This Q4 developers’ report outlines the TON Ecosystem’s progress and its significance for builders, with a special focus on the growing number of Telegram Web Apps (tApps) developed on TON. Our aim is to encourage new developers to build their solutions on TON as part of a Web3 SuperApp on Telegram, leveraging the platform’s extensive user base of 800 million monthly active users (MAU). We’ll guide you through TON’s development landscape, highlighting the opportunities that TON and Telegram offer to Web3 builders looking to create mass adoption of on-chain products.

Key Insights

2023 was a year of unprecedented success for TON, you could say it was our break-out year. The ecosystem saw remarkable expansion, user and developer growth, as well as technological enhancements.

Community growth

• The TON Developers Community on Telegram grew from 10957 members on October 1 to 13454 by the end of December, a 22.8% increase in Q4.
• In 2023, TON Society significantly enhanced its global presence with a record number of meetups and project onboarding. This includes the addition of 17 new projects within TON Society Europe, and the planning of over 80 offline meetups for the 2024 preseason.
• The Gateway Conference, TON Community’s first mass public event, attracted over 500 enthusiasts and 50,000 viewers on YouTube.
• A new TON Dev News Telegram channel was launched, providing the growing builder community with the latest updates on new services, tools, and libraries in TON.

Platform development

• In Q4, the tApps Center and the Telegram Mini Apps platform saw significant growth, with the addition of over 140 new apps to the catalog. The tApps Center achieved a new high of 12,000 MAU, a 75% increase from November. Additionally, a new community platform and an official open-source Telegram SDK repository were launched.
• Blueprint, the all-in-one tool for smart contracts on TON, and Sandbox, a testing framework for TON smart contracts, received key updates for faster verification and greater flexibility.
• TON set a new TPS World Record, verified by Certik, processing 104,715 transactions per second. The network far surpassed all competing blockchains as well as traditional CeFi payment services, including Visa and Mastercard. After this milestone, key updates were made to the mainnet, with more planned for Q1 2024. Additionally, TON has revised its node hardware requirements to improve system security. Please refer to the updated specifications for details.
• In December, TON processed over 80 million transactions in 15 days for incoming inscription ordinal projects. As a result of this success, TON Blockchain infrastructure has become stronger than ever before.
• A new version of Tact (1.1.5), a next-generation programming language for TON, was released that included 7 new language features. Additionally, Anton Trunov, a prominent Web3 developer recognized for his work on blockchain-oriented programming languages, has joined the TON Tact development team at TON Foundation.
• The Hack-TON-berfest event resulted in the creation of the new Tact Cookbook, an all-in-one guide for developers looking to start working with Tact on TON. Compared to 2022, the event saw a 6x increase in pull requests from 41 to 230 and a 7x rise in developer participation from 15 to 100.
• TVM (TON Virtual Machine) received a huge update, allowing developers to create a wider variety of smart contracts, services, and products on TON. This includes the new capability to develop Zero-Knowledge protocols, following extensive testing on the testnet and numerous bug bounties.
• IntelliJ IDEA's Language Server Protocol (LSP) compatibility means that the TON plugin for FunC and Tact will soon work with a range of other IDEs, including Vim, Sublime Text, Brackets, Emacs, Atom, and others.

Building opportunities

• Several new TON development competitions were recently held. These include the Liquidation Hackathon, TON Smart Challenge, an NFT Royalty Contest, the W5 Optimization Contest, and the Tact Challenge.
• The TON Bootcamp Program, a specialized camp for developers of Telegram Mini Apps, launched in collaboration with HashKey Capital, a major Singapore-based digital assets firm. Its goal is to create tangible payment and gaming solutions within Telegram’s Web3 ecosystem.
• Kucoin Ventures has announced a new partnership with TON Foundation to offer major grants aimed at developing the TON Ecosystem.
• GeckoTerminal by CoinGecko has rolled out support for TON Blockchain, an enhancement that improves the visibility and monitoring of DEXs within the TON Ecosystem.
• Animoca Brands has made a strategic investment in TON and unveiled its bespoke TON Analytics Dashboard.

Ecosystem Developments

Developer tools

2023 was the year of TON developers, and TON Foundation committed itself to providing builders with the necessary tools and resources to develop a Web3 SuperApp on Telegram and leverage its 800 million MAU for TON Web3 projects.

Telegram Mini Apps and the tApps Center

The tApps Center is the universal catalog for Telegram Web Apps, granting developers access to a platform with a user base of 800 million. The Trending Apps channel, showcasing newly launched apps, received an update featuring fresh illustrations and buttons, resulting in an 80% increase in conversion rate for the tApps Center launch.

This year, the tApps Center saw significant growth with over 140 new apps added in Q4 and a 90% increase in app launches in November, leading to 12,000 monthly active users — a 75% rise compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, ton.org updated the Telegram Mini Apps section to provide new builders with content for getting started with TON and Telegram development.

A new Telegram Web App GitHub Community has launched, bringing together developers to improve the Telegram Mini Apps builder experience. This repository provides tools, documentation, examples, and tutorials, with 16 new app examples and development tools introduced in October. A TMA Playground Bot for testing Mini Apps was launched, and an official Telegram SDK was also open sourced for Mini Apps developers. Telegram released Bot API 7.0, the biggest update for the Bot Platform.

TVM (TON Virtual Machine)

TVM (TON Virtual Machine) underwent a major update, enabling developers to create a wider variety of smart contracts, services, and products on TON. Following this update, various TON projects have already developed new services using the improved TVM features, including the Tonnel Network, Redstone, EVAA Protocol, TON Teleport, and Clean.ton. More information about the technical documentation is available here.

TON Connect

In Q4 2023, a collaborative effort between TonTech, Telegram, Wallet, Tonkeeper, Getgems, TON Diamonds, and other teams resulted in substantial improvements to the TON Connect SDK. This effort culminated in the release of new versions, @tonconnect/sdk 3.0.0 and @tonconnect/ui 2.0.0, which included more than 50 enhancements and bug fixes.

Blueprint and Sandbox

Blueprint, TON’s all-in-one tool for smart contact development, rolled out a new version (0.15.0). The update includes the introduction of a ‘verify’ command, streamlining contract verification on verifier.ton.org. Additionally, custom API v2 endpoints have been incorporated, catering to testing needs within private TON APIs, and enhancing flexibility for developers.

Sandbox, TON’s testing framework for smart contracts, also rolled out a new version (0.15.0) with new TVM opcodes support.

Tact

A new programming language for the TON Blockchain that is focused on efficiency and simplicity, Tact, has recently been updated to version 1.1.5. This release coincides with the introduction of a forward-looking Tact roadmap, which incorporates insights from over 10 active developers within the TON Community. Additionally, the recent Hack-TON-berfest event saw the creation of the Tact Cookbook, now a vital guide for newcomers to the TON Ecosystem. In a notable update, Anton Trunov, a prominent Web3 developer, has joined the TON Tact development team at TON Foundation.

The Gateway Conference

The Gateway Conference in November 2023 was a major milestone for TON Community, featuring partnerships with key crypto players like Orbs, Kucoin, Cointelegraph, and Bybit. This first major public event attracted over 500 attendees and 50,000 online viewers. It brought together a diverse group of creators, builders, startups, and investors, with more than 20 TON ecosystem teams like Notcoin, TON Diamonds, and EthSign showcasing their projects.

TON Society

TON Society is TON’s new on-chain social network, aimed at growing regional TON communities across the world. It focuses on hosting offline events to connect enthusiasts and attract local investors to engage with TON projects. In Q3 of 2023, the platform introduced user profiles and distributed SBT rewards for all prior activities. This initiative aims to enhance communication between ecosystem participants based on their expertise and contribute to on-chain analytics. Notably, 29 activities were added, resulting in over 3,300 SBTs being issued, and more than 1,600 users have already registered on the platform.

Europe

In 2023, TON Society Europe experienced significant growth, onboarding 17 new projects and participating in key crypto events. Highlights included an exclusive presentation at Web Summit 2023, focusing on the potential of the Telegram Mini Apps platform for TON Web3 developers and successful events in Amsterdam and Prague, attracting over 250 attendees. A significant milestone was the development of the ONBOT tool by Prague TON Workshop winners, a critical asset in introducing new members to the TON Ecosystem.

Asia

Following the announcement of TON’s new APAC Initiative at The Gateway, TON Society Asia also experienced a year of great progress. TON Foundation and TonFura’s meetup at Taipei Blockchain Week attracted over 30 new developers. Additionally, Starbase Asia Urban Action’s events in Shanghai and Hong Kong, centered on TON, drew over 220 participants. In Chengdu, a notable workshop co-organized with ScaleBit and Starbase brought together over 100 attendees, featuring startup showcases and four keynotes.

In Thailand, there was a breakthrough local meet-up led by TON Foundation’s Developer Relations representative in partnership with SCB 10x, Thailand’s largest Web3 incubator. In South Korea, key events included an AMA session with DKODO DAO and a presentation from the TON Society Korea lead at the BlockFesta Conference, highlighting Telegram Mini Apps and TON Space for game development.

In India, TON Society hosted a hugely successful hackathon at Delhi University, attracting 3500 online and 700 offline participants. Other key initiatives included a Tact Workshop in Ahmedabad and the launch of the Tact-onboarding challenge, drawing over 100 participants. The TON India team made a significant impact at India Blockchain Week 2023 in Bangalore as sponsors and speakers, as well as collaborating with major industry players such as Graviton and Web3 Carnival.

Talk with us

If you have any ideas on how to enhance the TON Ecosystem for developers, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We constantly seek feedback to improve the environment and our reports for builders. Please use the feedback form here.