The TON development roadmap includes exciting milestones like the stablecoin toolkit, sharding tools, and native bridges for BTC, ETH, and BNB. While no release dates are confirmed, we expect these features to roll out in 2024. Here’s a breakdown of the upcoming updates, their potential impact on the network, and whether they’ll influence TON staking rewards.
Gasless Transactions
This is one of the most groundbreaking developments on the TON roadmap. TON could become the first major blockchain to offer gasless transactions, attracting users from other ecosystems.
Currently, all blockchains require users to pay gas fees to prevent spamming. TON might subsidize gas fees in specific cases, such as Telegram wallet or USDT transfers, to make daily usage seamless. Imagine sending $5 to a friend on Telegram without needing their wallet address or paying a transaction fee—this would revolutionize blockchain usability.
Changes to Staking
Collator and Validator Separation
This update addresses scalability by separating the roles of validators and collators. Validators currently manage the entire network state, which becomes impractical as TON scales to handle 500 million Telegram users by 2028.
With sharding, the network will split into multiple shard chains, each with its own validator subset. Validators will validate blocks, while collators will store the shard’s state and assemble blocks. This division reduces resource demands and ensures secure scaling to billions of users.
Although this change adds complexity to validation, staking rewards are not expected to decrease. Collators will likely receive rewards alongside validators, and Tonstakers’ liquid staking remains as profitable as ever.
Sharding Guidelines and Tools
Sharding will require centralized exchanges, payment systems, and TON-based apps to adapt. To ease this transition, TON developers are preparing tools and documentation to support sharding implementation.
Slashing Optimization
Slashing penalizes validators for poor performance, such as missed blocks or fraudulent transactions. Currently, TON uses a complaint-based mechanism for slashing.
The planned optimization will automate this process, enhancing network security. Initially, liquid staking protocols will be protected from slashing, guaranteeing user rewards. Later, slashing will extend to liquid staking, slightly reducing APY to account for misbehaving validators.
Elector and Config Contracts Updates
These updates will allow Tonstakers users to vote on network proposals. This brings greater inclusivity to governance and increases user engagement with the TON ecosystem.
Decentralized Finance
Several updates in this category aim to boost the TON DeFi ecosystem.
TON Stablecoin Toolkit
While details are scarce, this toolkit will likely enable the issuance of algorithmic stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies (e.g., EUR, GBP, NZD). Given TON’s integration with Telegram, this could lead to fiat payments for Telegram services using stablecoins, expanding TON’s use cases.
Jetton Bridge
Jetton Bridge will allow users to transfer TON tokens like tsTON to other chains. This could pave the way for tsTON on platforms like Uniswap.
ETH, BNB, and BTC Bridge
TON plans to introduce official bridges for major cryptocurrencies. This will enhance TON’s ecosystem by facilitating seamless transfers and trading.
Extra Currencies
TON will support the creation of native-like tokens, known as extra currencies. Unlike Jettons, these tokens will be stored directly in user accounts, making transactions 2–3x cheaper. Bridging BTC, ETH, and USDT as extra currencies could attract more users to TON, simplifying access to major cryptocurrencies within a single ecosystem.
Our Conclusions
The TON roadmap introduces significant upgrades that expand its utility and appeal. Gasless transactions, native currencies, and bridges stand out as key updates that will enhance everyday usability and attract new users.
For us at Tonstakers, validator and collator separation, slashing optimization, and staking contract updates are especially relevant. These changes will maintain staking APY and bring voting rights to liquid staking users, empowering them to participate in network governance.
We’re excited to see how these updates shape the future of TON in 2024!