The Open Network (TON) is a scalable Layer 1 blockchain designed to massively engage users and provide a single universal platform for services and applications.
TON Blockchain is designed as a distributed supercomputer, or “superserver,” intended to provide a variety of products and services to contribute to the development of the decentralized vision for the new internet.
It is already capable of optimizing many Web3 services such as Smart Contracts, Decentralized Applications (DApps), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), Decentralized data storage, and other blockchain innovations built on a highly scalable Layer 1 chain.
The basic elements of the TON ecosystem include:
- TON Blockchain: a scalable multi-blockchain platform capable of processing millions of transactions in seconds. It is the core protocol that connects the underlying TON infrastructure into a unified TON ecosystem.
- TON Services: a platform for third-party services that enables friendly, intuitive interfaces for decentralized applications and smart contracts
- TON DNS: makes the blockchain simple and straightforward by assigning familiar names to accounts, smart contracts, services and network nodes.
- TON Sites: makes it possible to run a web server with your own website and make it available on the TON network, i.e. make a so-called "TON Site".
- TON Proxy: universal data encryption shell for TON nodes, similar to I2P network, which allows the development of decentralized VPN and TOR services for online privacy. TON Proxy, combined with elements of the TON DNS and TON Storage ecosystem, allows decentralized applications to secure themselves from centralized censorship
- TON Storage: a P2P network, a distributed file storage technology that allows large amounts of data to be stored and transferred.
- TON WWW: allows you to associate a domain (or subdomain) name with a wallet address in the TON network to send funds directly.
The versatility of the TON architecture allows the core network to be connected with more than 2^32 workchains. Each workchain can have a unique set of rules for smart contracts, can contain different addresses and store different cryptocurrencies. At the same time, all workchains can communicate with each other through the main TON network.
In the July 2023, the network passed the 3 000 000 registered accounts addresses. The TON ecosystem is actively growing and developing and currently consists of 544 projects, which are categorized in categories familiar to most Web3/Blockchain-enthusiasts:
- NFT: 130
- Mining: 5
- Chats: 29
- Social: 12
- Bridges: 3
- Wallets: 31
- Utilities: 97
- Games: 25
- Tokens: 46
- Channels: 60
- Explorers: 15
- Gambling: 35
- Centralized exchanges (CEXes): 46
- Decentralized exchanges (DEXes): 10
Unfortunately, a detailed description of each project from each category is beyond the scope of the article, but here are a few interesting applications that are up and running successfully:
- CryptoBot – a multi-currency wallet that allows you to store, send and receive coins using an internal wallet
- Wallet – no less popular bot, thanks to which the user can buy or sell cryptocurrency, as well as send it to their contacts
- Ton Whales – all information about wallets, staking and mining in the TON network
- Tonscan – fast address, domain and transaction explorer with minimalistic design
- TON Bridge – a convenient bridge for token exchange between Ethereum, Binance Smartchain and TON
- The Open Disk – a tool to sell your files for Toncoin. Once the seller's file has been paid for by the buyer, it becomes available for downloading
- Tonstarter – the first venture capital token investment platform for promising projects, allowing teams to raise capital in a decentralized, secure and user-friendly environment
- TON Verifier – a tool for verifying contracts on the TON blockchain
- Getgems – the first NFT trading platform on the TON blockchain
- STON.fi – cross-chain DEX-exchange with its own security protocol built on the TON blockchain
To familiarize yourself with all available services and learn more details about their purpose – we recommend you to visit this page.