The Open Network (TON) is a blockchain platform initially developed by the team behind the popular messaging app Telegram, headed by the Durov brothers, and was created with the aim of integrating cryptocurrency and blockchain functionality into the Telegram ecosystem.

Designed to be highly scalable, TON claims to be able to process millions of transactions per second due to its unique multi-blockchain architecture that employs a sharding mechanism, splitting the blockchain into smaller, more manageable segments to improve efficiency. 

Early troubles with the SEC over TON’s (or at that time, Gram) $1.7 billion initial coin offering caused Telegram to officially leave the project, and it has continued to be developed and adopted as a community-driven ecosystem spearheaded by the TON …