Telegram Open Network [IOU]: A Distributed Supercomputer Blockchain Platform

What is Telegram Open Network [IOU]

Friends, imagine if your everyday chat app, like WeChat or WhatsApp, not only let you send messages, but also made it easy to transfer money, store files, and even access various decentralized applications—wouldn't that be cool? This was the original grand vision of the Telegram Open Network (TON). It's like a super-smart "digital highway," conceived by the founders of the popular instant messaging app Telegram, aiming to build a fast, secure, and scalable blockchain network that makes digital communication and value transfer as simple as sending a message.

The project's initial token was called Gram. You can think of it as the "toll" or "fuel" for this "digital highway," used to pay transaction fees, access network services, and more.

However, it's important to emphasize that the project led by Telegram's official team, along with its Gram token, was ultimately abandoned in May 2020 by Telegram founder Pavel Durov due to regulatory pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). So, what you hear now as "Telegram Open Network [IOU]" and "GRAM" mostly refers to this discontinued official project, or the "IOUs" held by some investors before the project's termination, representing future rights to Gram tokens.

But the story didn't end there. Although Telegram officially withdrew, TON's open-source code was taken over by the community and further developed by independent developers and the TON Foundation, evolving into today's "The Open Network" (similar name, but no longer an official Telegram project), with its native token renamed to Toncoin. Additionally, on the community-driven TON blockchain, a new token called "GRAM" was later launched by enthusiasts, which is a proof-of-work (PoW) token and is completely different from the Gram token originally envisioned by Telegram.

Project Vision and Value Proposition

The core vision of Telegram Open Network (TON) is to make the exchange of digital value as convenient as the exchange of information. Imagine sending a message to a friend and instantly transferring money to them at lightning speed and minimal cost—that's the goal TON wanted to achieve. It hoped to become the first truly mass-market cryptocurrency platform, solving the slow speed, high fees, and poor user experience that plagued many blockchain projects at the time.

TON's uniqueness lies in its backing by Telegram's massive user base (hundreds of millions at the time), which provided a huge advantage for promotion and adoption. It's like a new store opening with a large group of loyal customers from the start, so its growth is much faster than a store starting from scratch. TON hoped to deeply integrate with Telegram, allowing ordinary users to easily access and use blockchain services without needing to understand complex technical details.

Technical Features

TON's design philosophy was very forward-thinking; it's like a super highway network with countless lanes and smart traffic systems, capable of handling massive traffic (transactions) simultaneously.

Multi-chain Architecture and Sharding Technology

TON adopted a "multi-blockchain architecture" and "infinite sharding paradigm." This means it's not just a single blockchain, but consists of a masterchain and countless workchains, each of which can be further split into smaller shardchains. This design is like turning a congested single-lane road into multiple parallel highways, greatly increasing the network's throughput, theoretically reaching millions of transactions per second.

Consensus Mechanism

TON uses the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Simply put, the "bookkeepers" (validators) in the network need to stake a certain amount of tokens (Gram) to earn the right to validate transactions and produce new blocks, and receive rewards. Unlike Bitcoin's "proof-of-work" mechanism, which requires massive computing resources (mining), PoS is generally more energy-efficient and efficient.

Smart Contracts and Virtual Machine

TON also supports smart contracts, which are self-executing, tamper-proof digital agreements. It's like agreeing with a friend that if a certain condition is met, money will be automatically transferred. TON runs these smart contracts through its TON Virtual Machine (TVM), providing developers with powerful tools to build various decentralized applications (dApps).

Ecological Components

Beyond the core blockchain, TON envisioned a series of supporting services to build a decentralized internet ecosystem:

• TON DNS: Like the internet's domain name system, making complex blockchain addresses as easy to remember as URLs.
• TON Storage: A decentralized file storage system, so your files are no longer stored only on a company's server.
• TON Proxy: Provides anonymous services to protect user privacy.
• TON Payments: Supports fast off-chain micropayments, enabling efficient small transactions.

Tokenomics

The token originally planned for Telegram Open Network was Gram.

Token Symbol and Supply

The token symbol is GRAM. The initial planned total supply was about 5 billion.

Issuance Mechanism and Inflation

According to the original plan, Gram's issuance was quite unique: Telegram founder Pavel Durov abandoned the traditional mining model and directly generated all 5 billion tokens for sale to investors. Additionally, the project set a 2% annual inflation rate, meaning the total supply would double to 10 billion over 35 years.

Token Utility

Gram tokens played multiple roles in the TON ecosystem, acting as its "lifeblood":

• Transaction Fees: Users pay Gram as fees for transactions and executing smart contracts on the network.
• Micropayments: Supports small, high-frequency payment scenarios.
• Access to DApps: Serves as the "ticket" to access various decentralized applications in the TON ecosystem.
• Staking and Governance: Participate in the network's PoS consensus mechanism as validators or delegators, and possibly in future network governance.

Token Allocation and Unlocking

Telegram raised $1.7 billion in two private rounds in 2018. According to early plans, 52% of Gram tokens would be retained by Telegram, 44% sold to investors, and 4% for project development budget. However, since the project was ultimately abandoned, these Gram tokens were never officially issued to the public.

Important Note: The tokenomics described here refer to the official Telegram Gram token, which was never officially issued. The community-driven "The Open Network" now has its own native token Toncoin, as well as a new "GRAM" token issued by enthusiasts with a different nature. Please distinguish carefully.

Team, Governance, and Funding

Core Members

Telegram Open Network was originally conceived and developed by Telegram founders Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov. Nikolai Durov was the main author of the TON blockchain technical whitepaper, with deep expertise in distributed systems, cryptography, and blockchain technology.

Fundraising

In the early stages, Telegram raised up to $1.7 billion through two private SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) sales. This was one of the largest fundraisings in the crypto space at the time, showing the market's huge expectations for the project.

Governance Mechanism

Since the official Telegram project was terminated, its original governance mechanism was never fully realized. Currently, the community-driven "The Open Network" is managed by the TON Foundation and an open developer community, with protocol upgrades and decisions made in a decentralized manner.

Roadmap

The Telegram Open Network roadmap was full of ambition, but also unexpected twists.

Key Historical Milestones

• 2017: Telegram team began exploring blockchain solutions and developing the TON codebase.
• January 2018: Telegram and related entities began private SAFT rounds selling "Gram" tokens, raising $1.7 billion.
• February 2018: Telegram released the Telegram Open Network whitepaper.
• 2018: TON testnet launched.
• October 2019: The U.S. SEC filed an emergency lawsuit against Telegram, alleging unregistered securities sales (Gram tokens).
• May 2020: After legal disputes with the SEC, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced Telegram would terminate its involvement with the TON project. Gram tokens were never officially issued.

Future Plans

Since Telegram officially abandoned the project, the original Telegram Open Network [IOU] project has no official future plans. However, its open-source code was taken over by the community and developed into "The Open Network" (TON), which now has its own active roadmap and development plans.

Common Risk Warnings

Friends, understanding a project—especially a blockchain project—requires a lesson in risk warnings. For Telegram Open Network [IOU], there are several key risks to pay special attention to:

Regulatory and Compliance Risk

This was the direct reason for the termination of the official Telegram TON project. The U.S. SEC deemed Gram tokens unregistered securities and successfully blocked their issuance. This highlights the huge regulatory uncertainty faced by crypto projects worldwide. Even influential companies like Telegram may be forced to abandon projects due to regulatory issues.

Project Termination Risk

The case of Telegram Open Network [IOU] shows that even well-funded, technologically advanced projects may be forced to terminate due to external pressures (such as regulation). This means any "IOU" or derivative related to a terminated project carries extremely high uncertainty.

Market and Economic Risk

If any token claiming to be "Telegram Open Network [IOU]" or "GRAM" exists in the market, its value is highly speculative. Since the official project no longer exists, these tokens may lack real use cases and official support, with prices subject to extreme volatility and even potentially going to zero.

Information Confusion Risk

Currently, there is a community-driven "The Open Network" (TON) and its native token Toncoin, as well as a new "GRAM" token issued by enthusiasts. This can easily be confused with Telegram's original TON project and Gram token. Investors need to carefully distinguish and avoid mixing up different projects.

Not Investment Advice: The above risk warnings are intended to help you better understand the challenges the project may face. Remember, any cryptocurrency investment carries inherent risks. You should make decisions based on your own risk tolerance after thorough understanding and independent research.

Verification Checklist

For the Telegram Open Network [IOU] project, since its official part has been terminated, the focus of verification is on understanding its historical background and current status.

• Whitepaper: You can refer to the original Telegram Open Network whitepaper and technical specifications to understand its initial design philosophy and technical details. These documents now serve mainly as historical references.
• Block Explorer: For the official Telegram Gram token, since the mainnet was never officially launched, there is no active block explorer. If you see any token claiming to be "GRAM," confirm which blockchain it runs on (e.g., the community-driven TON blockchain) and check its corresponding block explorer.
• GitHub Activity: The original Telegram Open Network codebase is open source. The community-driven "The Open Network" has an active developer community and codebase on GitHub (e.g.: github.com/ton-blockchain/ton). Checking the activity of these repositories can help you understand the state of community development.
• Official Announcements and News: Review Telegram's 2020 official announcement about terminating the TON project and related SEC documents to better understand the reasons and process behind the project's termination.

Project Summary

Friends, Telegram Open Network [IOU] is a legendary blockchain project. It was originally conceived and developed by the globally renowned instant messaging app Telegram, with a grand vision: to build a fast, secure, and scalable blockchain network and issue a token called Gram, aiming to bring blockchain technology to hundreds of millions of ordinary users and make digital value exchange as simple and convenient as information transfer. Technically, the project adopted advanced concepts such as multi-chain architecture, infinite sharding, and proof-of-stake, and planned to build a complete ecosystem including decentralized storage, DNS, and other services.

However, despite raising a massive $1.7 billion and attracting global attention, the project was ultimately forced to terminate in May 2020 due to regulatory disputes with the U.S. SEC. The SEC deemed Gram tokens an unregistered securities offering, which dealt a fatal blow to the project, leading Telegram to completely abandon TON, and Gram tokens were never officially issued.

This story shows that even projects with strong technical backgrounds and large user bases cannot ignore the importance of regulatory compliance. The experience of Telegram Open Network [IOU] is an important milestone in the history of cryptocurrency development, revealing the vulnerability of early blockchain projects when facing traditional financial regulation.

It's worth noting that after Telegram's official withdrawal, TON's open-source code was taken over by the community and further developed by independent developers and the TON Foundation, evolving into today's "The Open Network" (TON), with its native token being Toncoin. Additionally, on the community-driven TON blockchain, a new "GRAM" token was later launched by enthusiasts, which is different from the Gram token originally envisioned by Telegram. Therefore, when referring to "TON" or "GRAM," be sure to note the specific project and time context.

In summary, Telegram Open Network [IOU] is now a historical project, and its original Gram token was never released. If you encounter any investment opportunity claiming to be "Telegram Open Network [IOU]" or "GRAM," please remain vigilant, conduct thorough independent research, and fully understand its historical background and potential risks. This is not investment advice; please do your own research and make decisions cautiously.