Telegram to Launch TON Blockchain Public Testing on Sept. 1

Telegram Open Network’s (TON) blockchain public testing will launch on Sept. 1, according to one of the investors.

On Aug. 28, Russian news outlet Vedomosti quoted an anonymous TON investor claiming to have learned this information from the development team, and the head of one of the companies that participated in the testing so far.

According to the outlet’s sources, TON’s node software and all relevant documentation would be released to the public on Sept. 1. This first version of the blockchain is already expected to feature sharding and various functional consensus mechanisms, the source added.

A blockchain that was popular from the start

TON project is a decentralized application and messaging platform developed by open source messenger Telegram’s team. The blockchain is planned to be integrated into the messaging app used by over 200 million people.

The firm is planning to launch its native TON token — Gram — by the end of Q3 2019. In July, Cointelegraph reported that South Korean Gram Asia began to sell Grams at $4 per token — triple the initial coin offering price.

As Cointelegraph also reported in May, encrypted instant messaging service Telegram released a test client for TON, according to an email sent to investors.