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How did TON Chain become popular again? What is the relationship between Unibot and TON Chain?

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Telegram is an instant messaging software with over 800 million active users, which provides significant support for the TON blockchain.

Original Title: "Foresight Ventures: How did the TON chain become popular again? What is the relationship between Unibot and the TON chain?"

Original Author: Foresight Ventures

Since July of this year, the popularity of Unibot has led a wave of "Crypto Bots" on Telegram. In addition, the launch of Telegram Wallet on Token 2049 has brought the TON chain back into the public eye. This article will take you through the beginning and end of this event and explore opportunities for TON ecosystem entrepreneurship/investment.

Distinguish between Telegram, "Crypto Bots" and TON blockchain, three types of products.

Learn how TON chain has become popular again?

The ecological status of TON on the chain, what are the entrepreneurial/investment opportunities in the TON ecosystem?

TL;DR

Telegram is an instant messaging software with over 800 million active users, and it has great support for TON chain. The TON Dapp Bots on Telegram (similar to WeChat mini-programs) have great potential in terms of application form.

Technically, the TON network was designed from the outset to support Telegram's massive user base, with a primary focus on high performance and the ability to handle millions of TPS. Developing contracts on the TON network differs in many ways from other networks and presents certain development challenges.

Ecologically speaking, the ecosystem of TON is still in its early stages of development and holds great potential. The payment sector may be a strong suit for the TON blockchain.

1. Differentiating Concepts: Telegram, "crypto bots" (Unibot), TON Chain

Firstly, we need to distinguish these different products clearly.

Telegram is the fourth largest instant messaging software in the world, with over 800 million monthly active users globally. People in the crypto industry almost all use it.

In addition to instant messaging, product features have been added, including Stories, Wallet, Mini-bots, and so on. It's like how WeChat not only allows chatting, but also has Moments, WeChat Pay, and WeChat Mini Programs.

「Crypto bots」

Telegram bots are small applications that run within Telegram, similar to WeChat mini-programs. When we say "crypto bots", we are referring to Telegram bots that have been created from Crypto Dapps such as Uniswap, making it easy to use them within Telegram.

TON Chain

TON Chain is a high-performance public chain that was established in 2018.

TON Chain's wallet has a primary entry "Wallet" on Telegram, which supports TON, BTC, and displays the balance of USDT on Tron.

TON wallet has a TON Space, which is a non-custodial wallet that only connects to the TON network on the backend.

On Telegram, there is an Apps Center that contains Web3 Dapps. Similar to WeChat mini-programs, most of the applications on it are on the TON blockchain. In the future, they may be moved to Wallet/TON Space.

When it comes to this, what is the relationship between Unibot and TON Chain? I believe everyone has a clear understanding of this question.

The answer is: no relation. Crypto bots like Unibot are bots on Telegram (similar to "WeChat mini-programs"). Unibot allows users to exchange tokens on Telegram, and its backend is connected to the Uniswap protocol on the Ethereum chain. Note that it is connected to the Ethereum chain, not the TON chain. Therefore, Unibot has no relation to the TON chain.

二、TON Chain Development History

Development History of TON

In short, the development process of the TON chain can be divided into 3 stages:

Before 2021: Accused, abandoned, and the project was once stagnant.

- In 2018, the Telegram team began exploring blockchain solutions for Telegram and designed the TON blockchain.

- In the first quarter of 2020, Telegram was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and was fined $18.5 million. It also had to return $1.2 billion to investors. Telegram abandoned TON and stopped developing it.

2021 年～ 2022 年： In the fourth quarter of 2021, some "Side Features" and infrastructure such as cross-chain bridges, storage services, DNS, etc. will be launched on the exchange.

- In 2021, a small team of open source developers called NewTON restarted the development of the TON blockchain. NewTON was renamed to TON Foundation in 21.

补充基础设施

Supplementing infrastructure.

Introducing Oracle. DeFi, especially lending protocols, require Oracle. There is currently no available Oracle on the TON mainnet. It is said that an Oracle is already running on the testnet.

Five, TON Chain Ecological Outlook

We can compare the Crypto bots on the TON network with bots on non-TON networks. The TON network has a significant advantage on Telegram.

What are the entrepreneurial/investment opportunities in the TON ecosystem in this scenario?

In the field of large-scale payments, this is the area where TON chain has the greatest advantage and has a lot of potential. Compared to some Web3 projects that focus solely on the crypto ecosystem, TON chain has the powerful entry point of Telegram, which will attract more projects that integrate with the real world, such as payment transfers, lifestyle services, and financial management, similar to WeChat Pay. This is where TON chain has a greater advantage over other chains and has a lot of potential.

Web3 Infrastructure. We mentioned that the technical infrastructure of the TON ecosystem (such as bridges, Oracles, etc.) still needs improvement. The infrastructure on ETH is already quite comprehensive, but the infrastructure of the TON ecosystem still needs improvement.

Game and social projects. Telegram bots for games and social interactions may be the hottest projects in the future TON ecosystem.

- After the TON gaming chain gained access to the powerful entry point of Telegram, it can more conveniently reach users on Telegram.

- Users do not need to download a client or go through a complicated registration process. They can simply use the game on Telegram, reducing the cost of user experience.

- At the same time, relying on Telegram's "social + game" can leverage people's inner sense of competition, especially those who like to compare themselves with familiar people, to promote the spread of the application.

- TON small-scale gaming projects, especially those designed to be addictive, with short development cycles and the ability to go online quickly, may be the earliest projects to become popular.

DeFi projects. DeFi projects are definitely an extremely important and profitable type of project, but their development may be slower. This is not only because the infrastructure that DeFi projects rely on still needs time to be built, and more projects need to issue tokens on TON. It is also because the majority of DeFi is on ETH, which is difficult to absorb all at once.

Six, Summary

Telegram is an instant messaging software with over 800 million active users, and it has great support for the TON chain. The TON Dapp Bots (Telegram bots similar to WeChat mini-programs) on Telegram have great potential in terms of application form.

- Telegram bots (similar to WeChat mini-programs) have the characteristics of no need to download, instant use, smooth experience, and interaction with Telegram friends. Making Dapps into Telegram bots can make it easier to reach Web2 users. The success of WeChat mini-programs also gives us great expectations for the success of Telegram bots.

- The advantages of TON on Telegram: Telegram has added a first-level entry for Wallet that can connect to the TON network. There is a more secure non-custodial wallet called TON Space. Applications on the Telegram Apps Center have better exposure, and Telegram Ads can be used by TON ecosystem projects.

- TON chain requires users to learn TACT and FunC programming languages to develop smart contracts on the chain, and to adapt to the asynchronous calling feature of the contracts.

- To develop the TON ecosystem vigorously, it is necessary to reduce the difficulty of contract development and supplement the infrastructure on the TON chain.

Ecologically speaking, the ecosystem of TON is still in its early stages of development and holds great potential. The payment sector may be a strong suit for the TON blockchain.

- The large payment field includes transfer payments, life services, financial management, etc. on Telegram, which may be the most advantageous field for the TON chain.

- There is still room for improvement in the infrastructure on TON.

- Games and social projects may be the earliest projects to become popular.

- DeFi projects may develop slowly, and the majority of DeFi is on ETH, making it difficult to absorb all at once.

Finally, if you have great ideas and projects related to TON ecosystem and need resources to make them happen, please do not hesitate to contact us at Foresight Ventures and Foresight X. We support your entrepreneurial journey and with our deep industry knowledge and abundant resources, we will ensure the prosperity of your project.

Thank you Chelsea, Vivi, and Jerry for proofreading and annotating the content.