Rediscovering GRAM: The Resurrection of a Legendary Cryptocurrency on Telegram

GRAM, the token on the TON blockchain, has become the spring sensation in the Telegram ecosystem. Since its launch, its value has skyrocketed an astonishing 28,000 times. Following the principles of decentralization and security, GRAM exhibits improved features, particularly in terms of transaction speed and scalability, in comparison to Bitcoin (BTC).

The Open Network, a group of passionate developers, introduced GRAM on January 30, 2024. Oleg Oskolsky, one of the creators of popular Telegram bots, stated that GRAM started as an experiment but quickly gained thousands of users in its first week. As of March 25, 2024, the number of GRAM holders exceeded 30,000, making it the fastest-growing and most popular token in the TON ecosystem. By the end of March, GRAM’s price had surged 2,800 times, rising from $0.00000107 to $0.03.

GRAM vs. Bitcoin: A Comparative Analysis

The GRAM community often refers to the coin as an analog of Bitcoin within the Telegram ecosystem and even as a potential new Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency market. Notably, BTC and GRAM share similarities such as a lack of pre-mine, absence of reserved coins for creators, absence of private funding rounds susceptible to price manipulation by large investors, and operation on respective blockchains. Both cryptocurrencies are designed to facilitate fast and affordable money transfers, encompassing transactions of various sizes.

In comparison to BTC, GRAM offers additional advantages:

1. Instantaneous transactions: GRAM operates on the high-performance TON blockchain, enabling instantaneous transactions with a throughput exceeding 100,000 trx per second.
2. Mining accessibility: GRAM mining requires a video card and a simple software setup from Github, whereas BTC mining on GPUs necessitates expensive computing machines (ASICs).
3. Inclusivity of mining: GRAM mining is open to any user, while BTC mining is limited to investors with substantial initial capital.

Full Decentralization in the Spirit of Bitcoin

Similar to BTC, GRAM is founded on the principles of decentralization. Operating on the TON blockchain, GRAM remains free from centralized governing entities, granting users complete control over their funds. During its launch, GRAM’s developers refrained from reserving any tokens, ensuring a fair and transparent distribution process akin to BTC’s mining-based distribution.

The TON blockchain, powering GRAM, has undergone rigorous audits and hackathons, attesting to its reliability and robustness against potential attacks. Its security measures are on par with the time-tested security of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Speed and Scalability: GRAM’s Significant Edge over BTC

One of the notable distinctions between GRAM and BTC lies in transaction speed. While the Bitcoin blockchain is limited to approximately 3-7 transactions per second due to constraints related to block size and generation time, the TON blockchain powering GRAM revolutionizes the concept of speed and scalability. In November 2023, TON achieved a world record as the fastest and most scalable blockchain, processing an impressive 104,715 transactions per second. Leveraging TON’s unique architecture, GRAM can handle an infinite number of transactions per second, facilitating near-instantaneous transfers without compromising security or decentralization.

GRAM Coin: Limited Supply and Impending Mining Completion

The total supply of GRAM coins is capped at 5,000,000,000 tokens. Currently, around 1,750,000,000 GRAMs have been mined. Based on the current mining rate, it is estimated that GRAM mining will be completed in approximately 700 days, by early January 2026.

As the mining process progresses and new tokens are generated, the network’s complexity increases, leading to higher mining costs. This indirectly contributes to supporting the price of the coin.

The Mechanics of GRAM Mining: Givers, Solutions, and Rewards

For mining you will need a computer, video cards with CUDA or OpenCL drivers and special software from Github, as well as MyTonWallet or TonKeeper wallet accounts and some TON coins. In the first week after the launch of GRAM, mining was also available through the browser — it was enough to open the corresponding web page. But web mining was already completed on February 4. In addition to the good old GPU solo mining, GRAM can be mined through pools — for example, PoolGramcoin.

GRAM mining in many ways resembles the process of TON mining in the early years of its launch. Mining is done through givers — these are smart contracts with coins, from which a reward for solving a computational task is accrued. The software on the computer searches hashes and finds a certain number — the solution to the computational problem. It must be sent to the giver. It is necessary to send a special transaction from the wallet to the giver for 0.039 TON.

If the solution is correct, the giver will issue GRAM tokens to the miner. The number of tokens depends on the type of giver the miner is interacting with. If the solution sent by the miner to the giver is incorrect or another miner has solved the problem earlier, only 0.00327 TON will be debited.

This distinguishes GRAM mining from TON mining: sending the solution to a computational problem to GRAM givers requires paying a fee to TON, since the token is run on the TON blockchain, whereas TON mining only involved sending a .boc file to the network.

PoW Givers

GRAM utilizes four types of givers, each with a different size, to distribute the total issuance of 5 billion GRAM tokens. These types include large givers (up to 100,000 GRAM), medium givers (up to 10,000 GRAM), small givers (up to 1,000 GRAM), and nano givers (up to 100 GRAM). Among these givers, the nano givers hold the largest share, accounting for 70% of the total issuance, which amounts to 3,500,000,000,000,000 GRAM.

In mid-February, users successfully mined all the TONs contained in the large and medium givers, leaving only the small and nano givers available for mining. By March, the small givers were also exhausted. Consequently, the one-time reward for mining GRAM does not exceed 100 GRAM at present.

Setting up a GPU miner for GRAM mining

1. Download the mining software from the Github repository and extract it to a desired folder on your computer.
2. Create a new account in MyTonWallet or TonKeeper wallet to receive the mined coins. Activate the account by sending a transaction of 0.1 TON to the new account.
3. In the folder where the miner was extracted from Github, create a config.txt file. Add the mnemonics from the new account in MyTonWallet or TonKeeper to the config.txt file.
4. Install Node.js on your computer.
5. Start the miner by running the appropriate command or script. This will initiate the mining process.
6. Once the miner is launched, you will have the option to select the type of giver for mining.
7. You can mine GRAM on multiple video cards simultaneously. There are example scripts available on Github for such cases.

Mining GRAM through pools

In some cases, mining GRAM through pools can be more profitable. When considering whether to mine solo or through a pool, it is crucial to assess if the TON spent on mining outweighs the value of the GRAM received for computational work.

To make this comparison, consider the following factors:

• Current TON rate: $5
• Current GRAM rate: $0.03
• Miner’s reward: 100 GRAM
• Transaction fee for a successful solution in PoW giver: $5 039 TON = $0.195
• Transaction fee for an unsuccessful solution in PoW giver: $5 00327 TON = $0.01635
• Reward in equivalent fiat value: $3

It is important to note that over the past month, the mining difficulty for GRAM has significantly increased due to the influx of new miners, resulting in a rise in unsuccessful transactions.

Exchanging GRAM

There are several options available for exchanging GRAM:

1. CryptoBot on Telegram: GRAM can be bought or sold through the P2P section of CryptoBot on Telegram.
2. STON.fi: The largest AMM DEX in the TON ecosystem, STON.fi enables GRAM swaps.
3. DEX Aggregators: Platforms like Ton.Diamonds and DeDust function as DEX aggregators, allowing users to swap GRAM.
4. MyTonWallet: MyTonWallet offers a swap feature for GRAM/TON pairs, providing a convenient way to exchange GRAM tokens.

Fans of GRAM are eagerly anticipating its launch on major exchanges soon, as word of possible listings spreads via the project’s main Telegram group. Community members write that there has been a lot of activity, with over a million GRAM tokens being sent to MEXC and OKX.

Reasons for GRAM’s Popularity

GRAM has gained popularity for several reasons:

1. GRAM’s decentralized nature and near-instant transaction processing provide a significant advantage over other cryptocurrencies. It ensures quick and efficient transfers, making it suitable for microtransactions, bulk transfers, and integration into high-bandwidth decentralized applications.
2. Unlike BTC, which can experience delays and high fees during peak demand, GRAM offers users consistently low fees and instant transaction fulfillment regardless of network load. This reliability makes GRAM an attractive choice for users seeking fast and cost-effective transactions.
3. GRAM’s architecture enables seamless integration with Telegram’s applications and the TON ecosystem. This integration opens up numerous opportunities for the distribution and use of GRAM among Telegram’s vast user base, which spans billions of users worldwide. The integration with Telegram can significantly enhance the usability of cryptocurrencies in everyday life by providing easy access to fast and secure transactions directly through the popular messenger platform.

Overall, GRAM’s features and integration potential contribute to its growing popularity as a cryptocurrency choice for users seeking decentralization, speed, low fees, and compatibility with widely-used messaging platforms like Telegram.

Check out GRAM’s social media pages to get the lowdown on the project and its ecosystem: Telegram, Twitter, Gram Community.