Abandoned TON Crypto Project Could Be Coming to Telegram After All, in a Different Form

cryptonews.com:

The Russian social media giant Telegram’s once-grand crypto plans may be dead and buried, but developers working on a network based on the abandoned Telegram Open Network (TON) are edging closer to launching their own version of TON.

The TON platform, which was to make use of a coin named the gram, was set to become the world’s first true big tech firm-run altcoin – before an eleventh-hour intervention from American regulators effectively derailed it.

And now, from the ashes of the abandoned network, some developers associated with the firm’s project continued working on an offshoot they called Free or Open TON – and have since rebranded as Toncoin.

Per Forbes Russia and the project’s Telegram channel, the project could get a second wind that will see it integrate with the Telegram platform – with some support from key associates of Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram.

The group stated that it had made adjustments to its roadmap, and would seek to launch TON payments, as well as proxy sites and storage by the end of 2022, noting that the project now had heavy-hitting backers and writing:

“We assumed that TON would be of interest to third-party developers and product creators, but we did not assume that it would happen so quickly.”

One developer, Oleg Andreev, was quoted by Forbes as stating that the network was being built in a manner that would let it integrate into the Telegram platform – and would have interoperability with crypto exchanges. He added that its payment system could be used in the gaming world to buy in-game items and currencies and on content platforms.

Forbes added that some 60 developers are currently working on the project.

It also reported that a “source close to TON” had claimed that the VKontakte (VK,