TON’s $5M Incentive Program for Digital ID Verification

Developers of the Open Network (TON) ecosystem are offering a $5 million incentive for users to verify their identity using palm scanning technology. The TON Society, a group of developers and contributors working on the TON ecosystem, plans to distribute 1 million Toncoin tokens to users who participate in the voluntary proof-of-personhood program. Through the use of HumanCode’s technology, the project aims to enable digital identity verification for Telegram users over the next five years. The application, available on Google Play and Apple Store, allows users to scan their palms on a smartphone. The technology ensures privacy protection and can be used on various mobile devices.

Ekin Tuna, the growth director of the TON Foundation, believes that supporting proof-of-personhood protocols like HumanCode is a step towards a practical reputation system with real-life use cases for the TON ecosystem. The goal is to onboard the first one billion users to the Web3 ecosystem in Telegram by providing a scalable, private, and decentralized identity solution.

To encourage participation, HumanCode will provide incentives to TON Society members who complete a palm scan and prove their personhood. Membership to the TON Society is open to the public and can be obtained by connecting a TON wallet to the community organization. In March, the TON Foundation allocated 30 million TON tokens, valued at around $115 million, for various community rewards to drive adoption. The incentives will be distributed across different areas, including token mining and user incentives, airdrops, the League developer ecosystem, and liquidity pool boosts.

It’s worth noting that the Telegram Ad Platform, which is built on the TON blockchain, was officially launched in March 2024. This platform allows Telegram channel owners worldwide to receive financial rewards by exclusively selling advertising and sharing revenue with channel owners in TON. The introduction of the palm scanning technology and the overall development of the TON ecosystem demonstrate the commitment to enhancing user experience and promoting adoption within the Telegram community.