TON Developer Report: Q2 2023

In the dynamic sphere of blockchain ecosystems, the TON Foundation has again risen to prominence, showcasing unparalleled growth. Amidst a declining industry landscape, TON stands out, witnessing a formidable 102% increase in developer involvement over the past year, as mentioned in the Electric Capital report.

We welcome you to delve into the Q2 Developer Report as we enter another quarter. Let's explore the significant strides we've made, understand the challenges we've overcome, and envision the path to mass adoption together.

Key Takeaways

1. The DoraHacks hackathon stimulated community engagement significantly.
2. TON Developers Chats grew from 8,572 members on April 1st to 9,134 by the end of June, a 6.56% increase in Q2.
3. TON Foundation organized four challenges, including TON Wallet Challenge, with 101 submissions and a $40,000 prize pool.
4. TON Wiki Challenge received 50 valuable contributions, rewarding 30 participants with $5,000 distributed in jUSDT.
5. TVM Challenge showcased 11 projects with new features, competing for a $54,000 prize pool.
6. TON Web App Challenge is ongoing, with results to be announced soon, encompassing various verticals.
7. TON Grants program supported diverse projects that significantly impacted TON's development, 34 Footsteps completed with ~$66,000 spent.
8. TON Documentation received over 300 commits and 111 merges submitted by 32 unique contributors.

TON Metrics

First, let's take a look at some basic metrics that quantify our growth in numbers.

Monthly active developers in TON-related open-source repositories on GitHub  

Monthly active developers in TON-related open-source repositories on GitHub by developer type  

The activity peak is a testament to the DoraHacks hackathon, which stimulated our community to an impressive degree of engagement which remains high, and developers continue their work on production repositories with closed-source code. The total number of members participating in TON Developers Chats grew from 8,572 on April 1st to 9,134 by the end of June, marking an increase of 6.56% in Q2.

Number of members in Telegram TON Developers Chats by user language  

TON Events

Over the past three months, we have organized four challenges:

• TON Wallet Challenge: This two-month contest attracted numerous talented developers who created updated versions of TON wallets. With a total of 101 contributions submitted, the jury evaluated and honored 17 outstanding projects. These winners were rewarded with a prize pool of $40,000. To see the results, visit this link.
• TON Wiki Challenge: Our community took part in this contest, contributing to the TON Wiki page. With a prize pool of $5,000 distributed in jUSDT, we received over 50 valuable contributions. Thirty were selected and rewarded for their excellent efforts. You can explore all contributions on the TON Blog.
• TVM Challenge: This contest focused on exploring and showcasing the new features and opcode use cases introduced in the TVM update. We received 11 impressive projects that are currently being evaluated by the jury. The prize pool for this challenge is $54,000! You can already get a glimpse of the projects on the TON Blog.
• TON Web App Challenge: The goal of this content was to create TWA in the TON ecosystem across various verticals, including Games, Entertainment, Finance, NFT, and Social. We will announce the results soon.

Hack-a-TONxDWFxAWS: TON Blockchain, in collaboration with DWF Labs and Amazon Web Services (AWS), is hosting a hackathon focused on DeFi and data analytics. The event features an impressive prize pool of $150,000, and we invite all the developers to be a part of it!

All the talented finalists will have the chance to meet in Singapore, where they'll pitch their outstanding projects on the 11th and 12th of September. It's an incredible opportunity to network, gain recognition, and potentially secure significant rewards for your efforts.

TON Breakfasts

Over the past three months, members of the TON Community hosted more than 20 vibrant breakfast gatherings worldwide. These events took place in various cities worldwide, including Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok, Rostov-on-Don, Prague, Moscow, Batumi, Addis Ababa, and Sydney, effectively spreading the spirit of TON worldwide.

To show our appreciation for the fantastic organizers, we will be awarding special SBTs to all breakfast hosts in addition to the allocated budget for organizing the event.

You can play a part in this exciting initiative. Check out our breakfast guide and organize your own TON Community Breakfast in your city.

TON Hubs

TON EU Hub has been buzzing with activity! In Lisbon, we held a productive boot camp for developers, two engaging meetups, and dinner talks. At the Epic Web3 event in Lisbon, a TON Community member was honored to be a featured speaker. Additionally, TON Hub organized a special side event exclusively for the Epic Web3 audience.

Paris and Prague also experienced the TON EU Hub magic with their very own meetups. For more details on these events and upcoming ones, click here.

TON Asia Hub has hosted a massive TON Korea Builders Meetup in Seoul, which saw an impressive turnout of over 120 attendees. In addition to that, we also had TON Lunch, providing a fantastic opportunity for networking and knowledge-sharing.

Our reach extended to Vietnam, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, where TON Builder meetups and gatherings took place, further strengthening the TON Community in the region.

Our hub representatives have prepared an insightful article Why You Should Launch Your Web3 Project on TON. The article is valuable for those interested in learning more about why launching on TON is a great choice.

TON Onboarding

Educational Materials

Awesome Lists

We've released awesome-tact, a curated list of resources that offer a smooth learning curve for the Tact programming language. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned pro, awesome-tact is your reliable guide through the intricacies of Tact language.

Similarly, we have re-launched awesome-ton, an exhaustive collection of standout libraries, tools, services, protocols, and smart contracts pertinent to the TON ecosystem. It's a treasure trove of knowledge that offers insights into the TON ecosystem's practical aspects.

Video Materials

Providing support for international educational content, we are proud to spotlight the youtube materials made by the community. You can now deep dive into video courses that explain in depth:

• FunC and Blueprint (7-video course)
• TON & Python (10-video course)
• Fift (6-video course)
• Tact language course (10-video course)

Each course is designed to broaden your understanding and equip you with practical skills, strengthening your foundation in TON development.

Documentation Updates

Next-generation documentations

• Tact Documentation - A comprehensive guide created by the Tact Foundation, offering invaluable insights and directions to navigate the Tact language landscape effectively. We invite you to explore and familiarize yourself with this essential resource.
• TWA Development Documentation - A one-stop resource for Telegram Web Apps (TWA), this guide introduces developers to a flexible way to interact with Telegram users. This unique platform allows web apps to behave like native apps, imitating their functionality seamlessly. Find out more on the ton-footstep.
• TON Liquid Staking Protocol Documentation - This newly created guide, courtesy of the TON Foundation, outlines the design of TON Liquid Staking services. It is a crucial resource ensuring equity and security among Stakers, Validators, and Governance.

Revamping the TON Documentation

We've revamped the TON documentation on our new domain, docs.ton.org. Changes include a significant rework of the content. We have created or updated more than 35 pages and tutorials with improved text and graphic explanations. Four of them were created by open-source contributors!

Open-source contributions

We're excited about the community involvement in docs.ton.org! In Q2, we witnessed the following:

• 339 commits
• 32 unique contributors
• 111 pull requests merged

We invite everyone to dive in, explore, learn, and grow with us. Your feedback and experiences can contribute to the documentation's continual improvement and, thus, to the TON ecosystem's overall enhancement.

TON Grants

The TON Grants program continues to evolve, and in the past quarter, it supported a range of new and existing projects. These projects showcase the dynamic nature of the TON ecosystem and demonstrate its potential for growth and innovation. We’ve also accomplished an equivalent level of weekly incoming proposals as the unprecedented surge experienced during the DoraHacks hackathon in March.

 

 

Our grants program's success relies on the TON Community's active involvement. We invite you to engage with the projects that have been granted support. By testing their products, providing valuable feedback, and helping to spread awareness, you contribute to the adoption and growth of these projects. Your involvement is crucial in making a lasting impact on the TON ecosystem.

The projects supported by the grants program contribute to the expansion of the TON blockchain's capabilities, bringing unique features and functionalities to the ecosystem. Among the projects receiving support are:

1. Wagmi11 - Decentralised Crypto & Sports Prediction Marketplace on TON Blockchain. Join community.
2. A6g.events - Ticketing protocol for TON Ecosystem. Join community.
3. Tact Foundation - Tooling and documentation for Tact language, the go-to solution to build on TON Blockchain. Join community.
4. Questbook - Integration of Telegram and TON for better grants management process. Join community.
5. Nujan IDE - Online IDE for seamless programming of TON smart contracts. Join community.
6. TON wallet for KaiOS - the first TON wallet on KaiOS (the world's third-largest mobile OS with more than 160 million devices)
7. ton.ski ecosystem - Create TON DNS subdomains, host TON sites, upload files to TON Storage, and access a content viewing service. Join community.
8. Monitoning Platform - the first TON smart contract monitoring application. Join community.
9. EVAA Protocol - the first decentralized lending protocol on TON that lets users lend or borrow native and wrapped assets without going to a centralized intermediary. Join community.
10. Ton.app - SEO-focused rebuild for a marketplace and creating a CoinMarketCap-like functionality for Jettons ranking and analytics based on blockchain data. Join community.

We invite you to participate in our grants program as a project builder and evaluation contributor. As a builder, you can submit your project proposal on our Questbook page or join discussions on specific projects to ensure we support the best possible ideas.

TON Footsteps

We support projects that bolster the TON ecosystem as part of our TON Footsteps grant program. Since the program's launch, we've received 120 applications spanning various spheres - from technological innovations to educational resources, and from April to June, we've received as many as 53 approved footsteps.

The TON Footsteps grants demonstrate our commitment to ideas capable of significantly contributing to TON's development and making blockchain technology more accessible.

Performance Statistics:

• Footsteps Completed: 34 (~$66K)
• Approved footsteps: 53
• Proposals Processed: 63  

Education & Documentation

TON Footsteps' goal is to create easily digestible educational content that caters to individuals with varying levels of expertise, and you can already explore the community contributions, from Livecoding on Python, Learn send_mode and fees through Sandbox tests, to FunC lessons.

They also have an extensive documentation library where you can access documents on various technical topics related to TON. Among them, you can find documents such as How to Create a User-Friendly Config for TON or NFT Collection step-by-step.

Infrastructure & Tools

Developers can simplify their work on TON by using the available infrastructure and tools, saving countless work hours. If you're developing on TON, we recommend you to start with Developers Program: Footsteps or explore some of the handy tools such as Testnet coins Faucet Bot for Telegram or TON Timer.

Integrations & TON Connect 2.0

Last but not least, the recently launched TON Connect 2.0 provides the highest levels of security, a developer-friendly environment for the development of decentralized applications (dApps), and a streamlined user experience driven by real-time UX.

Thanks to the community contributors, you can now access TON Connect 2.0 in web wallets on TONFLOW, XTON, or DeWallet.

We urge you to continue to engage with our projects, exchange ideas, and provide feedback. Your contributions, whether testing, feedback, or information dissemination, play a crucial role in the success of our ecosystem.

The future of the TON blockchain is in your hands. Let's continue to build and enhance our ecosystem together.

Stay tuned! There are more achievements and news ahead.