This article is based purely on rumors. Telegram team, as well as Pavel Durov himself, never confirmed this information officially. Everything that you read below has been stated and distributed by major media outlets.
Table Of Contents
- History of Blockchain
- Telegram Organization, Telegram Open Network
- Most Probable Uses of GRAM
- Prospects of Success
History of Blockchain
Ever since Satoshi Nakamoto created blockchain-based Bitcoin in 2009, it has been clear that the future of a cashless society hinges on cryptocurrencies. The blockchain method has inbuilt features that ensure the integrity of any transaction through a decentralized digital ledger system. As the name suggests, it involves building data blocks that can be transferred between users while maintaining the overall integrity. This data can be anything: from financial to medical data, and anything you might imagine. Innovations and improvements introduced by different projects over the years have rendered the technology almost foolproof.
Telegram Organization, Telegram Open Network
Telegram was developed by the Durov brothers in 2013. The brothers are self-proclaimed libertarians who set out to create a way for people everywhere to communicate without government censorship. Thus, the Telegram app was launched as a secure messaging app in 2013. Its code is fully open-source and available at Github, and third-party developers are actually encouraged to contribute to enhancing the platform.
The Telegram platform is highly secure because all possible vulnerabilities have already been thought out beforehand and eliminated. Being incredibly versatile, it allows a wide range of customization and integration with third-party applications by means of Bots that anyone can create and instruct to handle automated tasks. Most importantly, the Telegram infrastructure is supported by servers located on almost all continents and thus has almost 100% redundancy.
Telegram has a wide subscriber base: In 2014 it counted 5 million users, over 170 million by 2017 and more than 200 million users by the end of 2018. This number is currently growing at a rate of 500 thousand subscribers per day and is only expected to rise in the future.
These features place Telegram in a very unique position, empowering it to overcome the bulk of problems other cryptocurrencies face today.
So far, no crypto is simple and intuitive enough for the average user. However, to win mass acceptance, it needs to be easy-to-use for any computer-savvy person to work with. Figures show generation and transfer capability of most cryptocurrencies is currently about 7-20 transactions per second. For this to be feasible, it needs to achieve at least 2,000 transactions per second to rival conventional methods like Visa’s 1700 tps.
Crypto is mainly popular among investors as opposed to consumers. This brings us back to the problem of critical mass.
Telegram Open Network Concept
Having had an illustrious history of security and freedom from government interference, Telegram proceeded to field a massive vision in April 2017 with an intent to create the Internet of sorts based entirely on the blockchain technology.
By September 2017, the first TON model had been created and approved and taken through the first stages of closed platform testing. The funds needed to develop a working model of the Telegram Open Network were raised: the potential crypto star had been budgeted at $3.4 billion; but when $1.7 billion have been raised the funding procedure was terminated due to “market crash and legal reason”. However, TON is already underway and confidence is so high that the contract between Telegram and these initial investors states that unless TON is unveiled by October 31st the funds raised will all be refunded.
Telegram Open Network Features
The Telegram Open Network will be based on the TON blockchain concept: a master blockchain accompanied by up to 292 other blockchains. Other features of the TON network include the following:
- Security: As a cryptocurrency in its own right it will use the Proof of Stake (PoS) system as opposed to the previous Proof of Work (PoW) which has had many security issues. This will make it cheaper to mine TON in the long run and provide more inherent security against a 51-percent attack. Such an attack is a situation where one stakeholder owns more than 51 percent and hence uses this advantage on a Peer-to-Peer network to mine indiscriminately while invalidating other miners’ blocks on the Blockchain. By using PoS, this is avoided. Even if one person were to achieve such a stake (which is very difficult to begin with given the resources involved) it would be to their own detriment to invade the integrity of the blockchain as it would put their own investment at stake.
- Infinite Sharding Paradigm: As TON blockchains grow they can split up and merge as needed to keep loads at the optimal level. Therefore, the balance can be achieved so that in the event where one portion of the TON network becomes massively popular the load is split up with the rest. This will also serve to keep transactions fast and the costs involved low, throughout the entire network.
- Hypercube Routing: TON will be using a unique smart routing mechanism called HyperCube routing. In a nutshell, the time needed to transfer information between chains increases logarithmically with the number of users involved.
- Self-healing capabilities: If any blocks are proven invalid on a chain, TON will still be able to grow others on the existing blockchain. It will do this by using distributed ledgers so that forks will be avoided and there will be no unnecessary loss of chains due to unrelated problems.
- TON P2P Network: Just like any other network, TON will need communication protocols. These will also be blockchain-based and very sophisticated. These communication protocols will also be used to provide access to the blockchain giving it high scalability.
- Storage: The TON P2P network will also offer file storage services. This will be a distributed file technology made available through the network. Security will be top-notch and enforced through Smart Contracts: cloud-based storage will be available even for large amounts of data and easily available through Torrent-like technology.
- Secure Proxy Networking: The Telegram Open Network will include a proxy anonymizer. This will work to hide the MAC and IP addresses by creating decentralized VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), also blockchain-powered. This will—similarly to the Invisible Internet project—also prevent online censorship.
- TON Services: Other services offered by TON will also include DNS. Simply put, the DNS service will assign human-readable words and tags to otherwise decentralized and secure sites. This will make accessing the TON network much like navigating a browser using any device: even a smartphone.
- TON payment system: Essentially the most important aspect of the Telegram Open Network. Combining all the above aspects, TON will support ultrafast micropayments between users and bots. As stated, security safeguards are inbuilt from the ground up, making it the most widespread, most accessible, and most secure payment method.
Read more:
TON Advantages & Risks
If the Telegram team delivers as its whitepaper sets out, the opportunities involved are endless. It could actually be the next Internet, free of setbacks intrinsic to the “previous Internet.” Imagine the security: browsing, payments, file sharing and storage, all at Internet speed. The public is certainly very optimistic as proved by Telegram’s 2018 ICO: it garnered over $1.7 billion in a little over a month, the second-highest figure obtained. While most ICO’s max out at about 50% of the market cap, Telegram was actually oversubscribed. Who wouldn’t want a piece of such a pie?
Telegram was made to be free of government support and interference, and TON will be no different. It is entirely supported by the strong but unpredictable shoulders of the masses. While it is true that governments like Russia and Iran are determined to put the entire project under boycott and have already officially banned the Telegram messaging app, it is still growing strong.
A more credible threat would be hackers, an ever-expanding danger in the crypto world. Because it has no official oversight, it is more like a wild west where anything can happen. These are still a threat that as of yet has no silver bullet, but fortunately, their methods are well-known. New ones are constantly monitored and necessary updates done. Because the Telegram open network has decentralized inbuilt security features, it presents a mountain of a problem to any hacker(s) looking to make a quick buck.
How TON Works
The TON digital payment platform needs a smart contract and a blockchain to transfer funds.
Smart Contract is a program that comes with the TON and works using the platform language, Fift, and the data, to execute on its own. It is secured as part of the Gram cryptocurrency and has a self-healing effect where it can grow on any new valid or incorrect blocks. This ensures efficiency, consistency and high transaction speed.
The TON blockchain is made of a flexible and scalable architecture texture: a master chain with around 292 accompanying chains. This design ensures that, for every second, over a million transactions are processed, with the possibility of even higher speeds.
Here are some of the other notable blockchain techniques that enable TON process transactions faster:
- Proof-of-Stake Approach. The platform relies on the computing power of the processing nodes to handle transactions. The transaction reaches a consensus and ensures the dependability of different nodes through the use of a Byzantine-fault-tolerant protocol. Eventually, smart contacts increase the efficiency and speed of the transactions.
- Instant Hypercube Routing. This is where the transactions between the different TON blockchains are completed using smart routing mechanisms. The data flow speed increases as the number of chains grows. This makes it possible to complete millions of the transactions in a second.
- Infinite Sharding Paradigm. Blockchain multiplies itself to create space for sharding and complete transactions. The cost-efficiency of this design makes it one of the most popular techniques.
The user gains smart contracts when issued as a test network. Anyone willing to write and test the smart contracts gets 20 grams for a start. A smart contract is sent as a file to the TON virtual machine that monitors the process.
The process happens extremely fast: the virtual machine easily compiles the smart controls in the Fift language into simpler and faster codes to accelerate the process.
The process is further accelerated by a process of cryptography, which divides the process into 2 schemes easily executable schemes: EdDSA for issuing several commands per second and Curve25519 to create new pairs of transactions keys faster. The 2 schemes combine to create a fast and efficient transaction process.
The Fift language used in the platform comes with a built-in system that supports cryptography and the whole TON platform: blockchains and the smart contracts. The system is intrinsically scalable and can execute commands of varied sizes and frequency.
Most Probable Uses of Gram
This is for users who are still not sure of what they will do with the money they make. Some of the most probable ways to use gram are:
- Paying for apps and services provided on the platform.
- Paying for internet privacy: hiding IP addresses and identity.
- Using it as a voting power when changes in the protocol are needed.
- Using it as a voting power when changes in the protocol are needed.
- Receiving and making payments on the platform.
Prospects of Success
TON is set to have a massive impact on the crypto world. And a multitude of reasons ground this point:
The major reason for the projected success is propagated by a large number of users. Telegram is the fastest growing social media network. According to the company’s blog, it currently runs on up to 200 million active monthly users. This huge number taking up the use of TON as a payment platform makes it a formidable force in the crypto space.
Another prospect for growth is the safety of Telegram. Unlike other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google that are marred with privacy concerns, Telegram is fully secure and safe to use. It does not share user data with any third parties, whichever they can be: investors, shareholders or advertisers. The assured safety will make the users readily adopt the use of TON as a payment platform.
Telegram is so sure of the safety it once offered $200,000 in Bitcoin contest for anyone who could break its encryption protocol.
The app is not accessible by the government. It is peaceful to make your payments without the worrying that the government could take a look at your transaction details. Telegram is a platform made for the freedom of the users.
Telegram is lightweight and highly-efficient on any device. The accessibility makes it more convenient for users and allows using the platform anywhere and anytime, which will definitely expand its reach. In addition, it allows APIs for bot and third-party developers and fully open-source for clients.
Telegram can be one of the best platforms for digital transactions in the future.
Sources:
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/08/telegram-open-network/
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/15/inside-telegrams-ambitious-1-2b-ico-to-create-the-next-ethereum/
- https://cointelegraph.com/tags/telegram
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/telegram-messaging-app-scraps-plans-for-public-coin-offering-1525281933
- https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2018/02/16/751315-abramovich-telegram
- https://ethereumworldnews.com/telegram-gram-cryptocurrency-launch-2019/
- https://blockonomi.com/telegram-ico/
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- https://icobench.com/ico/telegram-open-network
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- https://news.bitcoin.com/telegram-rakes-in-over-1-5-billion-ditches-ico-for-an-open-network/
- https://test.ton.org/download.html
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)