There’s a new section on ton.org.

The ton.org has received an update that includes a new TON Wallets section, where people can find a list of custodial and non-custodial Toncoin wallets.

You can find a comprehensive list of all TON-based crypto wallets in the TON Apps suite.

​TON DNS auctions.

Last week, the TON Foundation unveiled its newest major component for The Open Network — TON DNS — which will enable the network’s nodes to use short human-readable “.ton” names.

In the post explaining TON DNS, we mentioned that there was going to be an open auction for TON domain names as the initial distribution with varying conditions for participants.

Today, we’ll give you more details about the auction.

The TON DNS auction begins on July 30, 2022.

The auction will take place on the dns.ton.org website. You can acquaint yourselves with the testnet version of the auction, but be careful not to send your real Toncoin because you’ll lose it forever.

The main rules of the auction:

▪️ Bids must only be made in the Toncoin cryptocurrency.
▪️ Any user can place a bid on any domain name.
▪️ The auction for a specific domain will run for one week.
▪️ Every new bid on a domain name must be at least 5% higher than the previous bid.
▪️ If the latest bid is placed less than 60 minutes before the end of the auction period, the auction will be extended by one hour to give the other bidders ample time to place newer bids.
▪️ The user who places the final bid wins the domain.

The auction’s conditions may be slightly altered.

Once per year, users must confirm ownership of their domain names.

Owners will have to send a microtransaction of their choice — e.g., 0.0001 Toncoin — to the domain name’s smart contract to extend ownership.

Should owners fail to do so, the domain name will be put up for auction.

We’d like all supporters and members of the TON community to partake in the open TON DNS auction. The more, the merrier!

Welcome to the TON Community!

— What is TON?

TON is an ultra-fast and user-friendly blockchain designed to host individual users and enterprises. The project was created by Telegram founder Pavel Durov and his brother, Nikolai, in 2017, but three short years later, Telegram walked away from the project for good.

TON is led by an open-source community of experienced developers consisting of some of the best programmers in the world and Telegram blockchain contest winners. Applying its existing ecosystem of communities, developers, publishers, payment providers, and merchants, TON is uniquely positioned to establish the first-ever mass-market cryptocurrency in history.

— Where to start

For you to appreciate the convenience of our apps to the fullest, we recommend installing either Tonkeeper or Tonhub crypto wallets.

These two wallets have streamlined user interfaces and access to crypto trading while supporting NFTs and altcoins. Tonkeeper and Tonhub are both ideal apps for users of all levels.

If you prefer the user experience in Telegram, however, then give the @wallet and @CryptoBot bots a try. Users can now send crypto to their friends or other wallets in just a few seconds without leaving the Telegram app. For more resources, scroll down to find more links.

⬇️ Download Tonkeeper.

— The TON experience

As you’ll quickly learn by using our apps, the experience of sending and receiving cryptocurrencies is smooth and user-friendly. In addition to convenient apps, low fees, and speedy transactions, the blockchain infrastructure is designed to be a robust ecosystem, which will be able to onboard billions of users and have the capacity to implement NFTs, DNS, DEXs, and much more.

— Why is this important?

Without the infinitely scalable TON blockchain, there can neither be a standard cryptocurrency used for the regular exchange of value in people’s everyday lives nor a decentralized platform that achieves true mass adoption. TON is the only way to free the internet that is otherwise forever chained to the goodwill of centralized services.

The native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain is TON.

Where to buy TON:

Centralized platforms:

Crypto exchange MEXC — spot trading in the TON/USDT pair.
OKX — a top-5 crypto exchange by volume according to CoinMarketCap.
EXMO — the largest Eastern European crypto exchange.
Gate.io — the crypto exchange with the largest number of trading pairs.
Bit.com — a high-performance derivatives exchange.
Crypto exchange CoinEx — spot trading in the TON/USDT and TON/BTC pairs.
BTSE — a top trusted digital asset exchange.

Mercuryo — a convenient way to buy Toncoin with a bank card.
Neocrypto — another convenient way to buy TON with a bank card.

Decentralized platforms:

Uniswap — the world’s largest DEX protocol.
PancakeSwap — the largest DEX protocol on BNB Chain.
Biswap — one of the biggest DEX platforms.

➖➖➖

Decentralized Toncoin staking.

TON Nominator Pools (from 10,000 TON)
Whales Staking Pools (from 50 TON)

TON farming.

Biswap.org in the TON-USDT pair.
YoBit.net in the TON-BTC pair.
Nomiswap.io in the TON-USDC pair.

TON wallets

➖➖➖

Additional resources

Supported languages for our channels and chats:

ENG🇬🇧: @toncoin, @toncoin_chat
ESP🇪🇸: @toncoin_es, @toncoin_es_chat
ITA🇮🇹: @toncoin_it, @toncoin_it_chat
KOR🇰🇷: @toncoin_kr, @toncoin_kr_chat
IND🇲🇨: @toncoin_id, @toncoin_id_chat
RUS🇷🇺: @toncoin_rus, @toncoin_rus_chat
UZ🇺🇿: @toncoin_uz, @toncoin_uz_chat
CN🇨🇳 (Simplified): @toncoin_cn, @toncoin_cn_chat
CN (Traditional): @toncoin_tc
TUR🇹🇷: @toncoin_tur, @toncoin_tur_chat
ARA🇦🇪: @toncoin_ar

Website
CoinMarketCap
CoinGecko
Explorer: tonscan.org
Twitter
GitHub: https://github.com/ton-blockchain
Documentation
Primer
White paper

This channel is used for informational purposes only.

➖➖➖

Tonkeeper and Tonhub — your go-to crypto wallets on The Open Network.

Tonkeeper users can now transfer NFTs to others directly within the app.

The crypto wallet pushed its latest update, which allows users to send NFTs as a gift with just one click, avoiding marketplaces and their long list of steps to make an NFT transaction.

To use the newest function, you need to update the app.

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 July 3 to 9 grew from 915,148 to 947,990 (+3.6%).

News:

▪️ The TON Foundation announced sponsorship support for the Codeforces platform.

▪️ A new TON Wallets section was added to the ton.org website in a recent update.

▪️ We published more details about the TON DNS auction, which kicks off on July 30.

▪️ Tonkeeper users got the possibility to send one another NFTs directly within the wallet’s app in its latest update.

▪️ Tonstarter began the second stage of its Ambassador program, which enables people to earn Toncoin for creating content about the project.

▪️ STON.fi, a DEX currently under development on The Open Network, has begun its search for testers who want to participate in a public test of the exchange.

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!

​The official channel of @tonsociety from the TON Foundation has announced the launch of the ecosystem’s latest fund, TAV Fund, whose $90 million will help with funding, incubating, and introducing mass-market potential for TON-based projects.

Today, the TON Society announced the launch of a new ecosystem development fund called the TON Alpha-Vista Fund (TAV), which has received funding from international cryptocurrency funds, such as VistaLabs and Alphanonce.

The TAV Fund’s mission is to attract entrepreneurs and developers to join the TON ecosystem, create products, and lend a helping hand to early-stage projects on the TON blockchain. In addition, the TAV Fund will host in-house devs who have extensive experience building on the Klaytn blockchain.

The fund will offer support on all fronts: grants for accepted teams, consulting services, and facilitation for project teams to establish lines of communication with the leaders of the crypto industry.

If you’re interested in creating products for the TON ecosystem or are already working on a project, please visit the TAV Fund to learn more and apply:
https://tav-incubation.com

The TON Alpha-Vista Fund is the second third-party fund to launch in The Open Network’s ecosystem.

In April, a new Toncoin reserve was created, which received over 530 million tokens in donations. The same month also saw the launch of the TONcoin.Fund, a syndicate of up to $250 million and the first third-party fund dedicated to TON’s ecosystem growth.


You can ask questions about grants or ecosystem funds in the official chat: @tonsociety_chat

For more details on the new TAV Fund, you can read this new post from TON Society: https://xn--r1a.website/tonsociety/20

​TON Footsteps is the newest component in the TON ecosystem, allowing network users to participate in developing The Open Network.

TON Society is launching a new program called TON Footsteps, a public list of projects and events dedicated to developing the TON blockchain.

Anyone will be able to make suggestions on how to improve the ecosystem, but the users who bring them to life will improve TON and have a chance at receiving a reward in Toncoin and special TON Footsteps NFTs.

How TON Footsteps works:

Imagine a TON community participant gets an idea. For instance, they think that the TON ecosystem would become better and more convenient if someone were to create a series of instructional videos on how to use TON-based crypto wallets for people who are just getting acquainted with cryptocurrencies.

The individual breaks everything down into simple steps and posts videos on YouTube on how to use @wallet, @cryptobot, Tonkeeper, Tonhub, and other TON-based wallets.

This user’s idea is then added to a public list where anyone can participate in discussions and improvement proposals. Once TON Footsteps approves the idea, the community can come together to begin implementing it, with a reward waiting (only if the idea is approved).

If you have ideas that could improve The Open Network and want to participate in the TON Footsteps program, you can find all the necessary guides and information here:
https://github.com/ton-society/ton-footsteps

Communication for TON Footsteps is in English.

The TON Community Manager Contest results are in.

The second and final round of the TON Community Manager Contest has ended, and today, we’ll share its results with you.

The second stage’s jury settled on three winners, each of whom will receive 1,000 Toncoin.

You can find the names of the winners on this page. Congratulations to the winners, and we wish you all the best!

It was a pleasure reviewing your projects, which truly let your bright ideas shine.

The contest was a fun experience, and we’re confident that many contestants will receive job offers from various teams developing products on the TON blockchain.

If you represent a team that needs a community manager, please write in the @tonsociety_chat to receive more information about the contest’s participants.

​Q2 2022 Report | The Open Network

Q2 2022 is now behind us, so today, we’d like to review all the exciting milestones The Open Network achieved over the last three months.

Developers at the TON Foundation have been working on a tight schedule, releasing new components per the roadmap.

Below are some release highlights of the past three months:

▪️ TON DNS — a system of decentralized domain names with .ton.
▪️ TON Payments — technology used for instant payments.

The developers are pursuing grandiose plans and want to launch every piece of technology for a decentralized internet in one year.

If we see the release of TON Proxy, TON Sites, and TON Storage within the next six months, the developers will have accomplished one of their biggest goals.

NFT market.

The emergence of an active TON NFT market was the most important moment of Q2.

The main TON NFT events over the last three months:

▪️ A few NFT marketplaces launched, such as Getgems, Disintar, and TON Diamonds.
▪️ Various Telegram NFT bots launched, which allow users to view and interact with NFTs directly in the messenger.
▪️ Some crypto wallets, such as Tonkeeper, received support for storing and sending NFTs.

Partnerships.

Q2 saw The Open Network close a slew of deals with key partners:

▪️ With funding from prominent crypto investors, such as Huobi Incubator, KuCoin Ventures, MEXC Pioneer Fund, and others, two ecosystem funds were launched totaling $340 million.
▪️ ​​Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of the Congo announced they were strongly considering implementing the TON blockchain on an official level.
▪️ Asian crypto exchange MEXC and The Open Network became strategic partners.
▪️ The TON Foundation announced its support for the programming competition platform Codeforces.

Toncoin.

The native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain continued gaining recognition in Q2. Below we’ll list some significant milestones connected with Toncoin:

▪️ Telegram integrated the @wallet bot into its Attachments Menu, allowing users to send Toncoin to others from within chats.
▪️ Toncoin was integrated into more services, such as @mobile, @scented_bot, sites.reviews, and others.
▪️ Over the past three months, Toncoin was listed on eight crypto exchanges, including MEXC and Matrixport.
▪️ One of the most popular non-custodial crypto wallets in Southeastern Asia, Coin98 added support for the TON blockchain.
▪️ Toncoin mining came to an official end.

Community and participants.

The number of TON users has grown substantially over the past three months.

▪️ At the beginning of the second quarter, on April 1, there were 382,148 registered wallets, but on June 30, this number ballooned to 901,015 — a +136% increase.

▪️ The total number of TON followers on social media swelled to 2.5 million, a 47% increase from the end of the previous quarter and three times more from the start of the year.

Teams of developers.

The Open Network saw no shortage of independent entrepreneurs and project creators.

In addition to the new NFT marketplaces, some project teams completed the first DEX and launchpads on TON. Teams working on crypto wallets added a variety of convenient functions — e.g., support for NFTs and Jettons — and even a perpetual Toncoin mining pool launched.

A year ago, the TON project didn’t even have the ton.org domain in its possession, and Toncoin was just getting listed on the EXMO crypto exchange.

The Open Network has been developing and expanding at a torrid pace, having completed and launched projects in a few months, which can take other blockchain projects years.

Regardless of the troubles Telegram experienced in 2019, the network continued to flourish thanks to the TON community.

Back then, the project was ahead of its time. Still, it never lost its momentum or relevancy: It has continued to improve every aspect actively, such as scalability, convenience, and availability to regular users, which have even surpassed modern blockchain networks.

​The first-ever Hack-a-TON has ended!

A few days ago, TON Contests shared the results of the first hackathon for JavaScript specialists, and today, we’re going to share those results with you.

Before we begin, it’s important to note that the contest’s total prize pool was increased from 40,000 to 81,500 Toncoin.

Contest participants handed in a higher number of submissions than was initially expected; therefore, the TON Foundation doubled the prize pool as a form of recognition of all the quality projects. In the end, six teams rounded out the top three spots with two teams apiece.

Over 2,400 teams registered to compete in the hackathon, 80 of which were able to present their prototypes.

This was the first TON event where programmers could participate offline in Prague and Moscow.

We were really impressed with the inaugural Hack-a-TON.

Contestants came up with fascinating ideas on how to apply the underlying technology of Payment Channels, and we’ll introduce you to some of them shortly.

You can find a list of submitted projects with video presentations on the official site:
https://ton.org/hack-a-ton-1.

We’d like to thank all the hackathon participants and want to take this opportunity to remind you that the TON Contests Telegram channel will soon announce the TON Smart Challenge #2.

​Use cases for TON Payments: The ideas generated at the hackathon.

A few days ago, we received the final results from the inaugural Hack-a-TON for JavaScript specialists, who were tasked with finding novel use cases for the TON Payments technology.

Today, we’d like to share with you some of the submissions that stood out, which will help you better understand the payment channels technology on a deeper level by using simple examples.

Use case No. 1: How TON Payments can ignite a revolution on social media.

Two teams, OnlyTONs and OnlyGrams, had the idea to integrate payment channels on social media and presented prototypes.

Imagine a platform where users pay creators micro-rewards for every interaction with the latter’s content — e.g., viewing or liking a post.

For instance, when a user is scrolling their feed and viewing posts, minuscule amounts of Toncoin would be sent to the content creators in your feed.

For any given person, such a micropayment is peanuts, but if a photograph is viewed thousands of times, its creator will receive a significant amount of Toncoin from all the viewers.

There are, in fact, social networks that apply this model and earn income from our actions on their platforms: They analyze our personal information, behavior, and preferences to show us targeted ads.

Direct and decentralized micropayments “from the user to the content creator” look like a fairer alternative.

Use case No. 2: Decentralized streaming.

The team behind TON Diamonds submitted a prototype for a streaming platform called Diamonds, whose users pay for the time spent during a stream.

This use case could also be applied to online education (paying a teacher, the entertainment industry (paying music listeners), consulting services (paying your doctor for a check-up), and many more.

Use case No. 3: Micropayments in video games.

The creators of the TON rock-paper-scissors project showed how TON Payments could be applied in games.

To display the idea, the team used the game “rock-paper-scissors” as an example.

Two people make a wager before they begin playing the game, which is to make a simple choice: rock, paper, or scissors. The winner collects a reward, after which the players can immediately play again and set a new wager without waiting five seconds for transaction confirmations or paying any fees.

This gaming model can be applied in any player-versus-player game where lightning-quick speeds and zero fees are required.

Honorable mentions.

The hackathon’s participants presented many fascinating use cases, some of which are:

▪️ Receiving a micropayment for clicking on an ad banner (TON Ads).
▪️ Payments for audio and video calls (TON Calls).
▪️ Different kinds of games (DO-L).
▪️ The Open Wallet — a payments network (Lightning Network) among Telegram users.

We were very impressed with many of the submitted projects but can’t list them all here.

We recommend viewing video presentations of the hackathon’s winners on the official site or TON Contests Telegram channel.

Thank you once again to all the participants! We’re confident many of your ideas and use cases will find their place in the decentralized internet, which the team at TON is developing.

​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 July 10 to 16 grew from 950,005 to 992,265 (+4.4%).

News:

▪️ We published our Q2 2022 report.

▪️ TON Society launched a new fund worth $90 million aimed at financing, incubating, and promoting TON-based projects to the masses.

▪️ TON Society launched a program called Footsteps, which will allow users to participate in improving and developing the TON blockchain.

▪️ TON Society and TON-based launchpad Tonstarter announced their partnership.

▪️ Tonscan.org released an update. Now, the explorer displays NFTs connected to wallet addresses.

▪️ The results of the TON Community Manager Contest were published.

▪️ The results of the inaugural Hack-a-TON were published, as well as a highlight of the top projects submitted.

▪️ The Getgems team announced the launch of its grant program for smart contract developers to create a standard for a TON-based Soulbound NFT.

▪️ STON.fi, a DEX on The Open Network, has launched a public demo with rewards for participants. You can find more details here.

▪️ Famous blogger and artist Ellen Sheidlin dropped her first collection on the TON blockchain on the TON Diamonds NFT marketplace.

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!

The Open Network has 1 million registered crypto wallets!

We’re excited to announce that the number of registered wallet addresses on The Open Network blockchain has reached the coveted 1-million mark.

Over the past six months, the number of wallet addresses and smart contracts on the blockchain has soared by almost 7.5 times, from 133,000 to 1 million (+649%).

We’re confident that this momentum will only continue moving forward.

Thank you to all of the network’s users!

​How TON solves everyday issues for its users.

The TON Foundation is in the process of building the decentralized Web3 internet, which will be as easy to use as the current and centralized version of the internet.

Various services have already integrated support for TON to allow clients to settle payments using the Toncoin cryptocurrency.

With these services, users don’t need to know how the blockchain functions — all they have to do is download a mobile TON-based crypto wallet to start taking advantage of decentralized technologies.

TON wallets.

TON wallets are one way to make quick payments on the blockchain. Using a non-custodial wallet, you can be sure that your funds will always be under your control — without interference from a bank or intermediaries.

There is a long list of convenient crypto wallets based on The Open Network blockchain. You can find it on the official website here:
ton.org/wallets

@wallet

The @wallet crypto Telegram bot is the most popular custodial service in the TON ecosystem. It allows users to send crypto to contacts directly within chats on the messenger.

For everyday transactions, @wallet is ideal, but for long-term storage, we recommend using non-custodial wallets for your Toncoin.

Donations and subscriptions on Telegram.

One of the most popular services that support Toncoin payments is the @donate bot.

With @donate, Telegram channel owners can monetize their content and communities by accepting donations and incorporating paid subscriptions.

By paying in Toncoin, channel owners and subscribers can rest assured that all transactions are completely decentralized and happen on the blockchain without any intermediaries.

Staking.

Users of the TON blockchain can stake their Toncoin and receive up to 10.5% APY.

They can deposit their Toncoin in a staking pool via two services:

▪️ tonvalidators.org (from 10,000 Toncoin)
▪️ tonwhales.com/staking (from 50 Toncoin)

Buying, selling, and exchanging Toncoin.

There are many ways you can obtain or exchange Toncoin into other currencies and cryptocurrencies.

You can do so with a bank card, peer-to-peer trading, crypto exchanges, or blockchain bridges.

You can find more information here:
ton.org/buy

Buying and selling NFTs.

Users can buy and trade TON-based NFTs on Getgems or Disintar, two of the biggest NFT platforms on TON, among others.

eSIM with mobile internet.

The @mobile Telegram bot allows users to use an electronic SIM card that also provides internet, which operates in multiple countries and accepts Toncoin for payment.

Cashback services.

You can get cashback in the form of Toncoin by making regular online purchases. The following service support this model:

▪️ Backit.me.

TON Place.

TON Place is a decentralized social network with exclusive content.

Other services and apps.

New applications and products launch on The Open Network constantly.

You can find a comprehensive list of all TON-based services on TON’s official website in the TON Apps suite.

​10 days until the TON DNS auction.

This is a reminder that the decentralized distribution of TON DNS domain names begins on July 30, 2022 where users will be able to obtain a short human-readable .ton name via an auction.

The auction will take place on the dns.ton.org website.

You also have an opportunity to learn more about the process on the testnet, but we want to warn users to be careful and not to send their real Toncoin because they’ll be lost forever.

Below we answer some frequently asked questions:

▪️ As protection against spamming bots that automatically register names, every domain will require a minimum bid. The size of this bid depends on the number of characters and can vary from 10 to 1,000 Toncoin.

▪️ All Toncoin from the sale of domain names will be sent to smart contracts where they’ll be frozen forever and removed from the total supply.

You can find more details and TON DNS auction rules here: https://telegra.ph/TON-DNS-auction-rules-07-21

NFT Calendar has added support for the TON blockchain.

Big news in the TON NFT world: Now, collection creators on TON will be able to post information about future drops on NFT Calendar, one of the most-used NFT news resources.

Every month, over 500,000 crypto enthusiasts looking to find the next exciting event and NFT collection visit the portal.

We’re happy that future TON-based NFT collections will be visible on such an essential platform in the crypto industry.

We’d like to thank the Getgems and TON Doge teams, who were instrumental in adding the TON blockchain to NFT Calendar.

‌‎⚡️This week tonscan.org was updated — now you can see all NFTs belonging to any address as in this example.

We will enhance our cooperation with the Getgems marketplace to improve NFT functionality.

Tonscan is more than just a blockchain explorer — even if it's not always obvious at first sight. Big update coming soon.

Convenient alternative services on TON.

We’ve highlighted numerous times that product development has a special place in The Open Network’s philosophy, with the TON Foundation actively supporting its blockchain developers.

The ecosystem continues to see more convenient services from independent developers, so today, we’re going to tell you about two applications that stand out.

Juston — a noncustodial crypto wallet that enables seamless sign-ins for TON dApps.

What you can do with Juston:

▪️ Create multiple TON-based wallets and switch from one to another in a user-friendly interface.
▪️ Interact with popular TON services using a built-in decentralized browser, which operates like the TON Wallet extension in Google Chrome and allows users to sign in on other sites directly within the mobile app.

The browser already supports an array of services, such as Getgems, Disintar, Scaleton, and Jetton Deployer, and will let users participate in the upcoming TON DNS auction.

Its developers plan on releasing an Android-based app that supports Jettons. You can find more information on the official website or the project’s Telegram channel.

StickerFace — a mobile app to help you create NFT avatars on TON.

With StickerFace, users can generate digital avatars derived from a photograph or create one with the creator kit by manipulating facial features, hair color, and other characteristics.

Users will be able to place their new avatars on the TON blockchain as an NFT and add NFT clothing and accessories.

It’s worth noting that the avatars are full-fledged NFTs: You can store them in wallets, transfer them, and even put them up for sale on NFT marketplaces.

Everything happens within the convenient interface of the mobile app, which you can download on the project’s official website. You can find more information on StickerFace on the service’s Telegram channel.

These two are just the tip of the iceberg; there are many useful and exciting services in the TON Apps suite.

​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 July 17 to 23 grew from 998,112 to 1,029,895 (+3.2%).

News:

▪️ The number of registered accounts on the network surpassed 1 million.

▪️ We published the rules for the upcoming TON DNS auction starting July 30.

▪️ NFT Calendar added support for the TON blockchain.

▪️ NFT marketplace Getgems released three important updates: one for its Telegram NFT bot, another aimed at collection creators, and the latest one was an integration with the Disintar NFT marketplace.

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!

An AMA with a member of the TON Foundation and TON ecosystem participants.

On July 28, an AMA in written format will be held in the TON Society Telegram chat for creators and developers of TON-based products.

The AMA will cover the TON ecosystem’s grant programs. The speakers will discuss this and other topics:

▪️What criteria do teams of developers need to meet to participate in the grant programs?
▪️How does TON Society analyze services applying for a grant?
▪️How does TON Society plan on making the application process as transparent and public as possible?

The following speakers will be answering questions during the AMA:

▪️Justin Hyun, Head of Incubation at the TON Foundation.
▪️Cyril Malev, a junior partner at FS Labs.
▪️Tal Kol, founder of the Orbs Network blockchain and a TON Society contributor.

The AMA begins at 16:00 (UTC) on July 28 in the TON Society chat: @tonsociety_chat

All users will be able to participate in the AMA by asking questions. Feel free to ask your questions in the comment section. We’ll include them in our list and will try to answer all of them!

Users who cannot join the AMA live will be able to read a text version afterward.

The number of validators on The Open Network surpassed 200 in July.

We’d like to mention that the rate at which new validators joining the network over the past few months has increased exponentially. At the beginning of May, the network was servicing 188 validators, but since then, that number has risen to 226, a +20.2% increase over the last three months.

However, the growth in these numbers at the beginning of the year was more modest. From January to May, the number of nodes rose from 155 to 188, a 21% increase over just five months.

The total validator stake since the beginning of the year has also risen, from 92.3 million Toncoin to 149.5 million (+62%).

Anyone can run a validator node: All you need is professional hardware and a deposit of around 350,000 Toncoin.

You can find instructions, guides, and additional information on becoming a validator on TON’s official website:
https://ton.org/validator