The world-class security of the TON–Ethereum bridge

Last month, The Open Network (TON) Blockchain welcomed its first-ever cross-chain bridge to transfer ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum and TON.

Today, we want to tell you about the service’s security.

The bridge’s smart contracts have undergone rigorous auditing on multiple occasions.

Before the service launched, TON Foundation had hosted a smart contract hackathon — whose total prize fund was $50,000 — hoping to find vulnerabilities. In the end, no vulnerabilities were discovered.

Moreover, three industry-leading auditing companies — CertiK, Quantstamp, and Hexens — reviewed the smart contracts and found no critical bugs or vulnerabilities.

Currently, the bridge can handle wBTC, USDT, USDC, and DAI transfers; however, more cryptocurrencies will be added in the near future.

You can find more information in this post, but before using the bridge, we recommend reading this guide.

​TON Community Weekly Digest

Here’s a roundup of the most exciting news from the past seven days in The Open Network (TON) Ecosystem.

Network Growth:

▪️ The number of registered TON accounts increased from 2,571,929 to 2,598,092 (+1%) between May 1 and May 7, 2023.

Ecosystem News:

▪️ Trust Wallet, one of the most popular crypto wallets in the world, now supports Toncoin. Read more.

▪️ Mooli, a cryptocurrency portfolio tracker, added support for TON. Read more.

▪️ TON Foundation has started a new security collaboration with Chainalysis, a leading Web3 analysis company. Read more.

▪️ Changelly, a non-custodial crypto exchange service, has now listed Toncoin. Read more.

▪️ TON Blog published an article titled "The story of Tact language: from idea to release" that describes the foundation of Tact programming language. Read more.

▪️ First Stage Labs published a Medium article examining the TON NFT landscape. Read more.

▪️ American artist Sarah McDaniel released a short film about her TON NFT project. Read more.

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A deep dive into TON Storage and decentralized file storage

Beincrypto, a leading cryptocurrency news portal, has published a technical article, The Economics of Decentralized Storage Protocols, authored by Anastasia Zhiltsova and Kirill Malev. The article explores the business models of several decentralized storage protocols and how they generate revenue. Notably, the authors look at Nonstorage and Tondrive.io, which are innovative TON-based data storage protocols that are in the early stages of development and poised to make a significant impact on the digital token economy.

We heartily recommend this article to all enthusiasts of the nascent distributed file storage industry.

Ellen Sheidlin’s promo-video for her new NFT project on TON Diamonds is featured on Times Square in New York

The promotional video for Ellen Sheidlin's NFT project on TON Diamonds is now being displayed on one of the main billboards in Times Square, located in the heart of New York City. The main square of the metropolis is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every day, and huge advertising boards have long been an integral part of the city life.

The video showcases Ellen Sheidlin's new NFT project "Soaring through Barriers" featuring magical birds as if ready to fly our of the screen, and finishes with an announcement for the upcoming Focus Art Fair exhibition. The event will take place from May 18th to May 21st at Chelsea Industrial, located 10 minutes from the Empire State Building. As shown in the video, the TON Diamonds marketplace will exhibit Ellen's work and other world-renowned artists in booth A8.

This is another big step for the TON Diamonds marketplace and for The Open Network blockchain! We look forward to seeing you at the exhibition.

TON Foundation collaborates with BIT Crypto Exchange

TON Foundation is collaborating with BIT Crypto Exchange with the platform now accepting Toncoin (TON) for trading fee payments while also offering discounts for those who pay in TON.

​TON NFT Marketplaces

Today, we will be highlighting some of the most notable NFT marketplaces on The Open Network (TON).

Although there has recently been a global decline in the popularity of NFTs, the TON NFT sector is still expanding, and we are witnessing the emergence of new and innovative platforms that showcase TON's limitless possibilities.

▪️ Getgems

Getgems is one of the premier NFT marketplaces on TON and recently celebrated its first anniversary. The platform offers a huge selection of NFTs and a wide range of features, including the ability to issue your own tokens, hold auctions, and explore different TON collections. Getgems has also introduced a Telegram bot, @GetgemsNftBot, which gives Telegram users easy access to the platform.

▪️ Disintar

Disintar was one of the first NFT marketplaces to launch on the main network and provides a broad selection of NFTs for users to explore. The platform also exclusively offers "My Room," a unique digital room interface that allows users to store their NFTs.

You can find the Disintar Telegram bot here: @disintar_bot

▪️ TON Diamonds

TON Diamonds is a fine art NFT platform that showcases the works of renowned digital artists such as Pokras Lampas, Ellen Sheidlin, Brickspacer, and others. In addition to its online presence, the platform often participates in offline NFT events and supports various art exhibitions around the world.

▪️ Playmuse

Playmuse is a unique music and video NFT marketplace on TON. The platform offers artists the opportunity to release their content through Playmuse Records, have their work distributed across 200+ streaming services and receive royalties in Toncoin. Playmuse is rapidly expanding and plans to attract approximately 2,000 artists in the coming months.

▪️ Tonex

Tonex, a social network built on TON Blockchain, has recently launched its own NFT marketplace. The platform offers a user-friendly interface for browsing collections, purchasing NFTs, and minting tokens.

A community-created video on TON

The official TON Twitter account posted a spectacular animation by graphic designer Rachmanova Dilnoza.

Watch and enjoy!

TON Society Updates (11 May)

TON Society is where builders meet capital. In terms of the funnel: grants, acceleration, investments.

Grants
— Grants machine is running back up and we are happy to share that a previous community dev, Mark (TON&Co founder), has joined the TON Foundation Dev Rel team and assessing grants applications
— Apply via Questbook

Acceleration
— We have been busy structuring accelerator partnerships and will announce 22 May (via @tonsociety and @toncoin); stay tuned
— Q2 FY23 will be limited to projects that have previously submitted projects in Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks but Q3 FY23 and onward will be more open to TON projects in general (for operational reasons)
— Projects with single digital valuations, TGE in its roadmap, and adding to ecosystem gap areas will be prioritized (for raise in the range of $50K ~ $250K)

Investments
— Overall, VC interest is much more selective due to market conditions, but Toncoin.fund is restructuring leadership and will continue to look for investment opportunities best fit for TON ecosystem

Additionally, TON Society will soon incorporate and have its own ecosystem fund (type) capital to inject into the most promising projects going through the funnel (at whichever stage they enter).

TON Foundation announces grant recipients for Q2, 2023

TON Foundation has approved grant recipients for round 1, Q2 2023. These new projects are of great value to The Open Network (TON) Ecosystem, focusing on emerging sectors such as on-chain lending, improving the visibility of TON-based applications, on-chain contract management and user-friendly use cases for TON core services.

Read more about new grant recipients from our new blog post.

We invite the whole community to get involved either as a builder by submitting your proposal or by joining the judging and discussion as an evaluation contributor.

​TON Community Weekly Digest

Here’s a roundup of the most exciting news from the past seven days in The Open Network (TON) Ecosystem.

Network Growth:

▪️ The number of registered TON accounts has increased from 2,602,852 to 2,625,204 (+0.9%) between May 8 and May 14, 2023.

Ecosystem News:

▪️ BeInCrypto, one of the largest crypto news outlets, has published a technincal article, The Economics of Decentralized Storage Protocols, exploring decentralized file storage solutions. The article profiles TON Storage, highlighting the Nonstorage and Tondrive.io services as emerging data storage protocols based on TON, currently in the early stages of development. Read more.

▪️ The promotional video for Ellen Sheidlin’s latest NFT project on TON, Memory of Soul, which is listed on the TON Diamonds marketplace, is being displayed on one of the main billboards in Times Square, New York City. The Focus Art Fair will take place from May 18 to May 21 nearby at Chelsea Industrial, featuring an exhibition of Ellen's work and other artists, curated by TON Diamonds. Read more.

▪️ TON Foundation is actively expanding its collaboration with BIT crypto exchange. In the near future, the exchange will begin accepting Toncoin as a form of payment for trading fees and offer various discounts. Read more.

▪️ We have recently released a compilation of the most popular TON-based NFT marketplaces. We encourage you to check out this post, just in case you're not familiar with some of these platforms.

▪️ Graphic animator Rakhmanova Dilnoza has created a mini-advertising cartoon about TON. We highly recommend taking a look at it!

Subscribe and be the first to receive updates from TON Ecosystem.

Mask Network invests in The Open Network (TON) in drive to build decentralized social network ecosystem

Mask Network, a platform that aims to bridge Web 2.0 users to Web 3.0, has announced a strategic investment in The Open Network (TON). By leveraging the Next.ID protocol, Mask gives Web3 users full ownership of their identities. Mask's investment in TON is another exciting development for our burgeoning SocialFi scene.

This latest collaboration aims to combine Mask's focus on the so-called ownership economy with TON's vision of a decentralized internet. This will particularly help drive growth in TON’s SocialFi sphere and shape the future of decentralized digital communities.

The Open Network (TON) has featured on the AltcoinBuzz Channel

The popular YouTube channel AltcoinBuzz, which has over 400,000 subscribers, has published a new video titled Next BIG UNDERVALUED Crypto. In this video, the host introduces his viewers to TON Blockchain and its native cryptocurreny, Toncoin, providing insights into the network structure, ecosystem and perceived future potential.

The opinions outlined in this video will be of interest to both newcomers and long-time TON enthusiasts. However, please remember that this content should not be viewed as investment advice. Check it out here!

TON&Co. has released an interview with the Tonstarter co-founder

The TON & Company YouTube channel has conducted an interview with Sergey Chikirev, the co-founder and technical director of Tonstarter, the first TON-based launchpad.

This insightful conversation will be of interest to all TON enthusiasts and includes:

▪️ A bit about Sergey's personality and his technical background.
▪️ Discussion about Tonstarter's philosophy and its role in the ecosystem.
▪️ Conversation about the The Open Network and its native cryptocurrency, Toncoin.
▪️ The key metrics that Tonstarter is looking for in prospective projects.

Tonstarter is a significant and essential service for TON Ecosystem. We recommend the entire community check out this interview!

Hack-a-TON x DWF Labs x AWS Startups offers up to 150,000 Toncoin in prizes

Hack-a-TON, in collaboration with DWF Labs and AWS Startups, is hosting another massive event giving users the chance to win 150,000 Toncoin (TON) in prizes. Registration will open next week, followed by an online build phase. The final offline hackathon round will take place in Singapore on September 11-12. Participants will also have the opportunity to take part in workshops and learn from 12 industry-leading mentors.

Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to showcase your skills and be in with a chance to win a share of the 150,000 TON prize fund! Register next week to get involved!

Join the TON Wiki Challenge and contribute to The Open Network’s (TON) Wikipedia page in any language!

The initial prize pool is $5,000 worth of Toncoin. The top contributors will be considered for potential jobs at TON Foundation.

We welcome contestants from all over the world! To participate, register through @toncontests_bot, provide your Wiki account and the link to the doc with possible description of the Wiki page. Submit your TON articles by June 4, 21:00 (UTC+4).

For more details, check out TON Blog. Let’s collaborate and create an outstanding resource for The Open Network.

Best of luck to all participants! Start updating and make your mark today!

TON Diamonds has published a video report about the Focus Art Fair in New York, which presented a series of NFT pieces based on TON.

Thousands of art lovers, artists, and curators visited the Focus Art Fair, which began on May 17 and ended today.

Please check out the video report and appreciate the beauty of TON NFTs!

​Today, TON Accelerator Program has announced that it will allocate up to $25 million this year to projects that have the potential to make a significant impact on the expanding TON Ecosystem.

The capital will be provided by TONcoin.Fund, a $250 million TON-based fund dedicated to supporting founders, and will be funneled into various key projects, with a particular focus on decentralized finance (DeFi). Each project will receive between $50,000 and $250,000.

In addition to funding, each investment will be accompanied by partnership and mentorship from our accelerator partners, including: Gotbit, a hedge fund and market-making company offering trading and risk management solutions; Web3Port, a developer of tools facilitating connections between Web3 startups and contributors to drive innovation; Tonstarter, the leading fundraising platform on TON; TEB, an incubator for Web3 developers based in South Korea; and Cypher Capital, a United Arab Emirates-based multi-strategy crypto investment firm.

The pool of TON Accelerator Program partners is anticipated to expand even further as TON Foundation continues to establish strategic partnerships with major accelerators in the Web3 space.

“We are delighted to unveil TON Accelerator Program as our ecosystem continues to evolve and attract new talent,” said Justin Hyun, Head of Incubation and Growth at TON Foundation. “This is the beginning of many different incubators which will be supported in the future. Funding forms part of our local hubs rollout strategy and our ecosystem will work to attract new developers as well as successful repeat founders, based across a variety of key global locations.”

“This is a program that is unique within the Web3 universe today,” said Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital. "TON Accelerator Program is taking the well-known incubator principle from the Web2 ecosystem, refining it, and evolving it by incorporating the best practices of Web3 protocols and methodologies. We are delighted to play our part in this next generation program.”

The initial selection of projects for the funding round will focus on those that took part in Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks, a two-month-long virtual hackathon organized in collaboration with DoraHacks. DoraHacks is a leading global hacker organization that acts as a bridge, connecting hackers to enterprise challenges and entrepreneurial ideas.

Submissions are currently open for all MVP-ready projects built on TON (i.e. support TVM & TON smart-contract language) that are seeking marketing, business, and technology support. Proof-of-concept or prototype teams that require initial technical support should apply for earlier-stage grants.

Projects interested in participating in funding rounds can complete this form.

​TON Community Weekly Digest

Here’s a roundup of the most exciting news from the past seven days in The Open Network (TON) Ecosystem.

Network Growth:

▪️ The number of registered TON accounts has increased from 2,633,200 to 2,660,844 (+1%) between May 15 and May 21, 2023.

Ecosystem News:

▪️ TON Accelerator Program has announced that it will allocate up to $25 million this year to projects that have the potential to make a significant impact on the expanding TON Ecosystem. Read more.

▪️ A new TON Wiki Challenge is being held, where you have the opportunity to update the TON Wikipedia page in different languages. Read more.

▪️ A new massive Hack-a-TON event has been announced, jointly hosted by DWF Labs and AWS Startups, featuring a prize pool of 150,000 TON. Registration will open soon. Read more.

▪️ TON Foundation has announced the latest grant recipients for Q2 2023. Read more.

▪️ Mooli, a crypto portfolio tracker which recently added support for TON, now allows users to track staked coins in the TON Whales staking pool.

▪️ AltcoinBuzz, a cryptocurrency YouTube channel with more than 400,000 subscribers, has released a video about TON Blockchain and Toncoin. Watch the video.

▪️The TON & Company YouTube channel has released an interview with Sergey Chikirev, the co-founder and technical director of the Tonstarter launchpad. Watch the interview.

▪️Mask Network has announced an investment in The Open Network to further develop the ecosystem. Read more.

Subscribe and be the first to receive updates from TON Ecosystem.

MEXC crypto exchange offers zero trading fees for Toncoin (TON)

MEXC, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has canceled all trading fees for Toncoin (TON). The platform has over 7 million users across the globe and offers a range of services for spot trading, futures, indexes and more. Now, MEXC is giving our community an incredible opportunity to trade TON without paying any additional fees.

This is another great opportunity for users to get easy and convenient access to TON. Head over to MEXC to find out more!

Keep your Toncoin (TON) safe with Tangem’s cold wallet

Tangem is collaborating with The Open Network (TON) to offer a 10% discount on its cold wallet using the promo code "TON10". Tangem has introduced support for Toncoin (TON), allowing you to securely store your holdings and protect yourself from hacking, phishing or malware.

Tangem provides physical, cold storage cards that enable you to save and manage your crypto offline while still being able to send and receive TON using your smartphone. Although self-custody may seem daunting at first, it grants you control over your assets and the peace of mind of using the most secure method to keep your crypto safe.

Exclusive interview with TON technical lead Anatoliy Makosov

Anatoliy Makosov, the winner of multiple Telegram programming competitions, and Kirill Emelyanenko, also of TON Foundation, launched a new project in 2020 with the aim of reviving The Open Network (TON).

In his first ever big interview, Anatoliy discusses his background, his work in the TON core team, the prospects for blockchain technology, the philosophy of Web3 along with how TON Blockchain is developing.

We highly recommend that all TON enthusiasts check out this groundbreaking interview.

Visit TON Blog here.