The Open Network (TON) project has a story worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. TON was established in 2018 by two visionary brothers, who were forced to abandon the project in 2020 due to the pressure from the SEC. Yet, the community of TON refused to back down and pulled the heroic feat of reviving the project and launching it to its current heights. Today, Toncoin sits at the 25th spot on CoinMarketCap’s list of cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalizations and it is not stopping there. The major part of Toncoin’s success belongs to the expansive ecosystem of apps and other products that provide the essential use cases for the TON token. NOWPayments assists companies and individuals in contributing to the growth of the Toncoin use case selection, by allowing them to accept TON as a payment method.
Key points:
- Toncoin is the native crypto of The Open Network (TON)
- TON is used by services such as Getgems, StonFI, Ton Whales, and others.
- Businesses can begin accepting TON as a payment method via NOWPayments.
What Is TON Coin?
TON origins
As mentioned above, TON was born in 2018 under the name Telegram Open Network, when the Durov brothers, the creators of the Telegram messaging app, came up with the idea to build a next-gen blockchain. The goal of the brothers was to create a network capable of supporting the entire Telegram ecosystem and possessing qualities, which would be superior to those of the existing alternatives. The project instantly gained international recognition and was touted in the media as the “next big thing” in the Web3 realm and, potentially, the most important endeavor since Bitcoin. These claims were not that far from the truth, as the project was able to raise over $1.5b as part of its ICO. Yet, the work of the Durovs’ team had to come to a complete stop due to the intervention on the part of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020. The SEC insisted that the distribution of the project’s native token GRAM (the previous name of the TON token) failed to comply with U.S. laws. The situation eventually led to the withdrawal of the Durov brothers from the project.
TON Mainnet
Luckily, before the original team left the project, they had managed to release the first and second TON testnets, as well as the documentation featuring the complete design of the network. The docs were picked up by a group of dedicated TON enthusiasts who named themselves NewTON. The open-source collective managed to successfully maintain the TON Testnet2 up and running and eventually upgraded it to the Mainnet status and gave it the current name of The Open Network. NewTON, in its turn, became the TON Foundation, a community of dedicated TON fans committed to supporting the project. By May 2021, the TON Foundation was able to keep the blockchain operating in a stable and secure manner. Fast forward to 2023, the TON network is enjoying an incredible level of popularity both among users and apps. Today, TON is regarded as one of the leading blockchains in the industry developing at a rapid pace.
Toncoin
Toncoin is the native cryptocurrency of the TON network with the ticker symbol TON. Users now can use Toncoin right on the TON network, but there are also the Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain-based versions. The TON token has a variety of uses on the blockchain. For instance, it is used for paying smart-contract transaction fees, as well as cross-chain transaction fees. Validators on the TON network have to stake TON tokens to participate in the transaction processing and earn TON rewards. TON plays a central role in the governance model of the network. Yet, most importantly, TON powers a whole slew of projects that make use of the TON network.
Which Toncoin Use Cases Are There?
NFTs: Getgems
Getgems.io is a platform that brings all the latest and greatest NFT collections to TON users. It is an NFT marketplace where you can freely trade various non-fungible assets while benefiting from all the advantages of The Open Network. Getgems.io has one of the lowest fees among all NFT marketplaces and ensures a fast transaction speed making the experience of shopping for new tokens a pure joy.
DeFi:StonFI
STON.fi is a state-of-the-art Automated Market Maker that utilizes the TON blockchain to provide users with access to a swap and liquidity pools. Since STON.fi is a decentralized platform it does not have any control over users’ funds. Holders of the Toncoin crypto can put their coins to use by utilizing one of the products offered by STON.fi.
Social: Tonex
Tonex is a Web3 social networking platform, which is fully decentralized and transparent. The core idea behind Tonex is linking the personal accounts of users to their blockchain addresses. As a result, Tonex users can see one another’s on-chain activities and even send the Toncoin crypto to their friends. Tonex also has several apps in which users may use their TON crypto.
Gambling: Ton Fruits
Ton Fruits is one of the biggest gambling apps on the TON blockchain. It is an open-source project, which means that everyone can take a look at its code and see if they trust the project’s algorithm or not. Ton Fruits lets you play using your Toncoin crypto and keeps the entire history of games available to the public.
Social: Ton.Place
Ton.Place is a TON blockchain version of Patreon. It is a platform intended for content creators and their fans, where they can interact safely and in a decentralized way. Creators can share their work with the audience, while their supporters can pay for exclusive content using their Toncoin. Ton.Place also lets users enable subscriptions and send donations.
DeFi: Startup Market
Startup Market is exactly what it says in the name. It is a platform where startups can quickly raise the needed funding. The coolest feature of Startup Market is its NFTs, which provide their holders with a share of the fees charged by the platform in Toncoin. As a result, Startup Market users can not only invest in promising projects but also earn passive profit by simply holding special tokens.
Mining: Ton Whales
Ton Whales is a service that lets users earn money by mining. Ton Whales engages in the mining of different cryptocurrencies and then converts the sum earned to the TON coin. Users can offer their computational power in exchange for Toncoin rewards. The platform regularly pays out the Toncoin rewards to users, which they can instantly withdraw. You can also utilize Ton Whales to stake your TON coin and thus generate yield.
NFTs: Disintar
Disintar is a truly one-of-a-kind NFT marketplace, as it lets users not only purchase the hottest NFTs on the TON blockchain but also set up their own virtual rooms. In other words, you can decorate your own room on the Disintar platform with the NFTs in your possession. This adds another layer of fun and entertainment to NFT collecting.
Launchpad: Tonstarter
Tonstarter is a launchpad platform built on the TON blockchain, providing opportunities for crypto projects to source capital. Tonstarter users can invest in various projects by buying their native tokens. Toncoin plays an important role on the platform since it enables users to participate in the early fundraising stages of different projects.
Payments & donations: NOWPayments
NOWPayments is a Ton payments gateway. It is a service that features numerous tools for deploying TON coin payments and donations. NOWPayments is a non-custodial provider, which does not exercise control over its clients’ funds, guaranteeing instant payouts. It does not charge clients any setup or maintenance fees. When using NOWPayments, you will only need to pay a 0.5% fee per transaction processed by the service.
How Can You Integrate TON Crypto into Your Business?
NOWPayments delivers the following tools for accepting TON donations and payments:
- eCommerce plugins: These plugins are compatible with PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Magento 2, WHMCS, OpenCart, Zen Cart, Shopify, and Shopware.
- Payment Link and a PoS terminal: Businesses can use a payment link and a virtual Point-of-Sale terminal.
- Recurring Payments: Some companies may deploy special recurring invoices.
- Custodial Recurring payments: It allows companies to set up separate billing accounts for their customers and let them top up these accounts with the cryptocurrency of their choice.
- API: NOWPayments’ versatile API enables businesses to create custom crypto payment solutions.
- Mass Payouts: You can send mass payouts as a salary, bonus, reward, or rebate automatically to as many addresses as you wish.
- Donations: There are three tools one can choose from to get crypto donations: Link, Button, and Widget.
In order to deploy a TON token payment link, follow these steps:
- Enter your public TON crypto address.
- Press “Create payment link.”
- Enter the details of your payment link and click “Confirm.”
- You will receive a payment link that your clients will be able to use by simply scanning its QR code.
Conclusion
The Toncoin crypto is backed by its diverse ecosystem, enabling users to utilize a variety of use cases for TON. NOWPayments lets merchants benefit from the TON ecosystem by providing them with tools for accepting Toncoin payments.
FAQ
How to cash out Toncoin?
In order to cash out your Toncoin balance, you simply need to exchange it for a currency of your choice. There are many both decentralized and centralized exchanges that allow you to do it. For instance, you can sell your TON with the help of changeNOW.