The TON Foundation said the new feature uses end-to-end encryption so that only the sender and recipient can view the message. This step is aimed at improving user privacy. The fee for delivering an encrypted message via TON will be about 0.006 Toncoin (TON) per transaction.
The developers hope that the low cost will make the service accessible to a growing user base. Message encryption will be available in future updates for TON Mobile Wallet and Tonkeeper Wallet.
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“Even in the event of an apocalypse and the failure of conventional messenger servers, you will have the ability to send messages through TON’s decentralized blockchain. These messages will be securely delivered and encrypted,” commented Anatoly Makosov, chief developer of the TON Foundation.
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TON blockchain has been operating as a community-driven open source project since Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced a few years ago that he was discontinuing work on the Telegram Open Network platform. The closure of the platform is due to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Since then, the TON Foundation has been able to enter into several partnership agreements. For example, last November, DWF Labs invested $10 million in the development of TON. TON recently announced a $25 million fund called the TON Accelerator Program. The goal of the program is to invest between $50,000 and $250,000 in the development of blockchain startups, and to provide them with mentorship from TON staff.
As a reminder, in February the TON blockchain community voted to freeze 171 inactive wallets that hold more than 1 billion Toncoin coins.