The crypto world is moving fast, as always - countless new projects, new cryptocurrencies, and new ICOs are constantly launching.
Today, I'd like to present a very special new crypto project, created by the messenger app Telegram.
Telegram, the encrypted messaging software which is especially popular in the crypto community, is planning to launch a billion-dollar ICO.
This blockchain-based system will enable the chat app to accept payments, implement bonus features and more.
Telegram's ambitious project aims at a $500 million Pre Sale, followed by a $1.2 billion ICO.
The platform is going to be called “Telegram Open Network” (TON) with the native cryptocurrency "GRAM".
About the Project
The TON will be a "third generation" blockchain - after Bitcoin, and then Ethereum have revolutionized this technology with new features and possibilities.
TON aims to enable even more efficient capabilities for transactions and scaling.
It will be based on a dynamic proof of stake algorithm, which has a high degree of fault tolerance and is secured by multiple parties and can also handle storage of ID, smart contracts and payments.
Telegram claims that the TON will be capable of incredible 1 million transactions per second.
Basically, they have created a new, less energy-hogging way of mining cryptocurrency than the original Bitcoin method and have developed themselves an ‘interchain’ with so-called ‘dynamic sharding’.
Telegram will use its expertise in encrypted distributed data storage to create TON, a fast and inherently scalable multi-blockchain architecture. TON can be regarded as a decentralized supercomputer and value transfer system. By combining minimum transaction time with maximum security, TON can become a VISA/Mastercard alternative for the new decentralized economy. The Telegram Team will rely on its 10-year experience in building user-friendly interfaces for
tens of millions to create light wallets, exchanges, and identification services that will allow users to get on board with cryptocurrencies in an intuitive way.Integrated into Telegram applications, the TON wallet will become the world’s most adopted cryptocurrency wallet.
This entirely new concept of a blockchain, brought to 200 million active Telegram users, could create something huge. Mainstream adoption is instantly guaranteed.
Founder Durov has supposedly decided to combine parts of a centralized and decentralized infrastructure - with new features, which is why they decided to create Telegram's own blockchain.
They decided to combine those parts because a totally decentralized network isn't scalable as quickly as those that have at least some elements of centralization.
For Telegram, creating their own decentralized blockchain platform could enable to things: the main reason is of course that they will have their very own cryptocurrency economy within the app.
But additionally, this would also shield them from governments' attacks like Iran, where Telegram is used to communicate amongst protestants.
Inside the TON
The Telegram Open Network consists of different key features with different purposes.
- TON Services
TON Services will be like an app store. A platform for any third-party services for smartphones that feature smart contracts or decentralized apps.
- TON DNS
TON DNS will become a simple way for users to access decentralized services - one day, even as easy as “viewing a website on the World Wide Web.”
TON DNS will assign human-readable names to smart contracts services, network nodes, and accounts.
- TON Payments
TON Payments will be a micropayment channel network, and a platform for micropayments in general, to enable “instant off-chain value transfers between users bots and other services.”
These payments should be just as secure as on-chain transactions, which is ensured through safeguards that re implemented into the system.
- TON BLOCKCHAIN
The TON Blockchain is the heart of the network.
It consists of one master chain and 2-to-the-power-of-92 accompanying blockchains.
TON blockchains are said to be able to “automatically split and merge to accommodate changes in load” - this is due to their “Infinite Sharding Paradigm” to achieve scalability.
This means that new blocks are generated very quickly and "the absence of long queues helps keep transaction costs low, even if some of the services using the platform become massively popular”.
The TON also has another feature to ensure that it can maintain at top speed even as it grows - this is called “Instant Hypercube Routing”.
It can grow new, valid blocks on top of any other blocks that were previously classified as incorrect to avoid any unnecessary forks.
This would mean that the TON blockchain is self-healing.
Roadmap, Pre-Sale and ICO
According to the Roadmap in the whitepaper, development of the TON network has already started in Q2 2017.
In Q2 2018, we can expect a "Minimal Viable Test Network", then the first stable version and the Telegram Wallet in Q4 2018.
The Launch of TON Services is planned for Q2 2019.
Although there have been no exact dates for the $500 million Pre-Sale yet, the minimum investment amount is rumoured to be at $1 million and the pre sale could start as early as march.
What do you think about the huge TON project and ICO? Will it be successful?
© Sirwinchester