TON Core: Roadmap 2025 H1

TON Core

1. Accelerator Mainnet Upgrade

For more than a year and a half, the TON Core team has been working in parallel with the current tasks on a major network upgrade to realize the ultimate blockchain architecture described in the TON whitepaper. This upgrade has been dubbed “Accelerator”.

Last year we successfully ran a Performance Test on the test network, setting a world performance record on this new version of the code.

At this point, the research phase is now complete and we are starting to upgrade the mainnet. Given the scope of the changes, the process will be phased with thorough testing at each step. The first phase was successfully completed in December and all steps are scheduled to be completed within six months.

Key changes:

Shardchain tracking optimization
Nodes in the network will only track the masterchain and specific shardchains, instead of the current process where each node tracks all shardchains. This will significantly improve node performance.
Separation of validator functions
The validator will be split into two separate components:
Collator - collects transactions and generates block candidates.
Validator - validates the blocks.
This separation is necessary to implement the previous point, and will allow these tasks to be performed in parallel, which will also increase the performance of the node.

Key benefits:

Infinite sharding
The update will enable infinite sharding, so the blockchain can handle even higher loads in a stable manner.
Increased network stability
Regardless of the level of load, the blockrate will remain stable, ensuring that the blockchain runs smoothly.
Reduced resource requirements
The ability to track only specific shardchains will allow faster and more efficient reading of data from the blockchain with less resource consumption.
Stable transaction processing times
While the update will not affect the speed of a single transaction, it will ensure stable transaction processing times even during peak loads. For example, if a swap transaction on DEX takes X seconds, this time will remain the same even under high network load.

The proposed technical steps are:

1. ✅ Support partial lite-server in config.json

2. ✅ Overlays for collators

3. Developing protocol that allow validator lets its collator into overlay.

4. Testing collator-validator setup in testnet without enabled collated_data

5. Solving issue of too large collated_data due to storage stats calculation

6. Adding queues to collated_data

7. Testing collator-validator setup in testnet with enabled collated_data

8. Testing collator-validator setup in testnet with validators not monitoring shards

9. Optimistic collation: collator generate and send blocks to validators upfront.

2. New tools for validators

The stability of the blockchain is directly dependent on the efficient operation of validators, which is determined by the quality of hardware, network infrastructure, professional administration and speed of emergency response.

In the coming months, the TON Core team will introduce new tools designed to simplify the work of validator holders:

MyTonCtrl's restore-from-backup functionality will allow to quickly move the validator to another server, which is especially useful in case of force majeure in the data center.
Telegram bots for notifications about validator status, fines, the need to participate in updates or voting, as well as emergency events in the network.
Web-dashboard with an up-to-date list of validators, their performance metrics, status of software updates, and progress of network-wide votes.
Improved documentation, including detailed instructions for new validators to make onboarding and follow-up easier.

Despite the anonymity of many validators in the TON network, for known participants, the TON Core team plans to:

Improving technical support processes.
Organizing workshops and AMA sessions to share experiences and discuss current issues.

Strengthening penalty mechanisms

Along with the launch of new tools, TON Core is considering strengthening penalties. For example, a validator who has not created a single block in a round will receive a more significant penalty. However, thanks to the system of prompt notifications and the ability to quickly move the validator to another server, responsible validators will be able to avoid such situations.

Protection against DDoS attacks

In parallel, work is underway on the next version of TON Proxy, which will strengthen the protection of validators from DDoS attacks. Implementation of this update may take more than half a year.

3. New version of Toncenter API with new functionality.

Efficient blockchain operation is important in its own right, but it is equally critical to provide fast response to user actions in application UI. To do this, APIs and indexers must offer the necessary functionality.

Upcoming improvements to the Toncenter API

Improved Traces API
Improved functionality for tracking and analyzing transaction chains.
Actions API
Automatically recognize and present transaction chains in a human-readable way. For example, instead of a set of raw data, data will be given to understandable descriptions: “Exchange 10 USDT for 10 DOGS on DeDust”.
TON DNS support

Plans for the following versions of Toncenter API:

Pending API
Ability to retrieve data about pending transactions and transactions chains. For example: “Pending swap 10 USDT to 10 DOGS”.
Emulation API
API to emulate transactions before they are sent to the blockchain. This will allow developers and users to see the possible outcome of a transaction in advance.

Although similar functionality is already implemented in other APIs such as the TON API, the TON Core team believes it is important to offer an alternative in the form of the Toncenter API. This will give ecosystem products more flexibility and freedom of choice, which is especially important for the sustainable development of TON infrastructure.

4. UX guidelines and work with some of the leading community products DeDust, MyTonWallet, TonScan.org, ton.diamonds, stakee.

API development should happen in close collaboration with real ecosystem products. The TON Core team has already reached preliminary agreements to collaborate with key independent projects such as DeDust DEX, MyTonWallet, tonscan.org, ton.diamonds, and stakee.

TON Core plans to offer recommendations for improving user experience (UX), which will include the following principles:

Human-readable actions
Displaying transactions in a simple and easy to understand way. For example: “Deposit 100 TON on Stakee” instead of complex technical data.
Instant action visualization
Quickly display user transactions in services, explorers and wallets in Pending status.
Optimistic UX
For example:
For token transfers: the UI can immediately report the success of the transaction without waiting for all transaction chain to be fully executed.
For DEX exchanges: the success of a transaction can be determined already at an intermediate stage of transaction chain execution.
Cross-ecosystem experience
User actions should be displayed synchronously in all types of products: DEX, explorers, wallets and other services.

In addition to participating in shaping the UX guideline, the TON Core team plans to:

Add the necessary functionality to the Toncenter API to support the above enhancements.
to assist these products on shardchain optimization of smart contracts and expand the public guideline based on lessons learned.
Standardize ID for Pending transactions

5. Payment Network Layer 2 release

The top priority of Layer 1 of the TON blockchain is the ability to scale and be able to support operations with 500 million active users.

The design of Layer 1 focused on scalability and decentralization rather than maximum speed of single transaction or minimum fees. Nevertheless, the current speed and network fees fully meet the needs of mass users for everyday activities.

To enable high-frequency transactions such as:

high-frequency onchain trading;
instant-response gaming;

sidechains or Layer 2 solutions can be used.

One such solution is Payment Network, a Layer 2 system based on payment channels and described in the original TON whitepaper.

Payment Network allows for:

Instant transfers with micro-commissions between users;
Simple asset swaps;

At the moment Payment Network has reached the Beta stage: we have a working prototype, but it has not yet been fully tested and audited.

Payment Network development plans:

Testing and finalizing the current prototype.
Adding support for jettons and extra-currencies.
Adding support for swaps at the next stage.

6. Research on sidechains

Layer 2 solutions and sidechains can be implemented in many different ways. One interesting direction that the TON Core is considering is TVM sidechains, which are individual TON-based blockchains running on a small number of validators.

This approach is particularly relevant for side-activities (e.g., high-frequency onchain trading) that prioritize transaction speed over scalability, as these activities do not involve mass audiences.

The TON Core team does not plan to launch and support such sidechains on its own, but is willing to actively participate in their research and development.

This will include:

Holding contests to develop such solutions.
Providing expertise and technical support.

Bridges or trustless bridges can be used to enable interoperability between the TON Layer 1 blockchain and TVM sidechains.

If this direction becomes popular and widely used, it will be worth considering the use of workchain technology for efficient communication between Layer 1 and sidechains.

7. New version of TOLK 1.0 programming language with structures, pattern-matching and smart contract interfaces

The TON Core team is actively working on a new version of the TOLK 1.0 programming language, the key innovations of which will be:

Improved type system.
Support for structures with automatic serialization.
Introduction of pattern-matching syntax

It is planned to be completed within six months.

Properly designed structures in TOLK 1.0 open up opportunities for creating smart contract interfaces, which will be an important step for standardizing interactions in the ecosystem.

TON Core plans to work on the interfaces in close collaboration with the community so that the final solution becomes a unified standard not only for the TOLK language, but also for ecosystem products, network explorers, development tools, etc.

Once the common smart contract interfaces have been developed, the TON Core team will be able to start developing a standard for secure typed signature of arbitrary data.

Besides the language, we are synchronously developing development tools: IntelliJ IDEA Plugin, VS Code Plugin, TOLK support in Blueprint.

Planned steps on the way to TOLK 1.0:

Improving the compiler internals and the type system. Add the bool type. Release Tolk v0.7
Syntax tensorVar.0 and tupleVar.0. Allow identifiers like cell, typle, etc. Release Tolk v0.8
Nullable types T? and smart casts via a control flow graph. Release Tolk v0.9
Types int32 and similar. Types bytesN and bitsN. Type coins with a helper function ton("0.05"). Release Tolk v0.10
Type aliases, union types, and pattern matching. Release Tolk v0.11
Structures: Simple structures. Generics. Auto-serialization to cells. Deserialization from cells. During this phase, alpha builds will be available for early adopters.
Non-compiler features: various tooling improvements.
Contract ABI autogeneration from code and structures.
Release Tolk v1.0 (can technically launch before ABI support, but ideally including it for completeness).

8. Help in launching TON BTC Teleport

TON BTC Teleport, a powerful cross-chain solution for transferring Bitcoin to and from the TON network without intermediaries, is being developed by RSquad, a third-party team of blockchain experts, in collaboration with the TON Foundation.

The TON Core team was actively involved in shaping the concept of BTC Teleport and provided technical support and advice during its development phases.

We will continue to provide the assistance necessary to successfully launch BTC Teleport into the mainnet, including:

Integrating the functionality into MyTonCtrl and preparing updates for validators of the mainnet.
Extra-currency technology on the TON mainnet.
Additional consulting and technical support as needed.

9. Misc

A series of contests for programmers
We plan to hold a series of contests dedicated to the development and optimization of TON kernel components. TON Core is always open to new ideas and is interested in attracting talented developers to its team.
Standardization of TON wallet mnemonics
Currently, there is incompatibility between TON wallet mnemonics and crosschain wallets. TON Core intends to find and offer a solution to this problem.
Audit of the multiple account generation algorithm
The algorithm proposed by the Tonkeeper team allows multiple child accounts to be generated based on a single private key, with each child account receiving its own mnemonic.
TON Core plans to:
1. Conduct a security audit of this algorithm.
2. If the audit is successful, promote this approach as a standard for the entire ecosystem.
Precompiled Jetton FunC Contract
We will present updated and optimized code for the standard Jetton contract without an administrator. In addition, we plan to propose making it a precompiled smart contract on the TON blockcain, which will significantly reduce commissions when using it.
Unified set of tests for TON libraries
This year we have developed a unified set of unit tests to check the correctness of TON libraries. At the moment the tests are used in ton4j (java), fift (canonical C++) library.
In the nearest plans:
1. Apply the tests in Python, Kotlin, JavaScript and Go libraries developed by the TON Core team.
2. Invite developers from the community to also apply these tests in their SDKs.