What is TON Storage?

TON Storage will be used by the TON Blockchain to store archived copies of blocks and status data (snapshots) but will also store arbitrary files for users or other services running on the platform.

Currently, most database systems are centralized within big tech firms.

Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba and Tencent control more than 70% of the cloud computing market.

These concentrated powers can de-platform services easily and can access data that is supposed to be private to copy and use against rivals.

This is where Web3 comes in.

More info on Twitter here.

Interview with Anatoliy Makosov — Part 1

We had the pleasure of discussing the TON project with Anatoliy Makosov, one of the core developers of TON.

During the interview, Anatoliy (tolya-yanot on GitHub) answered a lot of questions about TON’s technology in detail.

Here’s Part 1 of the interview, but keep an eye out for Part 2. We’ll be publishing it here soon 👀

Crypto As a Sport

The biggest athletic events of the year have a distinctive Web3 focus.

— The Super Bowl lived up to its “Crypto Bowl” nickname, sporting multiple ads from exchanges such as Coinbase, eToro and FTX, along with a collaboration between Bud Light and Nouns DAO.

— The Olympics have also been adopting digital currencies, with NFT collections from the Olympic Federation and AlibabaGroup, as well as the launch of the Chinese digital yuan.

— Recently, Tezos struck an estimated $27-million deal to display its logo on Manchester United’s kit. Clearly, the relationship between athletes and blockchain is here to stay.

TON’s recent partnership with popular Russian rapper Morgenshtern sets the stage for a sports collab of our own.

Is there anyone from the sports world you’d be excited to see us work with?

​TON’s nonfungible token standard has been upgraded to “Release Candidate.”

At the beginning of the month, the TON Foundation organized a public discussion among developers to draft a nonfungible token (NFT) standard for the TON blockchain.

We’re pleased to announce that the status of the NFT standard for TON has been upgraded to “Release Candidate,” which means it’s practically ready to be deployed without having to make significant changes.

All developers were welcomed to join the discussion to develop the standard, but the TON Foundation team would like to express its deep gratitude to every developer who participated.

The developers indeed produced some outstanding results:

1. The fees to mint an NFT on TON will be about 500 times cheaper than those on Ethereum.

For comparison’s sake, minting the 10,000 NFTs from the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club collection cost close to $290,000 worth of Ether (ETH) at the time of writing.

Launching a collection of 10,000 NFTs on TON will only require around $500 regardless of Toncoin price fluctuations.

2. TON NFTs will have their own unique distribution method to avoid network congestion, even when minting a collection of 1 million NFTs.

3. The metadata of TON NFTs will be compatible with NFT metadata on Ethereum — e.g., with the popular NFT marketplace OpenSea.

4. Thanks to TON’s infrastructure flexibility, developers will be able to create new mechanisms; for example, a game where one NFT smart contract alters the content of another NFT or even its code. Of course, minting regular, immutable NFTs will always be possible.

Starting today, app developers and NFT artists can start deploying their technology on the testnet.

We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, but we’re excited for the token standard’s final release and all the NFT products that will grace the TON ecosystem.

Have you checked out our new site Tonic?

Think of Tonic as our hub for developers and TON enthusiasts who want to see what is being built and discussed in the TON ecosystem.

Check out the Tonic Discord.

​TON Community Weekly Digest

Here’s a roundup of the ecosystem’s most exciting news from the past seven days.

Network stats update:

The number of new accounts created on TON from Feb. 13 to 19 grew from 245,900 to 286,501 (+16.5%).

News:

— TON’s NFT standard was upgraded to “Release Candidate.”

— The @TonMoonBot released an update.

— Tonscan.org released an update for its explorer.

— The TON Community published Part 1 of its interview with core TON developer Anatoliy Makosov.

Stay up-to-date with the latest developments brewing in the TON ecosystem by turning on the notifications to this channel. You won’t want to miss a thing!

Storing Toncoin (TON)

As Toncoin’s popularity grows, we want to make sure that our holders are educated in the best ways to store their cryptocurrency for their strategy.

Everything you need to know is on our Medium.

The Battle for Blockchain

Cryptocurrency adoption is at an all-time high, and governments around the world are taking steps to respond.

• In the coming days, new laws to govern cryptocurrencies in Russia are supposed to come into effect. Simultaneously, the Bank of Russia has said that it has begun the pilot test of its digital ruble.

• In Ukraine, the parliament recently legalized cryptocurrencies.

• The U.S. continues to consider regulation.

• China unveiled its digital yuan as a payment option in the Olympic Village and surrounding area.

• In Canada, COVID-19 lockdown protests by the country’s truckers have led to Prime Minister Trudeau sanctioning crypto wallets full of donations to the cause.

• Countries such as Puerto Rico and the UAE continue to utilize lax policies in order to attract crypto wealth.

Check out our Twitter here.

TON’s Proof-of-Stake Protocol

The TON Blockchain functions through a network of validators who stake a large amount of Toncoin and receive rewards by processing transactions on the network.

• Anyone with a high-performance server and enough Toncoin can become a validator.

• A validator stakes their Toncoin for a specific term, which is paid back at the completion of a validation round, plus the validator reward as interest.

• The protocol creates receipts of any attempt to cheat, and any cheating nodes are cut off and penalized.

• A nominator is someone who lends Toncoin to a validator and gains a % of its validator’s rewards.

Twitter thread here.

What would make contributing to the TON Blockchain easier?

​TON’s History and Network Upgrades

In 2018, Nikolai and Pavel Durov were unable to find a blockchain in the market that reflected their vision of Web3 and blockchain technology.

They then formed a talented dev team to create TON.

Learn about TON’s history on Medium.

The TON-Enabled Future of NFT

As NFTs come to TON, here’s a look at the current state of the scene.

• The market for profile picture projects, which allow holders to pledge their allegiance to a community, is soaring.

• Through integrations into the metaverse and even an Alfa Romeo vehicle, NFTs are also showing their capability for utility.

• With TON’s enhanced technological capabilities for NFTs, network security and much lower gas fees, we hope to give creators and investors a world-class experience.

What NFT use cases do you want to see on TON?

How are NFTs structured on The Open Network?

The CAT Telegram channel has published thorough material on the structure of NFTs and how they operate.

For more information, click on this link: https://blog.ton.cat/how-to-nft

TON Community Weekly Digest

Here’s a roundup of the ecosystem’s most exciting news from the past seven days.

Network stats update:

The number of new accounts created on TON from Feb. 20 to 26 grew from 290,493 to 309,615 (+6.6%).

News:

— The Tonic community launched its website.

— The CAT channel published an article on the structure of TON-based NFTs.

Stay up-to-date with the latest developments brewing in the TON ecosystem by turning on the notifications to this channel. You won’t want to miss a thing!

TON | The Significance of Congressional Hearings

Congressional hearings play an important role in shaping the public perception of cryptocurrency.

Hearings are usually designed to learn about a topic and gain feedback that can be used for regulatory purposes.

Check out our Twitter thread on this topic here.

Into the Metaverse

Recently, the metaverse has been a hot topic of conversation.

• Land values in decentralized metaverses have been soaring.

• Play-to-earn games that allow the user to cash out on the value created in-game are gaining popularity.

• Currently, each metaverse exists as its own microcosm, but the future is interoperability between them.

TON’s scalability and speed positions it to be a leader in the metaverse space.

What would you like to see in TON’s metaverse?

The DAO Moment

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or DAOs, have the potential to transform the way we build companies and collaborate.

• In order to create a DAO, the governing structure of the company is written into smart contracts on the blockchain, so the company can be run in a frictionless manner.

• DAOs employ a variety of tokenomic structures where the DAO’s token holders receive voting rights.

• As the token price is dependent on the DAO’s success, each contributor has extra incentive to succeed.

TON is run as a DAO, and we find this to be a natural structure that reduces bottlenecks. Moving forward, service DAOs will be needed to onboard the world onto Web 3.

Over 150,000 people follow Toncoin on CoinMarketCap.

In the last 40 days, about 70,000 people have started following Toncoin on CoinMarketCap, which increased the coin’s popularity by 75%.

We’re grateful to everyone who’s added Toncoin to “Favorites” on either CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko.

It might seem like a small gesture, but supporting Toncoin on third-party services will go a long way in helping TON’s development.

The HTTP API for TON has significantly improved over the past few months.

TON Center provides fast and reliable access to the TON blockchain. Thanks to this service, developers can concentrate on creating their services and apps.

The API’s code is fully open-source; if your developers need their own server, you’ll be able to launch one with ease.