A team of developers affiliated with The Open Network (TON) on Telegram is set to extend their reach into Ethereum using a solution powered by Polygon. On Tuesday, the team, led by Pavel Altukhov, introduced the TON Applications Chain (TAC) at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Brussels, Belgium. This new layer-2 (L2) chain aims to facilitate connectivity between EVM-based decentralized applications (dapps) and The Open Network (TON).
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) serves as the operational hub for the majority of Ethereum-based smart contract developments, allowing developers to create tools compatible with the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) chain. According to Altukhov’s group, the forthcoming layer-2 network will be constructed using Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK) to extend TON’s ecosystem beyond its origins as a private messenger app.
Alenka Shmalko, ecosystem lead at TON Foundation, and Antony Tsivarev, the foundation’s director of ecosystem development, clarified that the TON Foundation is not behind the TAC initiative. This announcement was made to dispel several reports claiming that the foundation was responsible for the project.
This development is part of a broader trend of entities deploying layer-2 networks aimed at scaling Ethereum by leveraging its robust security while offering considerably lower transaction fees compared to the Ethereum mainnet. In April, crypto exchange OKX launched its own layer-2 network based on Polygon’s CDK, named the “X Layer.” Additionally, Coinbase has introduced a similar solution called Base.
TON and Telegram have maintained a significant presence in the crypto space in recent months. The social network has enabled developers to build dapps directly on its platform, tapping into a global user base of 900 million people. Mini-games such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat have surged in popularity, rapidly onboarding hundreds of millions of users through gamified activities.
As these mini-games continue to gain traction, the sustainability of this trend and its potential to draw more users into the Web3 ecosystem remain topics of keen interest.
: A bridge between EVM-based dapps and The Open Network, leveraging Polygon for next-gen connectivity.){kind=link}