TON's consensus algorithm

Nikolai Durov has once described what should be the consensus in a blockchain in his article Catchain Consensus: An Outline. But let's start with the basics.

Consensus and its types

To put it simply, a consensus is an algorithm for generating and verifying blocks in a blockchain. The most common consensuses are PoW and PoS.

➕ PoW (Proof-of-Work), also known as the bitcoin algorithm, is based on the work of miners. It has significant disadvantages, such as low transaction processing speed and excessive power consumption.

➕ PoS (Proof-of-Stake) eliminates the shortcomings of its predecessor and assigns a validator to check the correctness of transactions through a staking process.

➕dPoS (Delegated-proof-of-stake) is similar to PoS, but includes a voting and delegation mechanism. The goal is clear: to entice users to protect their network and check blocks using leftover coins as collateral.

TON, however, uses the PoS consensus along with BFT. This detail is worth mentioning because TON does not simply use the PoS blockchain consensus. And here's why this is important.

Below is a classification of blockchains by generation, taking into account their respective type of consensus:

➡️1st and 2nd generation: PoW
➡️3rd and 4th generation: PoS and dPoS
➡️5th generation - PoS with BFT

Thus, TON uses the Catchain consensus algorithm, which consists of several upper and lower-level protocols. Reconciliation occurs before creating a new block, which mitigates the occurrence of intermediate forks.

Catchain is based on the well-known Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm (PBFT), which boasts increased resistance against Sybil attacks. It is also similar to the Tendermint and dBFT algorithms. However, due to some significant differences, it should be attributed to a separate class of algorithms.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

About TON Ecosystem Reserve

2017 marks the very beginning of TON. At that time, the idea of this new technology was gradually taking shape as the Telegram Open Network project. Now the blockchain is called The Open Network, and is being built by another team. But the underlying technology from the Durov brothers remains the same.

In April 2022, The Open Network founded the Toncoin Reserve Fund to ensure the security of the network and its further development. This offer came from miners and potential blockchain partners. Resources were needed to create and integrate products, and set new directions and partnerships. In other words, this provided everything required to ensure the community's growth and the widespread adoption of this new technology.

Currently, the TON Ecosystem Reserve wallet contains 531,223,445.66 Toncoins or more than $717 million (with several signatures to confirm transactions). Given today's market capitalization of $1.6 billion, this is about 45%, but represents only 10% of the market cap at full issue.

According to the Durovs' plan and its subsequent implementation, the TON Reserve can be considered a special smart contract in which any user can invest Toncoin. The more funds invested in TON Reserve, the more stable the exchange rate and the better the project's tokenomics.

Of course, adjustments have been made over time, but it is nice to look back and compare the original idea with its eventual implementation.

And, speaking of the past, here is a small video clip from Livandia Entertainment about the TON project. By the way, it is still relevant.😉

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

👛 Tonkeeper: a new security system

Today, Tonkeeper launched an exciting security update. With the version 2.7 upgrade, the wallet can analyze transactions and report the results to the user.

Benefits

❗️ Additional security. For every transaction, the wallet requests the owner's signature and sends notifications with updates.

❗️ Secure integration with various services, such as DApps. For example, if connecting to an insecure DApp, the wallet will warn the user about the potential risks.

As part of the security revamp, Tonkeeper has changed the architecture of the transaction history, resulting in faster loading times.

How it works

The application sends out the transaction code => Tonkeeper analyzes and provides a summary of the potential risks, if any => the user decides whether to sign off on the transaction or decline.

The technical side

To protect users from errors, bugs and phishing, developers launched TonApi.io: an annotation system for TON transactions. This API takes a chain of related transactions and outputs it as an "event" in a user-friendly form. Thus, complex transactions are broken down into common components or actions, such as "send token", "receive coins", "pay commission", etc.

This narrows down support to just a few reusable components, such as token transactions, NFT, and auctions. All components can be combined and customized.

Future improvements

📌 We plan to develop a way to standardize the format of annotating Events and Actions . Once this is implemented, DApp developers will be able to comment on their contracts, which will improve the quality of annotations in the API.

📌 The wallet team intends to make the emulation run directly in the application, without sending requests to the server. Currently, it is still performed on the server, where evidence of compatibility is collected, and the results are sent back to the application.

Isn't that cool?👍

Your coolest @DeepTonEng

🌐 ORBS introduces TON at TOKEN2049

Today, November 9th, the TOKEN2049 international forum opened in London. It is attended by over 2,500 representatives of the crypto industry, blockchains and WEB3 from over 1,000 companies. More than 100 speakers will talk about projects, perspectives on future development of decentralized technologies and solutions for current challenges in the crypto industry.

Participants will enjoy two days of unforgettable meetings, networking opportunities, tons of events, and even a metaverse exhibition at the London gallery.

Just a few hours ago, Tal Kol, the co-founder and technical director of the L3 Orbs network, as well as TON's strategic partner, presented TON for the first time at such a high level. He spoke about cooperation with TON and joint plans to deploy DeFi infrastructure on the network. He introduced the audience to the progressive TON blockchain technology, the beginning of integration with Telegram, and TON's bold plans to create the Internet of the Future.

Participating in such large-scale meetings of crypto industry professionals is very important for developing The Open Network.

We hope that upon his return, Tal Kol will share his impressions and perspectives on future useful collaborations.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🪙 SafePal will provide services to the users of TON network
(details below)

Today, the SafePal team announced the upcoming integration with the TON ecosystem. Starting from the fourth quarter of the current year, SafePal products will be fully compatible with The Open Network, and participants will finally be able to store, send and receive Toncoin in a safer and more reliable way.

SafePal offers the following types of wallets:

🔽Mobile software wallet: free and downloadable from the Android and Apple iOS stores.
🔽Hardware SafePal S1: a cold wallet designed to protect private keys and safeguard cryptocurrencies.
🔽Browser wallet

If you never try, you’ll never know.🙂

SafePal products are known all over the world. It has over 7 million clients, supports more than 50 blockchains and 100,000 tokens. Users of Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, Tron, Polygon, etc. have long benefitted from the advantages of SafePal.

Providing you value, @DeepTonEng

⌨ The Tonspace wiki has moved

In September, we wrote about the TON document library called Tonspace, created as part of TON Footsteps.

However, as time progressed, things have evolved. Here are some changes to the TON wiki over the past two months:

➡️First of all, the site has moved to the domain *ton.org
➡️The information library about The Open Network blockchain has been greatly expanded with the addition of many educational materials. This is especially relevant for developers who are just entering TON, and who might want to get familiar with a FunC tutorial, instructions for writing a smart contract, TON product testing methods, etc.
➡️The site's design has been improved with the addition of TON's "signature colors", a stylish night theme and some additional graphics.

End result: clear, good-looking, and user-friendly.

Don't believe us? Go check it out!

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🌐 DWF Labs invests in TON ecosystem

The world's leading digital asset market maker and venture investor DWF Labs announced a partnership with The Open Network (TON) and plans to allocate $10 million for the development of its blockchain ecosystem.

It should be noted that before investing, the company has conducted a comprehensive project screening, including a legal audit and predictive analysis. It has evaluated its idea, its market potential, and elaborated forecast maps. After such thorough analysis, the decision was made to go ahead with TON partnership.

Over the next 12 months, DWF Labs will proceed with at least 50 seed investments aimed at accelerating the growth of TON and its network projects.

The key goal is to attract a wider audience by increasing the trading volume and listing Toncoin on more platforms. For example, if Toncoin's current trading volume is about $20 million, after three months of partnership the company promises to double this number.

In this way, DWF Labs intends to increase the number of TON supporters and develop a reliable over-the-counter market.

P.S. DWF Labs is a venture capital company founded in 2018 that seeks to support and invest in Web3 projects. It is in the top five companies trading on the 40 largest exchanges in the world.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

⚙ TON Minter from Orbs

Orbs announced a new TON Minter tool for launching Jettons on the TON network. The tool's code is completely open, and the Jettons resemble ERC-20 tokens in EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) networks.

The Jetton Standard was created in March 2022 by three key developers — Vladimir Lebedev, Kirill Emelianenko and Anatoly Makosov. By June, the Orbs team proposed a tool called Jetton.live for generating new Jettons, and started actively integrating it into the TON ecosystem.

Several months of hard work, testing, bug fixes, and technical discussions have finally paid off, and the team announced the release of Minter. Meanwhile, about 300 Jettons are already being used in the TON ecosystem facilitating the functioning of DEX (such as in TonSwap) and issuing utility tokens for new network projects.

As stated in the announcement, the tool is safe for both token creators and users since all metadata of the new Jetton is stored only on the network. There is a metadata security issue related to administrator rights, but it can be solved without much difficulty.

You can read how the tool works ➡️ here.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

💎Three ambassadors! That's awesome

You can feel the excitement in the media headlines: "The TON Foundation appoints ambassadors and a new board member", "The TON Foundation celebrates the most outstanding members of its community by appointing ambassadors and a new board member", etc. The best headline is: "TON Foundation focuses on its community by announcing ambassadors."

The terms used by the media, such as "to appoint", indicate centralization and aren't really appropriate for a decentralized platform. Here, rather than "appointing" people, we can approve the choice of the community, support an initiative, attract talent to solve problems, etc. Note that the TON Community editorial office does not use such terms in its news releases.

Who are the new ambassadors

❗️ Tal Kol, co-founder of Orbs Network and member of TON Society.
❗️ Oleg Andreev, co-founder of Tonkeeper and key developer of the TON Foundation.
ℹ️ Manuel Stotz, nominated in 2012 by the Forbes magazine in the "top 30 world leaders under 30" in the Finance category. He is known as a Web3 enthusiast and founder of the investment company Kingsway Capital.

They are all awesome. And we hope that the community will rally behind them and their efforts to foster mass adoption.

Having three ambassadors is great, yet our goal is so massive that it is essential to engage our community's potential. Thus, we will need the help of many more ambassadors at different levels.

Deep Ton took the liberty here to express an opinion, which does not go exactly according to the rules of the news channel. But we do improvise sometimes, such as with this collage, for example.😀

Your unruly @DeepTonEng

🎙Is TON coming to Binance?

Recently, a closed 3-day TON FAM conference was held in Dubai by Ton Foundation, bringing together founders of large NFT collections, investors, core developers and key figures of TF and TC.

Luckily for DeepTon, the project's founder was also present.

❓ But what does Binance have to do with it?

It's simple: HR TF took the opportunity to skillfully negotiate with the VIPs from Binance, inviting them to get acquainted with the TON ecosystem from the inside.

Not so long ago, the editors of TON Community mentioned that a former Binance top manager joined our project and would definitely play an major role in pushing the TON project forward.

At first, we thought there was only one person from Binance on the TF team. As it turned out from the conference and in-person meetings, there are more than five of them. They all held high positions in the corporation, and many personally communicated with CZ, but moved to TON because they saw incredible prospects in our blockchain. This was an excellent opportunity to participate in the project's rapid deployment before it takes off as a rocket.

❓That's great, of course, but when will we get to Binance?

The answer is simple: there is no hurry. Binance is a megacorporation that does not necessarily play win—win, and tends to set conditions to favor only itself. Being a monopolist, Binance can impose rules that will prove to be costly to the blockchain in the long run.

The best way out of this situation is to play by the same strategy as Solana. It became popular so quickly that the exchange simply had no choice but to list it. Otherwise, it risked losing users who would just go elsewhere to obtain SOL. And what is the most important thing for an exchange? That's right — the customers' wallets.

So, guys, take it easy. As they say: everything will happen at the right time. We are creating a whole new world here, not a one-day coin.

Your long-term @DeepTonEng

🌐 Technology cooperation between TF & Ozys

The Korean company Ozys and TON are now partners.

On November 22, Ozys' Chief Operating Officer Ra Kyung-soo and TON Foundation representative Justin Hyun stated in an exclusive interview with the Korean media Blooming Beat: "We are popularizing Web3 by combining the technologies of the two projects into an inter-network ecosystem."

In fact, the TON network is a tier 1 virtual machine, not related to the Ethereum EVM, which uses the blockchain source code developed by Telegram and its own FunC language. Despite the advantages of its technology, TON network suffers from the fragmentation of its ecosystem in the absence of EVM.

In turn, Ozys is building an inter-network ecosystem, enabling compatibility between different blockchains. The company is developing a solution for connecting the crosschain Orbit Bridge and the TON blockchain in order to "create a conduit for Telegram users to Web3 and expand the possibilities of using Toncoins".

According to Ra Kyung-soo, "if we apply Ozys' internetwork technology to TON, we will create a synergetic combination between EVM and non-EVM networks, expand the accessibility of the TON ecosystem, and ultimately attract users and developers". Likewise, Justin Hyun noted that creating a simple entry point into the ecosystem will allow TON to "focus on scalability, offering services to all users, both EVM or non-EVM".

Ozis and TON are also accelerating the development of the AMM-DEX "Megaton Finance" with plans to launch the DEX during this year. This will make it possible to move and use assets within the Orbit Bridge multi-network ecosystem.

"Web3 is already a megatrend..." "We need to revive the spirit of blockchain." Do you agree?

Counting on you, @DeepTonEng 😀

🌐 The TON network is now available on the Orbit Bridge

Every project has its significant milestones, and TON is no exception. Today, The Open Network has partnered with Orbit Chain, the developer of Orbit Bridge, a reliable crosschain bridge between blockchains.

Not so long ago, we published news about the upcoming cooperation with Ozys, a leading South Korean blockchain developer. Orbit Chain is their flagship product: a blockchain that brings together various decentralized ecosystems and standards. Among the supported blockchains are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Tron, Klaytn, BNB, Avalanche, Polygon, Gnosis Chain, Klaytn, Moonriver, Celo, Fantom and others.

Ozys have stated that they carefully studied TON, and their decision was based on the following key points:

🔽The blockchain’s ambition to attract millions of users
🔽Integration with Telegram
🔽Plans to enter the crosschain ecosystem by connecting Bitcoin-based and EVM-based blockchains.
🔽Orbit Chain's confidence that it will successfully tackle the issue of openness, scalability and compatibility with TON
🔽The inter-network liquidity (USDT, USDC, DAI, MATIC, etc.) of Orbit Bridge is valuable to TON
🔽The ability to provide comprehensive solutions, such as Bridge, DEX, DeFi, Explorer, Chatbot, Wallet, and others.

Orbit Bridge already supports TON Wallet and Tonhub. In the future, together with Tonkeeper, the bridge developers will also integrate Tonic and OpenMask.

Ozys plans to launch DEX AMM — Megaton Finance in January. The exchange will play a key role in strengthening the TON ecosystem by integrating the TON network, Telegram and Orbit Bridge.

Deep TON believes this partnership will help TON accelerate inter-network communications, a main component of Web3.0.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🪙 The first stablecoins on TON

Orbit Bridge has been launched, and now TON will offer wrapped tokens from other blockchains, such as ETH, WBTC, Klaytn, Polygon, etc., as well as stablecoins such as USDT, USDC and DAI.

The possibility of trading stablecoins was simultaneously announced by two decentralized exchanges on TON: STON.fi and TonSwap.

STON.fi is an AMM DEX, offering pairs such as: oUSDT<>oUSDC,oUSDT<>WTON, oUSDC<>WTON, oUSDT<>AMBR, oUSDC<>AMBR, oUSDT<>FNZ, oUSDC<>FNZ, oUSDT<>oETH, oUSDC<> oETH, WTON<>oETH, oETH<>AMBR and oETH<>FNZ.

On STON.fi you can also exchange tokens or list your own, provide liquidity and earn part of the commissions. It works with Tonkeeper, TonHub and the TON web wallet.

TonSwap is a DEX from the Mint.xyz team with open source code. Thanks to the Orbit Bridge, the exchange trades oETH and oUSDC, but soon promises to add BTC and other tokens.

The exchange works on all browsers and platforms, and is also available through the @tonswapofficialbot. TonSwap has a large set of jettons, for example, Fanzee, Hedge, Bolt, Tonex and others. You can trade by connecting TonKeeper, TonHub or the Ton browser Wallet in Google Chrome.

If any of you has already conducted an exchange on these DEX, feel free to share your experience.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

💎 How to get grants at TON

Based to our survey, many of you showed tremendous interest following our announcements about TON FAM, and would like to know more. Today you will get a unique first-hand insight into the Toncoin Fund grant system.

Remember that the Toncoin Fund has 250 million Toncoins available. Justin Hyun and other meeting participants shared further plans on how the funds will be distributed.

The core idea

🎁 This strategic fund is designed for the long term, at least for a decade.

🎁 It works on the concept of "open challenge", whereby instead of handing out coins in advance or incubating teams, the Fund will pay for already completed projects.

For example, if you came up with a product that proved to be popular, useful for the ecosystem and needed by the users, you will receive a reward. The reward will not be handed out at once, but by reaching KPIs, so it's more like a gradual series of incentives.

🎁 Each year, the Fund must allocate a sufficient amount to foster the ecosystem's growth. Any remaining unallocated funds will be transferred to the following year.

In 2022, only about $100,000 was disbursed, which is not sufficient to fulfill the established goals. Therefore, next year we may see significant grants handed out for finished products.

In any case, it's a great incentive, so give it your best shot⚡️🙂

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

By the way, if you want to receive more updates about the events of TON FAM, make sure to like, comment and share❓

✈️ Signing up for Telegram without a SIM card

Telegram has released an update allowing users to register via the TON blockchain without needing a SIM card. All that is needed is to purchase an anonymous number through the Fragment platform.

Such anonymity will cost you just 9 Тoncoins ($16). Ton can be bought for rubles with no commission through the @CryptoBot market or on the Exchange for USDT (TRC20, BEP20).

Note that these are not virtual SIM cards, so they cannot be used to make calls or register with third-party services. Instead, you become the owner of an NFT, which can be sold, donated or exchanged.

❓ How to get a number

🍔 Log in to Fragment and connect Tonkeeper
🍔 Open the Numbers page

There, you will have two options:
🔽Buy a random number right away for 9 Ton. Click on "Buy instantly" and confirm your payment.
🔽Place a bid and get a customized number in 14 days at the end of the auction.

🍔 Once the payment is processed, the number will appear on the My Assets page, with a code to link your account.
🍔 Finally, go to Telegram and use it to create a new account, or link it to your old account.

That's it!🤓

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🌐 Transparency, Community, Relationship

Transparency is an essential property of the blockchain. It applies only to the network and the ecosystem, but also to its community. It is transparency that creates trust in the project, its founders, and the future development of the blockchain. The plans and actions of its leaders must be transparent to create a healthy and thriving community. On the other hand, a lack of information can cause misunderstanding, rumors and even hate.

Blockchain creates new relationships based on freedom of choice, while old management methods. Vertical structures can be maintained, but only with the understanding and consent of the participants. In short, transparency is the openness of information, accountability and responsibility of those who use the project's resources, and equal conditions for everyone involved.

💎 Why are we emphasizing this?

On December 8, a conference was held in Dubai for those interested in crypto and TON. Denis Matveev, a member of the Tonkeeper core team, who can rightfully be called a TON influencer, was invited to speak. The audience was comprised of Russian speakers familiar with TON, and many others who were new to crypto.

Everyone listened with great interest about the "basic features of TON, types of wallets and the difference between Web2 and Web3". The core message of the story is that to create a decentralized product, "there is no need to "force" blockchain technology upon a project. If it can be done without, then don't bother putting it in just for the sake of it."

A lot has been discussed around GameFi and Denis' position that "one of the best entry points for consumers would be through gaming". At the same time, game developers expressed their concerns about the role of censorship in a decentralized world.

I also learned about the possibility of creating payment channels outside the blockchain, allowing for a huge number of transactions with no commissions.

According to Denis, he was "pleasantly surprised by the quality of the questions... and how eager everyone was to discuss and find answers."

There you have a great example of openness and transparency of communication.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng😎

🌐 Megaton Finance, a major DeFi player, is about to join TON

The launch of Megaton Finance has been announced for early 2023. Actually, this AMM-based DEX project started before September 2022, according to the date of registration of the company's official Twitter account.

This strong competitor is about to join the ranks of other DEXs in the TON ecosystem, such as STON.fi, DeDust.io, TONSwap, and those who announced their imminent entry - the decentralized exchanges from Telegram, Tegro, and QubeSwap.

Megaton Finance is based on the DeFi protocol of Ozys, the largest blockchain developer in South Korea. In fact, this DEX is about to become their second flagship product on TON, following the deployment of the Orbit crosschain Bridge.

❓ Megaton's pledge

✅ First of all, it will be a simple and convenient exchange of various assets, including Jettons.
✅This DEX is expected to become the center of inter-network exchange and bring numerous tokens into the TON ecosystem.
✅At an early stage, it will foster liquidity of core assets such as ETH, WBTC, USDT, USDC, DAI and MATIC, further promoting the development of our blockchain's DeFi. As for users, they will benefit through access to a broader portfolio of highly liquid assets.

This exchange is strategically aimed at Telegram users. One of its objectives is to cultivate their interest in existing blockchains.

Cheers to Megaton!

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng

🎙 TON hit the $2.05 mark, according to CoinMarketCap
Its daily trading volume is up $35 million or +18.9%.

Experts confirm the bullish trend of the coin since June, when the market suffered a catastrophic collapse. The bullish sentiment can also be seen through technical analysis: 97.4 for TON, while BTC has a mere 76.08 and ETH - 82.4. Yet the volatility of the coin remains high.

In addition, TON is very close to reaching 24th place. To achieve this, it needs to trade at $2.17.

What do you think are the reasons for its sudden growth?

Your thoughtful @DeepTonEng🙄

🌐 TON & Orbit Bridge are on their way to Web3

Today let's talk about Orbit Bridge, the flagship product of Ozys, a South Korean blockchain developer and TON's partner. The launch of the Orbit crosschain Bridge, followed by DEX AMM Megaton Finance at the beginning of next year will bring about the integration between TON, the Bridge, and the Exchange, thereby laying a foundation for the deployment of Web3. And that is a strategic goal of TON.

❓ What is Orbit Bridge

It is a cross-chain bridge. Orbit Chain was developed in 2019 on the IBC internetwork protocol and combines assets from over fifteen networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Huobi ECO Chain, Polygon, Ripple, and many others.

The purpose of the crosschain bridge is to create an exchange between technically different networks. For example, TON is a non-EVM blockchain and is therefore not able to interact with the EVM Union of blockchains, which are based on Ethereum. It needs a tool for interoperability, and Orbit Bridge solves this problem.

❓ Why TON

TON has advanced technology and huge potential. Combined with Telegram's extensive user base it is very attractive to investors, developers and everyone who will participate in the second wave of development of the TON ecosystem with DeFi chips, DAO, DEX, markets, etc.

❓ Why it matters

➡️ Bridge gets TON out of technical isolation and attracts liquidity from other networks. Such integration will benefit users through access to assets in various DeFi systems.
➡️ This kind of mutual growth will give an impulse to further expand these ecosystems.
➡️Orbit Bridge also helps increase Total Value Locked (TVL), an important metric of the project's success.

❗️In conclusion

According to Orbit Bridge, collaboration with TON "marks the beginning of an innovative partnership to maximize accessibility in the DeFi ecosystem."

Deep Ton would like to add that this joint effort will push forward not only the project's development, but also for the deployment of Web3.

Yours truly, @DeepTonEng