30 market cap, it still has a huge potential for growth, not just in the projects growing within its ecosystem but also in the solutions the blockchain’s features provide and the fact that these features are miles ahead of pre-existing blockchains.

• Scalability: The TON blockchain can process millions of transactions per second.
• Security: The TON blockchain is secured by a network of validators.
• Decentralization: The TON blockchain is not controlled by any one entity.

Ton Blockchain also has

• Distributed file storage technology
• Flexible multi-blockchain platform
• Peer-to-peer network
• Network proxy/anonymizer layer
• A platform for arbitrary services

TON is a modular blockchain, meaning that its data availability function can be split up between multiple chains through a process called sharding, a blockchain feature that allows nodes to divide up the number of transactions that they need to verify to ensure that all the correct data for each block is published.

TON does not have a top-to-bottom approach unlike other modular blockchains in the sense that transactions

Overview of components of Ton’s modular architecture:

Master Chain: Contains the general information of the protocol and also sets the current values of its parameters, the set of validators and their stakes, the set of currently active workchains and their shards, and, most importantly, the set of hashes of the most recent blocks of all workchains and shardchains that ensure the Ton Network by handling consensus.

Working Chain: This contains the value of transfers and smart contract transactions. Since TON is heterogeneous, meaning it enables different individual blockchains to coexist in a single ecosystem and interact with one another, it can achieve horizontal scaling. The working chains reach a consensus on certain basic interoperability criteria to make interactions between different workchains possible.

Shardchains: TON allows the splitting of a database in order to spread a load of data on the blockchain. A set of account chains can be regarded as shardchains. (More on this in coming articles.)

In context, TON generates a new block on each shardchain and the masterchain approximately every 5 seconds. New blocks on all shardchains are generated approximately simultaneously, and a new block on the masterchain is generated approximately one second later because it must contain the hashes of the latest blocks on all shardchains This requires only minor internal changes in a split second.

This is only a basic description of the TON modular architecture. More on this can be found in TON’s white paper.

In a competition in September 2021, TON attained the then-world record of 55,000 TPS. One of the fastest blockchains available, the network is thought to be capable of hundreds of thousands of TPS right now. Some others even claim that Toncoin can reach millions of TPS.

Above we see the data comparison between TON, Solana, and Ethereum

By solving the blockchain trilemma, TON makes it possible for consumers to take advantage of scalability, security, and true decentralization. Tron is also incredibly cheap and does not impose any barriers on its users, thanks to its low transaction fee.

Because of the significant design and implementation changes, TON outperforms competitors in terms of performance, adaptability, and design. It also has a ton of distinctive features that set it apart from other layer-1 blockchains.

Since Telegram was the original inspiration for TON, it can benefit from its audience. With TON-tested and trusted scalability, all of Telegram’s messaging platform’s 550 million monthly active users and over 55 million daily active users may be onboarded instantly.

The Open Network, with its expanding user base and community-driven momentum, is in an excellent position to become the next major blockchain. There are no roadblocks in the project’s path. As time passes, I’ll share more information on TON ECOSYSTEM.