The Open Network’s genesis
TON’s story
The history of TON is full of drama and plot twists. In 2017, Pavel Durov, the founder of VK and Telegram, and his team announced the cryptocurrency Gram and the TON network itself.
The team raised an investment of $1.7 billion. After 2 years of development, in 2019, the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) demanded that Gram be banned.
Three points aroused suspicion:
- Why did the team conduct the ICO?
- How much money did it spend?
- Is Gram a security?
After one interrogation by Pavel Durov, several trials, and hundreds of hours of legal tedium. Gram was recognized as a security.
Of course, this hampered the development of TON and so the team offered to return funds to investors under two options: return 77% in 2020 or 110% in 2021.
There was even a lawsuit over these events with the founder of Zotobi Management Limited, Igor Chuprin, who demanded that Telegram return 100% of his investment in TON, but the judge sided with Telegram founder Pavel Durov. And Chuprin, who sued for $280,000, had to cover Telegram’s $700,000 costs.
12.05.2020 the founder of Telegram said that the development over TON — stops.
It seems like this story should have ended before it began, but TON’s fate took a different turn.
Rebirth
Durov gave the technology of the network to the community. A contest was held and a certain team of developers went on to develop the network.
A brief chronology after the transfer of the project to the community:
2020
May 2020. All coins are transferred to testnet and PoS (Proof-of-stake) mining is launched.
May 19, 2020. The Open Network’s Telegram channel is launched and data about the network is made publicly available.
2021
July 2021. The community sent Telegram a progress request. The team then received the ton.org domain and the network’s repository. This moment can be considered the “Renaissance” of the TON network and the date of the official team: TON Community.
August 22, 2021. The TON-Ethereum bridge is launched.
September 11, 2021. TON is listed on the Mercuryo exchange.
September 17, 2021. It became possible to mine TON on GPUs.
October 4, 2021. TON-Binance Smart Chain bridge appears.
November 7, 2021. TON trading record of $4.5 million is set.
November 8, 2021. Launch of Tonkeeper, the first mobile wallet.
November 12, 2021. Launch of TON trading on OKX and FTX.
December 16, 2021. The first NFT project on blockchain was announced: TON Bulls. After it were announced: TON Diamonds, Mintosaurs, Animal Red List, TON Punks, etc.
December 24, 2021. TON capitalization confirmed: $4.6 billion.
Dec. 25, 2021. Telegram’s Donate service and TON become partners.
2022
January 13, 2022. Morgenstern begins collaboration with the blockchain team.
Jan. 21, 2022. Former VK.com CEO Andrei Rogozov joins TON.
Jan. 27, 2022. Announcement of the first marketplace: Disintar.
February 1, 2022. Beginning of public discussion of the NFT token standard.
February 8, 2022. Announcement of Getgems marketplace.
February 9, 2022. First AMA conference with TON Foundation member.
March 12, 2022. Beginning of public discussion of the replaceable token standard.
April 1, 2022. Completion of TON DeFi.
April 12, 2022. TON begins collaboration with Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo.
May 23, 2022. Restart of test network on more powerful equipment.
May 28, 2022. Completion of a smart contract for steaming pools.
June 28, 2022. End of mining.
July 18, 2022. One millionth wallet registered.
July 30, 2022. TON DNS auction begins.
August 6, 2022. 2,184 domains sold for 2,392,002 Toncoin. The most expensive: wallet.ton, sold for 215,250 Toncoin.
Here are the most important events in the history of TON, in our opinion. Of course, there were more: listings on exchanges, the launch of NFTs and their first sales, Hack-a-TON, offline exhibitions, educational events and other contests, wallet and marketplace updates. But you can’t fit everything into one article, this article is a brief history of the formation of one of the most ambitious and interesting blockchains.
Designed and prepared this article for publication: Topics TON
Project resources: Website | Telegram | Forum | Chat
