🔰 What is a TON Wallet?

TON is "The Open Network" - think of it as many computers distributed across the world, a network which cannot be deleted or edited, where your data is more secure than in Fort Knox.

TON is actually a "blockchain" - blocks of such data linked in chains and stored on a great many computers worldwide. No one can hack into that data or delete it.

TON is also the name of the "coin" or "token" which is a "cryptocurrency" (we'll come to that in a moment, don't be put off by the bad name and reputation of that word).

Cryptocurrency in general are currencies that are tokens on blockchains. Most of these have little or no value or are used for speculation, and even scams, hence their bad reputation. TON however is backed by real value, advanced technology and user base.

A few words on that first: The Open Network is an open source project which has created the TON blockchain which differs from others in its advanced technology: it is fast to make transactions, and it can scale to millions of transactions per second.

TON is stored only on the TON blockchain. It is not stored in TonSafe or on your phone.

Think of it like this: you have money in your bank account. You use a banking app to move that money around. If you want to convert it into cash and put it into your pocket you go to an ATM.

TonSafe is like a banking app: it allows you to interact with your account (on The Open Network blockchain), check your balance, show the current TON rate in your local currency, send and receive TON into and out of your account.

The TON itself isn't stored on your phone, it never leaves the blockchain. No one can access your account on the blockchain except you. TonSafe developers, TON developers, the government, no one can touch it except yourself.

How you access your TON is via TonSafe and to make sure no one else can do that there are 24 secret words. If you do not share those with anyone, no one can ever move whatever TON you have. If you do share those, then they can move it out of your account into their own, which is why you shouldn't share your 24 secret words.

In theory it doesn't matter which TON wallet you use, as long as it is not a fake app which steals your secret words, for example. A safe rule of thumb is that if an app is passed by Apple's App Store, it has passed various validation and test criteria.

The standards are strict, and include the need of a registered company which is subject to laws (TonSafe project is owned by Mustaqim Ltd, a British company subject to the laws of the United Kingdom), and strict privacy and app performance, etc.

Only then does Apple pass an app and allow it to appear in the App Store from where it can be downloaded and installed onto your advice.

In practice there are other things that you should consider when choosing a TON Wallet. The most important of these is SAFETY, which we'll address in a moment. Other things you can consider is features, and design. But the biggest issue is safety.

TonSafe is all about safety. The very reason the project's "BASED" team developed TonSafe was the lack of safety features in the other existing TON Wallets.

There were other reasons too, including completely absent support or insufficient support, and no educational or help materials provided by the other TON Wallets.

Tonhub has never provided honest support in its six months of existence, and has even lost wallet users TON by a poor design lacking in safety features (since patched).

Tonkeeper along with Tonhub and others provide no educational materials or FAQ even a year later, lost some users NFT via a protocol error, and stores data on users.

And yet, both these wallets, and not TonSafe, are actively promoted on TON.org and in the TON Foundation's "TON Community" Telegram channels. See: Transparency below.

It was for these reasons and others that TonSafe came into being, with a very different approach putting users' safety as first and primary priority.

Safety issues include:

• Making it difficult for users to skip or neglect the importance of 24 secret words
• Educating users within the app and warning them from doing harmful things
• Making sure confirmations are clear and balances can't be sent in error
• Making it impossible to log out without checking/agreeing you have passwords

TonSafe does not want nor store data on users that is identifiable. As a non-custodial wallet, also known as self-custodial, this means that you and only you are responsible for, and have access to, your TON account on the blockchain.

It means that you have a great responsibility (not to share) and not to lose your 24 secret words, and we help you to mitigate that from happening (and we have plans for a future update that will make this even less likely to happen through your neglect).

A blockchain account generally means that anyone with your wallet address can see your current balance and all your past transactions, via a blockchain explorer. You can even do this from within TonSafe by tapping on the view icon.

This can be a good thing for transparency, but it can be considered a privacy issue, so you should use the wallet with those who know you personally only if you don't mind that they could use an explorer to view your transaction history and balance.

It is because of this uneven playing field, which the users pay for by not having access to reliable information about Wallets, that we disclose weaknesses of the other wallets.

Once that stops, we can then only mention our own strengths, and of course, we welcome openness to anyone can also comment on any weakness found in TonSafe!

We believe that transparency of actual expert reviews as well as user reviews of each wallet, and directories that have proper criteria for rating wallets, is urgently required.

Currently although TON is a decentralized blockchain, however TON.org promotes those that project leaders have a relationship with, rather than on basis of criteria.

TonSafe believes such things hurt users who should have access to expert reviews and feedback on all wallets, so they can make an informed choice.

Also that verifications and ratings of directories should be on comprehensive and transparent criteria unlike currently, where poor quality is promoted over high quality.

A TON wallet allows you to interact with your TON account on the TON blockchain. It does not physically store your funds in the wallet itself, nor on your phone.

TonSafe is a self-custodial aka non-custodial mobile TON wallet which has higher safety features and customer service features compared to any other TON wallet.

TON is a blockchain network that cannot be switched off or deleted by anyone and is immune to hacking. 24 secret words of your wallet allow only you to interact with it.

TonSafe has no access to your data, does not know who you are, and doesn't want to know. Nor do we receive any income from your balance or your transactions.

If you store a millionth of a TON or a million TONs on the blockchain and use TonSafe to safely interact with it, transact never or daily, it's makes no difference to TonSafe.

For more information about TonSafe you can read our comprehensive FAQ.