DISCLAIMER
: This is not an extensive review of the Telegram Open Network and only emphasizes purely on the information provided in the whitepaper dated as of the time of this post.
The problem statement defines TON's goal in focusing on providing a blockchain network that sustains a massively-adoptable cryptocurrency for everyday use and emphasizes specifically on the Bitcoin and Ethereum network for comparison. From there, the transaction per second (TPS) speed was criticized along with the plethora of channels there are to procure crypto. Also, it was also stated that "The market of goods and services that can be bought with cryptocurrencies is limited, and the demand for crypto-assets comes mainly from investors, not consumers". Apart from that, Telegram will be used as a leverage to provide a boost in the initial stage of the network launch in order to gain customers quickly and effectively through its branding (That is why you can see that TON will be renamed to 'The Open Network' after 2021, which would provide them time to adopt customers from Telegram's existing user base first).
Today, we are starting to see consumer products rising from the blockchain space. Services like crypto.com, Status and Steem have started to gain traction. It is obvious that instant, micro-payment and social network services are gaining traction first, since they are one of the most community-dependent markets in the world. One relies on merchant and user support, the more the number of merchants supporting the payment service, the higher the amount of potential customers open for acquisition into their business, while the other relies on building a community just like Facebook, the more users gained, the greater the rate of growth in the ecosystem. Apart from these projects, we are starting to see a new emerging system of cryptocurrencies dubbed 'stablecoins' that seeks to close the gap between FIAT and cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, the whitepaper is true to a certain extent as there are projects that have started to gain traction in adopting consumers in the traditional landscape.
Looking at the blockchain ecosystem
Today, we have a ton of organisations striving to develop something built out of blockchain. Seems very overpopulated right? Notice that the majority of these projects have no existing ecosystem that can be comparable with what Telegram has to offer, and that is why TON is so strategically positioned to be one of the top 10 blockchain networks right now. However, we have to bear in mind that other projects are already working on something similar to TON's goal. (Which is to developed a decentralized variant of the WeChat fiat-based marketplace) Really hoped that they could have built on top of an existing chain that could save them precious development time that can be delegated towards other components of the project.
Is it me, or does it resemble Polkadot?
Maybe I am wrong, correct me if I am. The initial whitepaper explanation for TON seems to be built for an ecosystem that comprises of a Storage, Proxy, Services, DNS and Payments system. These services then can be plugged in for any product that would want to leverage the TON chain. Seems like Polkadot's parachain can be utilised to construct a similar service infrastructure like that in a very distributed manner. Apart from that, you have to know that Telegram already has a mature infrastructure for certain applications mentioned in the whitepaper that would allow them to stand apart from the other blockchain projects, such as mature Telegram Bots, Groups, Channels and Payments as mentioned in the Ecosystem section of the whitepaper.
- Bots can now buy and exchange cryptocurrencies via Telegram Payments
- Groups and Channels will have ad integration with TON
- DApps (Decentralized Apps) and services can be listed in an app list of some sort.
These proposed ideas will help make Telegram the place to interact with blockchains that support its protocol.
What about the token economics?
- 5 Billion Grams,
- 200 Million locked in a 4-year vesting period for the development team (4% of the total supply),
- 2.6 Billion retained by TON Reserve (52% of the total supply),
- 2.2 Billion will be sold with a formula, with the first token sold to be priced around 0.1 USD.
Every successive token will be priced one billionth higher than the previous one, meaning that the price affects the locked tokens as well.
It is a good jump in for the ICO, but the entire industry is so fragmented right now, with multiple projects building towards the same objective. I feel that we should see a cross collaborative effort with other projects in order to accelerate the progress towards all of the development milestones.