Yesterday, the core team involved in the development of TON, officially revealed its intention to terminate the TON testnet. By August 1, rest of the TON validators will be switched off. In this regard, the TON official suggested network partakers to record requisite info and halt their test procedures.
Even though the testnet is scheduled to shut down within a month, participants of the network will nevertheless be able to carry on with their trials even after the discontinuation of the testnet.
For conducting trials, users have to set up their own testnet validators and the process has been thoroughly explained in three distinct ‘how-to’ documents containing instructions for the Full Node, Test Grams and the Validator.
Telegram rolled out the TON testnet for node software and explorer last September. The company, with a hope of launching its mainnet on October 31, 2019, unveiled an alpha variant of an iOS wallet for its native cryptotoken, the Gram.
However, TON roll out plans of Telegram never got materialized as the US SEC unexpectedly stamped Telegram’s $1.70 billion ICO as illegal in mid-October.
Following a long drawn legal fight with the US regulators, Telegram decided to suspend its TON venture and pay back $1.20 billion to investors in accordance with a court-endorsed final payment.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov had recently revealed that the firm had already paid back over $1.20 billion as of June 25.