As a seasoned researcher with years of experience in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, I’ve seen my fair share of ups and downs. The recent events surrounding the TON network have left me both intrigued and concerned. The network’s second major outage within 36 hours, primarily caused by an unexpected surge in transactions linked to the DOGS meme coin airdrop, is certainly not the usual course of events for a mature blockchain project.


This week saw another hurdle for The Open Network (TON), marking the second significant interruption in just 36 hours, momentarily affecting the performance of its blockchain operations.

During this period, the TON network has endured over 12 hours of outages in total.

TON Network Buckles Under Pressure

At exactly 7:17 PM UTC on August 28, the network unexpectedly went offline. Following a unified call-to-action from TON developers, mainnet validators were asked to update and restart their nodes. By 1:30 AM UTC on August 29, the network was successfully restored as a result of these efforts.

Lately, several network disruptions occurred, one of them being an extended 6-hour interruption the day before. These issues were mostly triggered by an unexpected surge in transactions linked to the airdrop of the DOGS meme coin, which led to six million verified users requesting tokens all at once. This overwhelming volume overloaded the system, leading validators to lose synchronization with each other.

Subsequently, the official DOGS channel Telegram channel addressed the issue, saying:

“It’s clear that some of you haven’t received your on-chain withdrawal yet. Please be patient, our teams are putting in extra effort to process your requests. The blockchain is currently under a heavy workload, but we’re all working diligently to address the problem and get things moving again as quickly as possible.”

The cryptocurrency known as DOGS, inspired by the beloved pet dog of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov – named Spotty, has sparked significant intrigue within the crypto community. This is primarily due to its proposed growth in functionality within the Telegram platform. It was unveiled in July 2024 and officially launched on August 27th.

Over the past week, there’s been a noticeable drop in the value of the TON token, with a decrease of approximately 15%. This could be due to recent events, such as Durov’s arrest over the weekend, which seems to have cast some uncertainty over the TON ecosystem. At present, the TON token is being traded at around $5.6.

Update on Durov’s Arrest

On the 28th of August, French officials brought initial accusations against a business executive, claiming he knowingly permitted illegal activities through his messaging platform. They’ve also prohibited him from traveling abroad as they carry out further inquiries into these allegations.

As a concerned crypto investor, I find myself outraged by the recent arrest in France, particularly given the accusations that it’s politically motivated. It seems to me, from my perspective, that this incident has stirred up tension in Russia, with certain government officials questioning the West’s fairness regarding freedom of speech. They argue that the West applies double standards in these matters, a claim that, as an investor, I find troubling and worthy of further discussion.

In a post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron asserted on Monday that the arrest wasn’t driven by political biases but instead stemmed from an unbiased investigation. He underscored that France is strongly dedicated to upholding freedom of expression, ensuring it operates within the bounds of law—online and offline—to protect citizens and defend their fundamental rights. However, his remarks drew sharp criticism from free-speech proponents.

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2024-08-29 13:20