[Hackers]

Long term, are you buying TON ? Cool smart contract systems, parallel community & software, assumed privacy, global access.

[Money-]

I am buying nodes , what you think? I think is a good coin.

[Au Jus Demon]

They’re honestly ahead of most platforms with how they’ve integrated TON into Telegram.

The whole flow from card payments to Stars to TON is really smooth.

Being able to use it directly in bots, apps, and contracts makes it feel way more built-in than anything else right now.

[Cooligan]

I'm absolutely invested in TON, specifically due to Telegram's total adoption of it.

Sites like Fragment are extremely popular and only continuing to grow as the Telegram userbase grows. Currently, they're already sitting at over 1 billion MAUs, which eclipses many other chat platforms, even ones like Discord, which only has around 200M+ MAUs.

It's clear that even after being fedded, Telegram is in it for the long haul, and with that, so is TON and the heavy use of it. Again, that's 1B+ MAUs potentially adopting and/or already using TON.

[Mewtwo]

TON is only good because they have a crazy market for telegram usernames and phone numbers. If Telegram starts to become law enforcement compliant, which they became recently because the founder was arrested, I wouldn’t be surprised in the future it becomes obsolete because it’s used as a spy tool. There’s only so much you can conduct criminal activities over a clear net like Telegram but not face consequences for those actions. Especially with fraud.

[Hackers]

TON is only good because they have a crazy market for telegram usernames and phone numbers. If Telegram starts to become law enforcement compliant, which they became recently because the founder was arrested, I wouldn’t be surprised in the future it becomes obsolete because it’s used as a spy tool. There’s only so much you can conduct criminal activities over a clear net like Telegram but not face consequences for those actions. Especially with fraud.

I assume everything is backdoored and complying with law enforcement and then anything more private is a plus. I know what you mean, but I don't know if his arrest changes much. They still operate in France.

[Omniscient]

I haven't done research yet on TON. I don't think I knew Telegram integrated it. I asked AI about the privacy aspect.

AI Quote: ## The Open Network (TON) – How Privacy Works

TON does not function as a default privacy coin like Monero. Instead, it combines a transparent base layer with optional privacy-enhancing techniques and ecosystem-level tools.

Here’s how privacy works on TON:

---

## 1️⃣ Base Layer: Pseudonymous, Not Anonymous

At its core, TON is:
Public ledger
All transactions are visible on-chain Wallet addresses are long cryptographic hashes
No real-world identity is stored on-chain

This is similar to:
Bitcoin
Ethereum

If your wallet address becomes linked to your identity (for example via exchange KYC), your transaction history can be traced.

So base TON = pseudonymous transparency.

---

## 2️⃣ TON Wallet Model

TON uses:
Public key → address derivation
Smart contract–based wallets High-speed sharded architecture

Privacy implications:

You can generate unlimited wallets. No native link between wallets unless you reuse them.
Transactions are publicly readable in block explorers.

There is no built-in ring signature, stealth address, or zk-SNARK system like Monero or Zcash.

---

## 3️⃣ Telegram Integration Privacy

TON is deeply integrated with:

## Telegram

This is where things get interesting.

Telegram-based TON wallets (like Wallet bot) may:
Associate wallet with Telegram account
Potentially link blockchain activity to phone number Involve custodial layers

So privacy depends heavily on:

Whether you use custodial vs non-custodial wallet Whether you verify identity
Whether you interact with regulated exchanges

Telegram ≠ anonymous by default.

---

## 4️⃣ Smart Contract Privacy Patterns

Developers can build:
Escrow contracts
Proxy contracts Payment relayers
Mixer-style protocols (theoretically)

But TON does not have:
Native mixer protocol
Mandatory transaction obfuscation Default confidential transactions

Privacy must be built at the app layer.

---

## 5️⃣ TON DNS & Human-Readable Names

TON supports:

.ton domain names Human-readable addresses

Privacy issue:
If you attach your real identity to a .ton name, it becomes publicly linked to your wallet.

So convenience reduces privacy.

---

## 6️⃣ Network-Level Privacy

TON does not use:

Tor-level onion routing by default Dandelion++ transaction spreading
Mandatory IP obfuscation

Your IP privacy depends on:
Whether you use a VPN
Whether your wallet connects via light client vs remote node

---

## 7️⃣ What TON Does Well (Privacy-Adjacent Strengths)

TON has:
Massive scalability via dynamic sharding
Very fast finality Smart contract flexibility
Low transaction fees

This enables privacy tools to be built — but they are not protocol-enforced.

---

# 🔎 Direct Comparison

| Feature | TON | Monero |
| -------------------- | --- | ------------------------- |
| Public ledger | Yes | No (effectively obscured) |
| Ring signatures | No | Yes |
| Stealth addresses | No | Yes |
| Confidential amounts | No | Yes |
| Default privacy | No | Yes |

TON = transparent smart contract chain
Monero = privacy-first design

---

# 🧠 Bottom Line

TON privacy =
Pseudonymous
Transparent Wallet hygiene dependent
App-layer optional
* Telegram-linked in many cases

It is closer to Ethereum than to Monero.

What's interesting is that there is potential for HF integration use-case with their Escrow of TON and maybe integration with HF Contracts.

While HF will never escrow funds. That doesn't mean I can't integrate an escrow system. I never want to hold funds, ever. I don't want the responsibility legally. But if I can piggyback off TG's integration, well, now we're talking potential.

[SUI-3183372]

TON have built a walled garden around its ecosystem rather than aiming for interoperability. Gives them more control over their own environment, but they severed interest from the broader web3 landscape by locking down so hard. Telegram stars aren't going to fuel any massive growth. When they further locked Telegram down to no longer play nicely with other chains, we saw TON plummet as an exodus of half of their user base took place.