On this article, we retrace the origins of Telegram’s crypto community, as much as what we all know at this time because the TON blockchain.
We then delve into the technical traits of this undertaking, highlighting all of the dynamics which have led it to success within the web3 sector.
Let’s see the whole lot intimately beneath.
Telegram and the primary (failed) strategy to the world of crypto in 2017
The primary encounter between Telegram and the crypto world dates again to 2017, when the founders of the social media started to discover new options within the blockchain area.
At the moment, there was, in actual fact, no cryptographic community able to supporting your complete consumer site visitors of the platform, estimated in billions of items.
Pavel and Nikolai Durov, brother founders and homeowners of Telegram, determined after a 12 months of analysis to launch their very own undertaking.
In 2018, the blockchain often known as “Telegram Open Community” involves mild, together with the GRAM token (later renamed TON).
This final useful resource, bought publicly by way of an ICO, was launched as a type of enterprise capital financing for the corporate.
In brief, with the proceeds from the general public sale, the Telegram group would have enhanced its servers and companies meant for the crypto sector.
Over 80% of the funds raised had been deliberate to be spent on tools, bandwidth, collocation, and consumer verification prices.
The issue arose when, solely 2 years later, the Durov brothers have been compelled to exit the undertaking following an injunction from the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC).
The US regulator had detected within the exercise of the Russian entrepreneurs the presence of a public providing of an unregistered “safety”.
The SEC fined Telegram an quantity of 18.5 million {dollars} and the entire undertaking was (nearly) deserted to make room for different alternatives.
The Durov brothers have been additionally compelled to return the cash to the traders of the ICO, amounting to about 1.7 billion {dollars}.
The open supply blockchain of TON is born
As talked about, the preliminary Telegram undertaking was deserted by the founders themselves, and the brand new crypto GRAM ended up within the forgotten.
Nevertheless, from 2018 to 2020 the social media had made nice strides in designing the blockchain community The Open Community, additionally attaining essential milestones.
Till the arrival of the sanction from the SEC, the product had been improved a number of instances. The event group had launched a lite model of the blockchain community shopper, printed a whole supply code for nodes on Github and launched a testnet.
Because the crypto community was virtually able to debut in the marketplace, the founders of Telegram thought it clever to decentralize the undertaking.
All of the codes have been distributed in an open supply method to the builders, simply as Tesla did with the liberalization of patents for electrical automobiles just a few years earlier.
From there was born what everyone knows because the TON blockchain, although it has stored the identify Telegram Open Community.
GRAM was renamed TON (Toncoin), with the one distinction being that the token was not managed by the corporate itself, however had turn into a free useful resource.
This transition has led to a radical shift. From a centralized initiative tied to a company entity to a decentralized undertaking managed by the group.
This modification has allowed Telegram to evolve independently, persevering with to develop and innovate on the earth of cryptocurrencies
As of at this time, the crypto community is understood for its extraordinary transaction processing functionality.
Traits of the crypto community: integration and scalability with the Telegram app
With the launch of Telegram’s crypto community in 2020, a number of very attention-grabbing technical implementations have been inaugurated.
Its structure options a number of cutting-edge traits, corresponding to using a dynamic sharding mechanism.
This characteristic permits the blockchain to handle transaction processing load extra effectively, leading to a high-performance scalability.
Moreover, the builders of the Telegram group have carried out an immediate routing mechanism that ensures speedy propagation by way of the community.
This implies minimizing latency and enhancing the tip consumer’s expertise.
It also needs to be famous the presence in Ton of a selected Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism known as “Catchain Consensus”.
This mannequin ensures reliability in attaining distributed consensus, contributing to moral conduct on the a part of the node construction.
Crucial to additionally point out the presence on this sense of Proof of Stake which permits sustaining the integrity of the community within the crypto world.
Identical to on Ethereum, the Ton blockchain additionally options its personal digital machine, known as the TON Digital Machine (TVM). It’s answerable for executing good contracts and supplies an operational framework for the event of dapps.
Some of the attention-grabbing features is, nevertheless, its excellent integration with the messaging app Telegram.
The community has certainly been designed to be complementary to the construction of the social media, with the ability to adapt to its excessive efficiency.
The crypto TON performs a elementary function on this area: it represents the fuel token of the chain in addition to the foreign money used for funds.
Customers can ship and obtain Toncoin instantly inside the Telegram app, by way of a quite simple and intuitive course of.
The identical useful resource is used to reassure the community by way of staking, in addition to to tip content material creators and builders. Funds will also be made through bot, because of options like Telegram Stars.
The majestic development of Telegram’s crypto ecosystem in 2024
Though the Telegram crypto community was formally launched in 2020, it’s only from 2024 that it has reached true mainstream adoption.
After some advertising stunts, the Basis managed to convey consumer base to the community, turning into the twentieth chain by complete worth locked (TVL).
For instance, in February 2024, Telegram determined to share 50% of its promoting income with channel homeowners by way of funds in TON.
This has allowed the crypto TON to be elevated, bringing it to the eye of most people, given its new utility.
In March then, the group introduced the allocation of 30 million TON in rewards to the group, for a price of 115 million {dollars}.
Moreover, in April the stablecoin USDT was built-in into the community, offering customers with a brand new onboarding useful resource.
The true success, nevertheless, got here with the introduction of play-to-earn video games primarily based on Telegram. Video games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat have created a number of engagement given the potential for incomes cash without cost.
Their success has allowed this development to develop, attracting a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of gamers to a blockchain product.
This can be a true file on consumer numbers: no blockchain till then had managed to convey such site visitors.
At this time TON seems as one of the promising chains within the crypto panorama, doubtlessly able to reaching mass adoption.