Cryptopedia - Toncoin

## What Is Toncoin (TON)? Toncoin (TON) is the native cryptocurrency of the decentralized layer-1 blockchain, The Open Network (TON). The TON blockchain is open-sourced and supported by many network contributors, including the Switzerland-based non-profit organization, the TON Foundation. [Since 2017](https://telegram.org/blog/ton-gram-notice), the Telegram team had been developing the codebase for a blockchain network, then named Telegram Open Network (TON), with a native cryptocurrency named 'Gram.' In May 2020, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov [announced](https://telegra.ph/What-Was-TON-And-Why-It-Is-Over-05-12) the end of Telegram's involvement with the TON Blockchain following a court order by the SEC. The Gram token was never issued. Since 2020, the technology has been developed by an independent community of developers and blockchain enthusiasts. The non-profit TON Foundation is the most prominent of these supporters. The blockchain was renamed from "Telegram Open Network" to "The Open Network," with Toncoin now the native cryptocurrency of the TON network. The whitepaper [contains](https://docs.ton.org/learn/docs) part of the original codebase written by Dr. Nikolai Durov, co-founder of Telegram and brother of Pavel Durov. Toncoin utilizes the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model for network scalability and reliability. TON Foundation's vision is to empower 500 million users to own their digital identity, data, and assets by 2028 by empowering developers to build a Web3 ecosystem in Telegram Messenger.