Telegram And TON Foundation Collaborate With Alibaba Cloud In Quest For Fastest Blockchain

Telegram’s partner, the Open Network (TON) Foundation, in partnership with Alibaba Cloud, has announced plans to set up 256 servers for a performance testing event scheduled for October 31, 2023. 

Per the announcement, the objective of this event is to officially establish the TON blockchain as the world’s fastest blockchain to earn accreditation from the Guinness World Records.

TON’s  Upcoming Performance Test

According to a report by Yahoo Finance, the TON blockchain has experienced significant growth since 2022, witnessing a 20-fold increase in addresses from 170,000 to 3.5 million. 

The network has also expanded its validator nodes to 350, fostering a more decentralized network across 25 nations. The blockchain has maintained a track record throughout this expansion, with no major network disruptions reported.

Both parties view the upcoming performance test as a crucial step in showcasing the unique capabilities of the TON blockchain, which serves as a trusted infrastructure layer for the Web3 ecosystem within Telegram.

Anatoly Makosov, the Core Development Lead at the TON Foundation, expressed anticipation for the performance testing event, highlighting the TON blockchain’s technical superiority, particularly regarding scalability

Makosov emphasized that TON’s large-scale public performance testing is an exciting opportunity to witness significant results and validate the blockchain’s technical prowess. Makosov stated:

We look forward to October 31, 2023, to confirm that the TON blockchain technically stands out among any other blockchain, especially in its ability to scale. This is the first large-scale public performance testing of TON – we’re just as excited as you are to see the results.

MEXC Ventures Makes Major Investment In TON Blockchain

MEXC Ventures, a subsidiary of MEXC’s global cryptocurrency exchange, has also announced a significant investment in The Open Network. According to Yahoo Finance, this investment is MEXC’s largest Layer-1 funding and is accompanied by a partnership with the TON Foundation. 

Justin Hyun, Director of Growth at the TON Foundation, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership with MEXC, emphasizing their shared goal of offering global access to the decentralized Web3 ecosystem within Telegram. 

Per the report, the foundation is committed to delivering a “user-centric experience” for the community. MEXC’s support “significantly strengthens” its ability to develop new tools and services seamlessly integrating crypto with social media.

Steve Yun, President of the TON Foundation, highlighted MEXC’s belief in the TON blockchain’s potential for building a Web3 super-app ecosystem on Telegram. Yun expressed confidence in the TON ecosystem’s and MEXC’s mutual growth as they prepare for the next market cycle.

The collaboration between the Open Network Foundation, Alibaba Cloud, and MEXC Ventures underscores blockchain technology’s increasing recognition and adoption, particularly in the Web3 space. 

These partnerships aim to enhance the functionality, scalability, and accessibility of the TON blockchain while promoting global adoption and innovation within the decentralized ecosystem.

TON

At the time of writing, the native token of the protocol, Toncoin, is trading at $2,006, reflecting a marginal decline of 0.2% over the past 24 hours. Nevertheless, the token has experienced substantial growth year to date, boasting an impressive increase of 59% during this timeframe.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

TON Jumps By Nearly 8% Following Wallet Integration On Telegram

Telegram Messenger has unveiled a self-custodial crypto wallet for its more than 800 million active users worldwide. This move comes almost three years after the popular messaging platform initially revealed its plans to delve into the Web3 space.

The crypto wallet is built on The Open Network (TON) and will be accessible via settings on Telegram’s messaging app. On the back of this announcement, the price of Toncoin (TON’s native token) surged by almost 8%.

Telegram Finally Integrates Crypto Wallet On Messaging Platform

On Wednesday, September 13, The Open Network announced the partnership with Telegram at the Token2049 event in Singapore. This collaboration will provide the messaging platform’s 800 million users access to a self-custodial crypto wallet.

As part of the integration, projects built on the TON blockchain will receive priority access to Telegram Ads, the app’s advertising platform. This was confirmed via an X (formerly Twitter) post by Anthony Tsivarev, Director of Developer Relations at TON.

John Hyman, Telegram’s Chief Investment Officer, commented on this development:

Telegram’s mission has always been to enable freedom of speech, but speech is so much more in this digital age. We believe users have the right to own their identities and assets. With TON Space, users now have the technology to make that convenient. With this announcement, we are putting digital ownership rights in the hands of our entire user base. While also giving TON projects the tools to reach our audience in the largest Web3/Web2 integration there has ever been.

Telegram initiated plans to build a Web3 ecosystem as far back as 2019. Unfortunately, the messaging platform had to cool off its initiative with The Open Network in 2020 due to a lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In 2019, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Telegram for raising $1.7 billion through the initial coin offering (ICO) of a token (called Grams), which the regulatory body deemed as an unregistered security. The messaging platform resolved this issue by paying an $18.5 million fine and returning unused investor funds.

TON Maintains Positive Momentum – Price Overview

In the wake of this announcement, Toncoin registered a nearly 8% price spike. The cryptocurrency currently sits as one of the top gainers in the market today, with a substantial 13% price increase in the last 24 hours.

Interestingly, this latest price movement only underscores the token’s market performance in recent weeks. According to data from CoinGecko, the price of TON has soared by more than 36% in the past month.

This positive performance is even more impressive, considering the sluggish condition of the cryptocurrency market in the past few weeks. Most top altcoins, including ETH, XRP, and SOL, have been struggling due to the current market sentiment.

While the TON token is currently valued at $1.94, seeing if this latest burst of positivity can drive the cryptocurrency above $2 would be interesting.

Nevertheless, Toncoin ranks as the 12th-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of roughly $6.68 billion.

TON