About
Toncoin (TON), formerly known as Gram, is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain. Originally designed by Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the founders of the Telegram messaging app, the project was intended to bring crypto-payments to Telegram's massive user base. However, following a legal battle with the US SEC in 2020, Telegram officially withdrew from the project. It was subsequently handed over to an independent open-source community of developers, now known as the TON Foundation.
The architecture of TON is uniquely designed for "mass adoption." It uses a "blockchain of blockchains" approach involving dynamic sharding, which allows the network to split and merge as demand fluctuates. This enables it to theoretically process millions of transactions per second without congestion. Today, TON is deeply integrated into the Telegram ecosystem, allowing users to send crypto via chat, buy "anonymous" blockchain-based phone numbers, and trade Telegram usernames as NFTs. Its goal is to bridge the gap between social media and decentralized finance, making blockchain technology as easy to use as a standard messaging app.
