Is the Free TON network the next blockchain project to expand the DeFi sector?
A brief history of The Open Network (TON)
Initially founded by Pavel Durov, the creator of Telegram, TON (Telegram Open Network) was set to launch around April 2021. Things looked promising until the project was abandoned after an unfavorable US court ruling, whereby a judge sided with the SEC in a bid to ban US citizens from buying and selling Grams, the network’s currency. After the TON project was closed, the Telegram team transferred the original code repository to GitHub and the ton.org domain to the open developer community of the TON Foundation.
Free TON/ Everscale
Sensing a promising project, three organizations at once announced their intentions to continue work on the abandoned blockchain, the most promising of which is the Free TON/ Everscale network.
FreeTON is a joint venture of 23 different companies, achieving full decentralization with over 400 validators and operating as a DAO. Thanks to innovative competitions such as the Rust Cup, Free TON is able to boast that it is the fastest blockchain in the world, with a throughput greater than any other layer 1 blockchain on the market.
While Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos, and NEAR are attracting lots of investment, Free TON is also a worthy contender on which developers can build their Dapps, due to the fast transactions speeds, low fees, and security through decentralization that is offered.
As a fifth-generation blockchain, Free TON can contribute to the emerging Web 3.0, with instant payments and various decentralized services at its core.
Renaming to Everscale
In order to free itself from connotations with Telegram and past associated problems, Free TON is currently undergoing a rebranding to match its new nodes, written in the Rust programming language. While the website still refers to Free TON, the native coin has been renamed Everscale (EVER).
Free TON blockchain
In order to achieve the transaction speeds we described above, Free TON uses Proof-of-Stake for validating transactions as well as an ecosystem of blockchains that supports the main “masterchain”.
A recent sponsored piece written by the Free TON team explains:
Free TON platform consists of a subset of working blockchains (workchains), their shardchains, and their blocks, which are synchronized with the main (masterchain) to update the “ledger”. This allows it to scale vertically and process millions of transactions per second…
Using the same Proof-of-Stake algorithm that is employed by Cosmos, a leading layer 1 solution, new blocks are generated every two seconds, in comparison with Bitcoin’s 10 minutes.
Free TON cryptocurrency
As mentioned above, what used to be TON Crystal has now been rebranded as Everscale; however, the function of the token is the same. Crystals are the only coin that pays out both staking rewards and network commissions. According to CoinMarketCap, there are roughly 2 billion tokens in circulation, although this contradicts the 5 billion figure that is mentioned on the Free TON website.
Their distribution is as follows:
- 85% is used as financial rewards for community members who complete various tasks.
- 10% is used to send to professional developers to invest in their smart contract applications, which have been approved by the TON community.
- 5% is for subsidizing the validators who keep nodes stables and participate in contests.
Free TON — a promising ecosystem
Despite a rocky background, the Free TON ecosystem is composed of many different communities, with the ability to impact areas as diverse as voting, games, government registries, energy-related services, property registration, and supply chain management.
As explained above, Free TON is technologically similar, and in some cases even surpasses competitive blockchain projects such as Avalanche, Solana, Cosmos, and Algorand. Relatively non-existent marketing means the project is still basically unknown in mainstream crypto circles, but its functionality points to a brighter future once it successfully completes its rebranding.
If, like us, you are inspired by the capabilities of Free TON and similar blockchains in the creation of innovative DeFi products, contact INC4 for a free consultation on improving your business using the most up-to-date technology. INC4 provides full-cycle services; from consulting and project audits, to developing optimal blockchain solutions; dApps, smart contracts, and much more.
