💎 TON launched the Open Challenge Reward program

Since last year, DeepTonEng has been covering extensively the topic of support for new projects in the ecosystem, of which the most important is The Open Challenge or TOC for short.

This program is unique in that it is neither a grant, nor a charity drive, nor a sponsorship, but real assistance to DeFi projects aimed at increasing TVL in the network. Moreover, it is allocated after the fact, contingent upon achieving tangible results.

So as long as your startup helps increase the total value locked (TVL) - you have a chance to get support.

➕ A little bit about TVL

Recall that TVL is a major indicator of a project’s success. It represents the amount of funds locked (frozen) in smart contracts.

To calculate the ratio of TVL to DeFi market cap, consider the current supply, maximum supply and current price. To get the current market capitalization, multiply the current supply by the current price. To obtain the TVL ratio, divide the market capitalization by the TVL of the project. The TVL ratio indicates whether the DeFi asset is undervalued or overvalued.

🍔 Things to consider

🔹 A total of $20 million of unlocked liquidity is available for 2023.
🔹Projects will need to register with TON Foundation and integrate with DefiLlama.
🔹 Security and independent audit requirements need to be met.
🔹 Rewards are distributed quarterly, and the amount will depend on the pool of funds that the product attracts.

More details can be found here.

The Open Challenge will be crucial in the development of TON DeFi. Its organizers strive to accelerate the deployment of the decentralized network by encouraging teams to create DeFi solutions.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🎙When liquidity becomes a scam

Liquidity is one of the most significant success indicators of a DeFi project, whether it is a bridge, an exchange or a token. It's how startups are looking to show that their services, services, and products are in demand. Everyone finds a way, but not all of them are legitimate.

🔹Things to keep in mind when evaluating liquidity

✅ First of all, keep in mind that liquidity fraud is a known crime in the crypto industry.
✅Scammers use placeholder companies, fake apps, DEXs, and malicious smart contracts to attract large amounts of funds and rob victims of their savings.
✅They use social networks like Telegram, Twitter, and WhatsApp to stalk their prey.
✅When determining the value of a token, make sure to determine its usefulness. To do that, calculate the percentage of all transactions made for non-speculative purposes. If it turns out that the project's goal is purely to increase price, then such a project is bound to fail.

🔹Common liquidity pumping schemes

✅"Liquidity mining" is a strategy in which fraudsters gradually entice victims to buy a token and participate in a liquidity pool. They give specific instructions and guarantee a return on investment. Then they persuade victims to link their crypto wallet with a fraudulent application, after which their account gets emptied.

✅The "pull the rug" scheme is common on decentralized exchanges (DEX). Developers create a coin, which must be linked to another crypto, since fiat currency cannot be sold on DEX. After registering on DEX, token developers create a PR campaign on social media to sell the coin and add liquidity to the pool. They also artificially inflate the coin price by buying a large number of coins and then "pull the rug" by suddenly selling them (pump and dump).

There are many more schemes, of course. But awareness goes a long way.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🏆 TON Contest has launched TON Thread Challenge 💫

The challenge has already begun and will last until February 22, 18:00 UTC. Developers, community managers, content creators and project founders can all participate by creating unique and accessible content on The Open Network.

The total prize is $10,000.
To participate, register via @toncontests_bot.

Application requirements:
✅The project must be in English
✅It should focus on a unique aspect of the blockchain or the network’s ecosystem, for example, the development of TON, the FunC language, TVM, fostering mass implementation, community involvement, NFT, decentralization, etc.

Details can be found on their webpage.

Feel free to share humor, memes and good vibes.
Make it viral!

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

✅ VKontakte's NFT service now supports TON blockchain

This centralized platform launched its NFT platform last December. Its users could download tokens from the Ethereum and Polygon networks, use them as profile pictures or showcase their collection on their personal page. Now the platform supports the TON blockchain. In addition, the BSC network (BNB Smart Chain) will soon integrate VK’s NFT ecosystem.

❓Benefits for TON users:

➡️ Ability to transfer digital assets from the TON network into VK accounts.
➡️ Independently install any NFT avatar from their collection.
➡️ Soon developers will release digital token collectibles and open a marketplace for token trading.
➡️ The service is compatible with the Tonkeeper wallet, which can be used to upload your NFT.
⚡️Careful - doing so will deanonymize the wallet.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🎙FNZ listed on MEXC Global

On February 9, MEXC Global, one of the largest CEX, will list the FNZ token paired with USDT. That’s quite significant for a TON-based crypto.

Recall that Fanzee is a project aimed at attracting sports fans to the blockchain ecosystem.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🐱 Cats on The Open Network

Sharpen your claws and get ready for the upcoming TON Awards 2022!

If you have an exciting, non-commercial open-source product on TON, and it actually works, submit it to the TON Awards 2022 contest.

@DeepTonEng wishes you best of luck!💫

💠What is a utility token

Lately, we tend to use this buzzword quite often, though it would be important to understand why it is called that way. Note that blockchains also issue investment (security) tokens and, not always justifiably, governance tokens. But more on that later.

Top things to know about utility tokens

➡️ They are also known as service tokens, designed for a specific network and ecosystem.

➡️ They give users rights to perform certain actions on the blockchain network or a decentralized application.

➡️ They can be used to gauge a project’s usefulness. This depends on how many uses a token has on the network. For example, it could be for paying commissions, redeeming for services, receiving benefits, etc.

➡️Companies use utility tokens to raise interest in their products and create value.

➡️ Utility tokens are not created as an investment opportunity.

➡️ If the project fails, the utility tokens will lose their value.

➡️They can sometimes act as governance tokens.

This is not an exhaustive list, as there are of course many other uses.

Your useful @DeepTonEng🧐

💎TON Ecosystem News

👛 MyTonWallet has been updated to version 1.11 and is now fully compatible with the TON Connect 2.0 protocol. Its users can easily connect their wallets to various decentralized applications.

🐱 The CAT-TON Validator team presented a list of 7 staking pools, mentioning that it uses the official TON Foundation smart contract.

🎙 Megaton Finance has resumed work after a 10-day maintenance period. During this time, the UI / UX was finalized, along with improvements that enabled reducing commission. In the near future, additional liquidity pools will be created on the DEX to support more tokens and inter-chain assets.

🪙 The ORBS Bridge token, $oORBS, was added to the DEX list Ston.fi. This marks the integration of Orbs into the TON ecosystem, enabling the purchase of the network's coins without the need to switch to ETH.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🎙Why has Fanzee dropped in price

Some of our subscribers are speculating about the recent steep price correction of FNZ. Here is how we at DeepTonEng see the situation:

When news broke out about its listing on MAX Global, the value of the token has doubled. That was unsurprising, since this is the first listing of this TON token on a centralized exchange. The initial price on the MEX was $0.01.

Yet its price on our ecosystem's DEX was 0.02 TON. Obviously, people started to arbitrage, buying tokens on the exchange and selling them on the DEX. Hodlers got worried and started dumping, leading to a temporary collapse in the token's price.

That's all there is to it.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

⚙Promising startups on TON

DeepTonEng would like to draw your attention to two little-known projects: the crowdfunding platform Startup Market and Tonstake. They have been expanding their activity for about a year. It’s nice to see projects that prioritize development over advertising campaigns, isn’t it?

✉️ Startup Market is a DeFi launchpad about to take off, most likely by mid-February. Its devs confirmed that everything is ready, and several applicants have already applied for fundraising, such as:

➡️Chess Zombies - an F2P cross-game on TON. It is a bit like chess, where each figurine comes with specific abilities, game items, etc.
➡️ Historical Collection - an array of NFTs featuring important leaders from the past.
➡️ TON Merch - an online store selling souvenirs, T-shirts, mugs, bags and other merchandise with TON symbols.

Overall, Startup Market intends to support creative, scientific and even industrial projects and help finance companies, especially in the IT and crypto industries. The project has its own NFTs that grant holders a percentage of all platform commissions. Soon they plan to roll out their own coins and staking.

✉️ Tonstake has recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. It has been occasionally mentioned on AMA, in articles, and even on a diagram of significant startups in the ecosystem. But it hasn’t been overhyped, that’s for sure.

Tonstake claims to be the first to offer Staking-as-a-Service on the TON blockchain. This service is stable, safe and allows users to contribute to the growth and development of the blockchain through a custodial staking service.

In addition, its technical department actively takes part in developing the TON core code, providing timely updates and new versions.

Which projects would you add to this list?

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng🧐

🌐 Venture capitalists are investing in cryptocurrency startups

Need proof?

⚡️ Take a plane✈️ to Dubai and see for yourself. There will be an event matching startups, investors and venture funds on Thursday, February 23 from 17:00 to 22:00 local time.

Opus Tower was chosen as the venue, with over 1500 top managers of leading companies, 300+ venture capitalists worth over $4 billion, and over 100 investors potentially waiting for you.

At least 20 startups have signed up to participate. This includes the TON Banking ecosystem and the TON Svet project, which are developing a payment system based on the TON blockchain in Telegram.

Check out the event's website to learn more about the participants and sign up to be on the list.

DeepTonEng will raffle five tickets for this event at the nearest AMA🫠