🗺The Open Network roadmap
A blockchain roadmap is a document that outlines the goals and strategies of a project and justifies its prospective value. Roadmaps usually include project milestones, short- and long-term goals, and marketing and development plans. It is a tool for investors to decide whether a project is worth consideration.
Before we move on to the roadmap, we would like to note the punctuality of the blockchain developers; every planned release was done within the designated time frame, even though it is not visually structured and without detailed overviews and guides, but from a technical point of view everything was done perfectly.
TON roadmap
2018
The Telegram Messenger team, led by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, is beginning to explore blockchain solutions for Telegram Messenger. After discovering that none of the existing layer 1 blockchains are capable of supporting Telegram’s 9-digit user base, they decide to develop their own layer 1 chain, which they have named the Telegram Open Network.
2018
Telegram raised $1.7 billion in a private sale of TON tokens (then called Grams, read the rebranding story here) in one of the largest cryptocurrency offerings in history.
2019
Telegram team releases a series of documents detailing the design of the TON blockchain. Telegram launches two TON testbeds — one in spring 2019 and another in November 2019.
The Telegram team launches the first TON testnet in spring 2019, after which the code becomes public, and the 2nd testnet launches on 15 November 2019.
October 2019
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Telegram, accusing it of conducting an unregistered securities offering. Telegram argues that the SEC’s claims are unfounded, but agrees to delay the launch of TON until legal issues are resolved.
March 2020
Amid an ongoing battle with the US regulator, Telegram finally decides to cease operations.
May 2020
Telegram team halts development of TON and support for testnet2, pays $18.5 million in compensation and agrees to return funds to investors.
2020–21
A small open-source development team, NewTON, takes a deep dive into the TON codebase, architecture and documentation. They resume active development of TON according to the design described in the TON source documentation.
May 2021
Testnet2 remains stable for a long time, and the community votes to rename it to mainnet (the main network). The NewTON team, in turn, is renamed the TON Foundation, a non-profit community focused on the continued support and development of the network.
May 2021
Stable and secure blockchain.
2021 Q3
TON-ETH and TON-BSC bridges are implemented. Bridges allow cryptocurrency holders to ‘move’ their assets between different blockchains.
2021 Q4
— Listed on leading exchanges such as Kucoin, OKX, Gate, ByBit, etc., a full list is available here.
— TON Subscriptions — a revolution in decentralised subscriptions thanks to the verified bot @donate, into which TON has been integrated. From now on, anyone could donate to authors in Toncoin and use it to pay for joining private Telegram channels.
2022 Q1
— Support TON Nominators are members of the network who provide their assets to validators.
— TON DeFi are financial instruments in the form of services and applications created on the blockchain.
— TON Developers Program — a collection of tutorials that allow developers to understand how the TON blockchain and its broad ecosystem works, as well as how to develop decentralised applications and create smart contracts.
2022 Q2
— TON DNS is a service that allows users to assign readable names to cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and websites.
— TON Payments. On the TON blockchain, the block time is about 5 seconds. Even if the load on the network increases, this time will not increase either. In other words, millions of transactions can be processed in those 5 seconds.
TON payment channels. Allows you to create a payment channel between two participants and then make as many instant micropayments between them as you want, without a fee. You are only charged for creating and closing the channel.
Payment network The Pre-TON ← TON is here now. All users create payment channels through one intermediate node. Users will now be able to make micropayments to each other through an intermediate node without having to create new channels.
TON payment network. The network now has not one but many intermediate nodes. Any participant can create an intermediate node and charge a micropayment fee on transfers passing through it.
2022 Q3
— TON Proxy are network protocols designed to allow nodes to communicate with each other and exchange data. The network is now so powerful and versatile that, taken together, it equates to a next-generation Internet.
Version 1.0. You can run a .ton site that does not depend on a fixed IP, a centralized domain and a centralized certificate. A TON site is very resistant to censorship, it cannot be blocked by domain or certificate, and you can change IP freely without downtime. Users can access such sites using public login nodes compatible with HTTP Proxy. The site can be hosted on a private web server or on TON Storage.
Version 1.5 ← TON is now here. All major TON services (such as ton.org, dns.ton.org, bridge, major marketplaces, DEXs, etc) will run TON sites. TON sites will be supported by all major TON wallets and TON browser extensions. Transition from public login nodes to local login nodes on each user’s device. Stand-alone TON Proxy application for all major operating systems.
Version 2.0. Enthusiasts can run intermediate proxy nodes. Traffic from the user to the site passes through the intermediate nodes via garbage routing. Similar to TOR and I2P anonymous networking functionality, this allows IP address protection.
Version 3.0. Intermediate proxies start accepting micropayments in Toncoin from the TON payment network for the traffic processed. Coins are deducted from the user’s wallet balance.
— TON Sites — the service allows you to run your own website on the TON network.
2022 Q4
TON Storage — technology for secure storage of files of any size in the decentralised TON network.
Version 1.0. Technology for storing and distributing files of any size on the decentralised TON network.
Marketplace ← TON is now here. Operating storage nodes in the TON network are included in a registry where they are ranked (by disk size, reputation, geolocation, etc.) TON Storage customers can use this registry to find storage nodes that meet their needs.
User products. TON Torrents, Dropbox-like applications, TON Storage API.
Version 2.0. A storage node not only gets paid for storing files, but also receives micropayments through the TON Payments Network for traffic.
2023 Q1
— Token Bridge. Crosschain transfers tokens created on Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain to TON Blockchain.
— TON Connect. A single protocol for communication between TON applications and wallets.
— Tokens Guidelines & Tools. Examples of code to input and output tokens and NFT for exchanges, payment systems and bots. Wallet guidelines to prevent users from freezing tokens. Unfreezing application. Guide for researchers to display token transfers, etc.
— Lockup and Vesting Tools. Handy smart contract vesting tools that many TON startups need.
— TON Awards2022. Awards for the best non-profit open-source community development in 2022.
— Network config adjustment. Adjusting network configuration settings to improve network security and stability.
— Tokenomics optimization voting. A vote between validators for a tokenomics optimization proposal that allows inactive mining wallets to remain inactive for a certain period of time.
2023 Q2
— Elector and Config Update. Elector and Config system smart contracts updated to simplify the development of smart contracts for staking and allow members of the staking pool to vote in online onchain votes.
— DAO & Liqudity Staking Contracts. A universal DAO smart contract and a new staking pool (nominee pool) smart contract with almost no restrictions. Tokens will be used to protect the user’s voting and pool shares.
— DeveloperLibraries. Some development libraries need to be updated. Many new libraries have been created in many languages. TON needs to make all these libraries work together.
— Tokenomics Deflation Mechanism. Mechanism to burn some of the network commissions.
— Decentralized Encrypted Messaging. Turning wallets into decentralised encrypted messaging.
— Address Reform. Improvement of TON Wallet address format for better user experience.
— TVMUpdate. Support for EVM (electronic computing machine) signature verification and other new TVM (terminal computing machine) features.
2023 Q3
— Jetton Bridge. Cross-chain transfers of tokens created on TON Blockchain to Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain.
— Polygon Toncoin Bridge. Toncoin crosschain transfers between TON Blockchain and Polygon.
— Extra-currencies. Built-in extra-currency technology for the most popular cryptocurrencies.
— ETH, BNB, BTC Bridge. Cross-chain transfers of Bitcoin, ETH and BNB onto TON blockchain.
— Scalability and speed showcase. Demonstration on a test network showing how TON can handle a huge number of transactions and still scale under load.
— Sharding Guidelines and Tools. Guidelines and code examples for handling high load TON exchanges, payment systems and TON services.
— To be enriched.
2023 Q4
— Collactor and Validator separation. The separation of the validator into two separate units, collator (actor forming new blocks) and validator, will allow the TON blockchain to handle a very large load.
— To be supplemented.
