🥇 Telegram Contest Is Nearing the End — Time to Act

There’s only a little time left until the end of Blockchain Contest, Round 1, organized by the Telegram and TON Core teams. The total prize pool ranges from $100,000 to $200,000, with rewards distributed based on each participant’s overall contribution.

✍️ Participants are required to complete one or both tasks: Blockchain Validation, which involves C++ code optimization, and/or Trustless Bridge, where they must implement a trustless bridge between TON Testnet and Fastnet to verify transactions across networks.

Winners will also have the opportunity to compete in Stage 2, with the potential to join the Telegram or TON Core teams or receive support to launch a real TVM sidechain for TON.

👨‍💻 A new Contest was also recently announced for JavaScript developers, featuring two main tasks: rebuilding the text editor from scratch and redesigning the Chat Folders appearance.

🔥 Don’t miss the chance to participate in these exciting challenges and showcase your skills, as your contributions could play a significant role in advancing the ecosystem and making it even better.

💰 DEX: What You Need to Know About Decentralized Trading

In our recent article 'A Quick & Easy Way to Buy $TON', we briefly touched on decentralized exchanges (DEX). These platforms allow users to trade digital assets directly with one another, eliminating the need for intermediaries. Now, we'd like to take a closer look at this topic.

🔎 What distinguishes DEX from centralized exchanges:

DEXs offer notable freedom — no registration is required, allowing users to trade directly from their wallets and maintain full control of their assets.

Transparency is another key feature: every trade and action is recorded on the blockchain, meaning anyone can verify transactions.

Many DEXs use Automated Market Makers (AMM), replacing traditional order books with liquidity pools. This allows trades to occur at any time, with prices set by a formula, so there’s no need to wait for a buyer or seller to match orders.

🏛 Some DEXs available directly in Telegram:

STON.fi and DeDust.io are two exchanges, natively built on TON Blockchain, that have gained recognition for their convenient user experience.

TONCO stands out from other DEXs in the ecosystem due to its concentrated liquidity. This feature lets liquidity providers set conditions, such as contributing to the pool only when the price is within a certain range.

⚡️ With these innovative features, DEXs offer a unique trading experience, providing more control, transparency, and flexibility compared to traditional exchanges.

🚀 Steve Yun Launches TVM Ventures: A $100 Million Fund to Drive DeFi and PayFi

Steve Yun, former president of the TON Foundation, has launched TVM Ventures, a $100 million fund aimed at driving the widespread adoption of DeFi, PayFi, infrastructure, and security projects within the TON ecosystem.

Previously, Steve Yun has made substantial investments in TON in a personal capacity — this support has been significant to many creators and highly appreciated.

🪙 The abbreviation "TVM" stands for "TON Virtual Machine," which executes smart contracts on TON. The fund targets projects built on TVM, not only within the main TON mainnet but also across potential new workchains tailored for specific use cases.

The fund has emphasized as one of its key advantages TON's exclusive right to support Telegram's growing ecosystem of mini apps, which foster the development of mass-market services and products. Given this, can we await even more financial apps powered by TON in Apps Center?

📣 TVM Ventures has already invested in several TON-based startups, and the fund may play a key role in increasing the popularity of TON and its integration into everyday life.

💰 Liquid Staking: A Smarter Way to Stake on Blockchain

In maintaining blockchain functionality, staking plays a crucial role — it involves locking assets in smart contracts with a predefined reward. Users provide the blockchain with currency, which it utilizes for transaction processing.

📚 An advanced solution for PoS blockchains, including TON, is liquid staking, enabling users to earn staking rewards while utilizing their assets in DeFi. This is achieved by "wrapping" staked tokens and issuing a liquid staking derivative (LSD), which serves as both a receipt and a claim for the original collateral.

You can reclaim your tokens at any time by exchanging the derivative for the originally staked currency.

💎 Liquid staking platforms on TON:

For several years, liquid staking capabilities, has been available on TON, with popular apps like bemo, Stakee, and Hipo App. All of these are directly available in our Apps Center, making them easily accessible for Telegram users.

📈 One of the key advantages of liquid staking is the ability to use LSD on decentralized exchanges. Check out our recent post about DEXs on TON and discover how these platforms offer more control and transparency for trading digital assets.

🪙 SBTs Explained: How They Work and What They Offer

With the recent update to Telegram Gifts, more people have been introduced to NFTs, yet the concept of Soulbound Tokens (SBT) remains unfamiliar to many. Simply put, SBTs are NFTs owned by a single person that cannot be transferred or sold to anyone else.

Its name originates from the game World of Warcraft, where the term "Soulbound" was introduced. In the game, it referred to items that, once obtained, were permanently tied to a player and couldn't be given or traded to others.

📖 By concept, soulbound tokens are used as a way to display achievements of a specific wallet, sell subscriptions, or function as online verification.

SBTs can be earned by participating in various activities such as app testing, completing courses, or attending exclusive AMA sessions, among others. The password required to receive the SBT in your wallet is often provided during these activities.

📊 How to track your SBTs?

To facilitate this, the TON Society team has launched a Telegram bot that stores data about your SBTs and provides information on ongoing activities within the ecosystem. There are several types of events available, including Open Leagues, Offline Bootcamps, various Meetups, and more.

🔗 Connect your TON wallet to the bot and explore the world of SBTs, which opens up new opportunities for ecosystem participants.

🤿 How Quest Platforms Open the Door to Diving into the Ecosystem

In our previous post, we explored the concept of SBTs and their potential applications across various fields. However, to give a fuller understanding, it's important to discuss where you can obtain soulbound tokens. To do so, let's take a look at quest platforms.

👨‍🏫 In a nutshell, a quest platform is a bot where you complete various tasks to earn rewards. These rewards come in different formats, but most commonly, they are in-game points that can later be converted into NFTs, SBTs, or cryptocurrency.

🔍 Where to start quests on Telegram?

To begin exploring quest platforms, you can use Apps Center. Some applications regularly organize joint campaigns, such as BroBot Contests, which is currently collaborating with DeDust.io, and TBook, which is hosting the Late Night DeFi campaign. You can also begin through GemsWall, which offers a variety of opportunities and rewards, including SBTs, for users.

🤖 Quest bots provide an engaging way to approach the world of cryptocurrency and TON in particular, especially if you're unsure where to start. By completing tasks, you'll interact with the ecosystem and will undoubtedly find something new that captures your attention.

🚀 Big Giveaway: 1400 USDT in TON + 2 Ultra-Rare Asics! 🎉

We’re teaming up with Satoshi Game to bring you an epic giveaway with a total prize pool of 1400 USDT in TON and 2 ultra-rare Asic Model Y miners (worth ~$1200 each)!

How to Join?
Winning is just a few clicks away!

1️⃣ Open @satoshi_game_bot
2️⃣ Buy our custom Asic (First in the list)
3️⃣ Done! You’re in the game 🎮

What’s Up for Grabs?
🏆 142 Lucky Winners:
• 140 people – $10 USDT each in TON
• 2 winners – Super-rare Asic Model Y (~$1200 each)

Don’t miss your chance to mine your way to victory!

Winners will be picked randomly and announced in our channel.

Friendly reminder: don't forget to connect your wallet to participate and receive rewards