The Free TON project – a software evolution of Telegram’s unsuccessful blockchain release and spearheaded by the community – has reportedly disclosed details regarding its effective mainnet.

Specifically, the network, rolled out in May this year, was reportedly designed upon Telegram’s code base, with no relations to the communications firm as well as the $1.7 billion ICO. 

The mainnet announcement from Free TON is reportedly primarily an attempt from its developers, to select the date the network achieved “sufficient decentralization” of the network, as well as an effective mainnet start.

The community reportedly claimed to have over 400 validators and 15 “fully formed geographical subgovernances” – what is equaled a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). 

Per Mitja Goroshevskiy – TON Labs CTO – another factor into determining “sufficient decentralization” is reportedly the number of tokens distributed. Despite not reaching full achievement, since a sum of tokens still require distribution, the process has reached sufficient maturity level for the network to be deemed decentralized. 

Free TON reportedly does not organize token sales, but alternatively tends to go with token distribution, in exchange for small contributions to the network, the same as an airdrop. During 2020, the project distributed TON Crystal tokens throughout over a hundred contests and collaboration projects. 

The team additionally ran an open-source process for a new node client written in Rust, where the team believed comes with enhanced performance and  lower latency, compared to older customers, written in C++.