TON Core: Report for 2025 H1

Report on the implementation of the TON Core roadmap for the first half of 2025.

https://telegra.ph/TON-Core---Report-for-2025-H1-08-03

Tolk 1.1 Programming Language

New in this release:

— Built-in maps (dictionaries);

— Enums;

— Private and readonly fields in structs;

— Overload resolution and partial specialization;

Next, the Tolk team will focus on automatic TypeScript wrapper generation for structs.

Read more »

IntelliJ TON 3.0.0

The biggest update yet. An impressive list of new features, improvements, and fixes. Every part of the plugin and every supported language has been improved.

The list of supported languages has grown:

TASM — the upcoming assembler standard for Tolk.

Fift assembly — now with enhanced support as part of Fift integration.

BoC files are no longer just opaque binaries — open them to view fully disassembled code!

This release also brings support for the latest Tolk 1.1.

Changelog (see for yourself) »

IntelliJ TON »

This year, we expanded the TON Core C++ node team:

🥷 Evgeny

Over 10 years of experience in blockchain development, including work on consensus and cryptography.

— First place in ICPC World Finals 2009 and 2012.

— Great results in other programming competitions, including Google Code Jam, Meta Hacker Cup and TopCoder Open.

🥷 Oleg

Distributed database engineer and researcher.

— Winner of the TON x CodeForces Contest.
— Bronze medal in the ICPC World Finals 2020.
— Top rating of Grandmaster on Codeforces
— Results in other programming competitions, including IEEExtreme, Google Hash Code, Microsoft BubbleCup Finals.

🥷 Vadim

Specializes in multithreading, working with databases and clusters.

— Winner of the TON Validation Contest and TON Smart Challenges.
— Second place in the Yandex Cup 2024 Backend.

🥷 Dan (20 y.o!)

MIT

— Winner of the TON Validation Contest.
— Gold medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics 2022.
— Gold medal in the Asia-Pacific Informatics Olympiad 2022.
— Gold medal in the Romanian Master of Informatics 2021.
— Gold medal in the International Autumn Tournament in Informatics 2021.

The TON Core team is working to enable transactions on the TON blockchain to be executed in less than 1 second — with no reduction in decentralization or scalability.

We have expanded the dev team and continue to implement the Optimization Roadmap that was published and partially completed earlier this year. Major L1 and API updates are ahead.

We plan to show the results in the TON main network as early as the first half of next year.

TON x Chainlink

The TON Core team was happy to help Chainlink integrate their product with TON.

Chainlink smart contracts are written in our new programming language, Tolk.

Meanwhile, we contributed to 3 more big upcoming releases — all starting or ending with “C.”

Node Update TON 2025.10, TON 2025.11

— Optimistic collation & validation: nodes can generate and verify block candidates before the previous block is fully finalized.

— New block compression algorithm.

— Enhanced overlays, peer discovery, and sync.

— Various improvements and fixes.

Full Changelog »

Blockchain configuration updated

The following improvements to the TON blockchain configuration were made by a network-wide vote of validators:

1. The parameter for launching BTC Teleport has been updated.

2. Updated system configuration smart contract code:

— Removed code related to an unused configuration key. Note that the configuration key itself was reset back in 2023.

— Added custom slot functionality that will be useful for stablecoins.

TVM 12

— Bounced messages can now include the full message body, error code, and additional data.

— New low-cost TVM instructions.

— Various improvements and fixes.

Full Changelog »

Tolk 1.2 Programming Language

— Rich bounced messages support (TVM 12).

— Cheaper smart-contract deployment thanks to new TVM 12 capabilities.

— Redefined address type.

— Improved compilation errors.

— Anonymous functions (lambdas).

— Borrow checker to catch undefined behavior.

Read more »

Node Update TON 2025.12

CellDB 2.0 and the Fast State Serializer are now enabled by default.

The validator engine gains parallelism, network traffic compression is improved, along with various fixes and enhancements.

Full Changelog »

The R&D phase has been completed — research and development of the task of speed up operations in the TON blockchain to less than 1 second while maintaining scalability, security, and decentralization.

During the work, three key areas were identified that, taken together, will allow the desired result to be achieved.

1. L1 and Node improvements

1.1. New Catchain 2.0 consensus

The current Catchain + BCP consensus stack has been replaced with a new protocol — Catchain 2.0, based on Simplex / Alpenglow algorithms adapted to the TON architecture.

The consensus protocol determines how validators share data, verify and accept blocks with transactions.

Simplex and Alpenglow are modern open consensus protocols that are characterized by high speed and relative simplicity.

Catchain 2.0 allows blocks to be finalized in 200–400 milliseconds while maintaining the same level of security. Previously, the block finalization time was about 2.5 seconds.

An additional advantage in terms of security is the widespread knowledge of these protocols, which greatly simplifies their audit.

1.2. New block broadcast protocol — "two-step" broadcast

Blocks are transferred between network nodes using the broadcast protocol. We have redesigned this network protocol, reducing the block delivery delay from approximately 700 ms to ~100 ms.

1.3. Additional optimizations

A number of additional optimizations have also been made to the C++ implementation of the TON node, including:

— block compression during transmission;

— parallelization of validation;

— the ability to exchange data between validators not only via the RLDP2 protocol, but also via TCP or QUIC. Based on the test results, it may be possible to switch to one of these protocols.

In addition to the main solutions, the internal statistics system was refined, as well as the internal tools for benchmarks and measurements for nodes, validators, and API.

2. API

2.1. Reduced API latency

The Toncenter API has been optimized, resulting in a latency of 30–100 milliseconds for obtaining the status of an operation via the Streaming API V2.

2.2. New functionality

Streaming API V2 in Toncenter now returns two statuses of operation instead of one:

confirmed — the block has appeared in the shardchain;

finalized — the block has been accepted into the masterchain.

Previously, only the finalized status was supported.

3. UX

A new UX approach has been proposed. Since an operation with the confirmed status has a rollback probability of less than 1%, applications can display it to the user at this stage. The user can then immediately perform the following operations without waiting for finalization.

At the finalized stage, the application can additionally mark in the UI that the operation is completely finalized.

This is similar to the confirmation model in other blockchains, where the operation is displayed after being included in the first block, and final finalization occurs after several block confirmations — at the same time, the user can immediately continue interacting with the blockchain.

This is a solid addition to last year's UX and kernel updates.

All of the above components have been completed separately. Component integration is underway, followed by testing on the TON test network.