The First NFTs on The TON Blockchain Are Coming Soon

NFT collectors have reason to keep a close eye on the TON blockchain following its announcement on Telegram that it will launch its first nonfungible tokens this year.

TON’s announcement regarding its forthcoming NFT platform and marketplace was brief, with very few details given away other than to say it will go live this year. However, it did reveal what the first NFTs on its platform will look like – animated diamonds that will no doubt become extremely sought after once they go on sale.

The TON Diamonds project is being led by a team of “NFT pioneers” on the Open Network platform. Very little has been said about the NFTs or their utility so far, but what we do know is that there will be exactly 10,000 of them minted, and that lucky buyer will be able to store them on the Tonkeeper mobile wallet.

TON added that half of the proceeds of the sale will be used to fund the development of new products and services for the TON ecosystem, though it remains to be seen exactly what they are.

Nevertheless, the announcement of an NFT marketplace tells us that TON is deadly serious about its ambition to achieve “mass adoption” by the end of 2022. The team led by Russian developer Anatoly Makosov announced the goal last month, promising big things for the blockchain that sees itself as the foundation of a decentralized web3 infrastructure.

An NFT platform is of course a must-have for any blockchain to become a viable alternative to the likes of Ethereum, which is one of the projects TON is aiming to displace. That’s just one of the multiple necessary ingredients though.

TON’s roadmap also calls for the launch of its decentralized storage platform, a DNS service, its cross-chain TON Workchains that will allow it to connect to other blockchain platforms and its first DeFi services. In a sign of its ambition, TON recently announced it expects to have all of those up and running by the end of the year.

The recent noise from the TON community may come as a surprise, as many had thought the project to be dead and buried back in 2019 when its plans were derailed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The project was originally set up by Telegram founder Pavel Durov. However, he was forced to abandon it in 2020 due to threats of heavy fines by the SEC.

With Durov no longer running the show, the open-source community quickly stepped up under the leadership of Makosov and it has made strong progress over the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, Durov continues to advocate for the project, recently announcing to his followers on Telegram that TON is alive and evolving fast.

Durov explained,

When it comes to scalability and speed, TON is still years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm.