SVET Reports
Chained Telegram - Free TON
One thing is certain in our chaotic space during those uncertain times - once an idea gets traction among sufficiently large group of developers, then, regardless its 'objective' value in the eyes of the rest of our community, it becomes very difficult even to the world's ultimate superpower to eradicate it.
That seems what has happened with Telegram TON's project.
In February 2020 the so-called 'TON Community Foundation', headed by Fedor Skuratov (at the time - a communications manager at TON Labs ), filed 'a friend of the court brief' in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York claiming that the TON community 'has about 2,000 active participants and the TON Blockchain is fully operational and could be launched on a 5-second notice'.
Obviously, it was aimed to provide additional ammunition to the raging battle between Durov's Brothers and the SEC. However, as this fight got south during the next three months, TON Community declared itself independent from the Telegram company and announced that their 'main mission is to enable the fastest and the most effective development of TON as a decentralized system through collaboration and cooperation'. This project is now known as 'Free TON' - essentially, the Telegram TON's first hard fork.
My attention was captured by those new developments and in the following brief review I intend to rank this fledgling project on "Vision" (Singularity- Volume- Empathy- Timing) sub-scale:
I think that there are no doubts that project's deliberate 'Timing' is far from ideal - most potential users / investors are now a bit too busy with getting unemployed / deleveraged to pay attention to a new coin.
However, of course, it doesn't mean that some Telegram's former financial backers can't be re-engaged by the perspective to capitalize on TON's brand-name and its ready-to-launch code. Result: 'c+'
Additionally, I'm not sure that without Telegram's 400 million users (with 1.5 million signing every day) 'Free TON' has any 'Singularity' left in it. Its PoS consensus protocol (Catchain) looks to me sufficiently solid technically but not original ideologically. Consequently, 'c+'.
Same goes to 'Volume', but with a lofty bonus because 'Free TON' can reasonably expect up to 1% (4 million) of the Telegram's rapidly expanding community to join their network for the simple reason of name-recognition. However, it will also require some marketing job done very well. Result: 'b-'.
Now to 'Empathy'. Currently the Foundation counts only 34 full members (mostly former Telegram devs from EU and China as well as several disenfranchised TON investors and aligned with Telegram startups founders). Nonetheless, they can claim some of TON's legacy to themselves. Moreover, their declared commitment to 'decentralization ideals' might be very compelling to many DLT enthusiasts. Result: 'a-'
SVET Rating: "Vision" (Singularity- Volume- Empathy- Timing): c+/b-/a-/c+