Telegram-linked blockchain platform The Open Network (TON) is transforming on its path to decentralization, with the TON Foundation officially introducing a new governance model called Society DAO.

The TON Foundation announced the launch of its governance framework and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), Society DAO, on Nov. 1.

The Society DAO includes four founding members: TON Core, TON Society, Wallet in Telegram and the newly launched developer collective, TON Studio.

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The Society DAO aims to address a wide range of issues related to decentralization and fair access to capital, enhancing transparency, competition, autonomy and participation, the foundation’s president Steve Yun and TON Society co-founder Jack Booth said.

The TON Foundation cautions against centralization risks

Yun and Booth highlighted certain centralization risks in the TON ecosystem in the announcement.

“Over the past year, many founders have relied heavily on the foundation for success, as it often serves as a central hub for capital,” the foundation said. This reliance poses a centralization risk that could lead to a single point of failure.

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TON Society’s co-founder Jack Booth at the TON Gateway event. Source: YouTube

In order to mitigate these issues, the TON Foundation and TON Society are implementing open-source access to capital, transparent resource records, and rewards to achieve certain key performance indicators. One tool is the Community Model, which redistributes resource allocation power back to the community. The announcement said:

“Under this approach, respected and proven community members are empowered to coordinate vision, goals, and strategies, collectively determining resource allocation in alignment with TON’s overall growth.”

While launching the TON Society to boost decentralization, the TON Foundation will remain a major part of the ecosystem and will be allocating grants and funding to Society DAO, a spokesperson for the foundation told Cointelegraph.

Wallet in Telegram advances self-custody capabilities

In addition to launching a new governance model, Wallet on Telegram — one of the founding members of Society DAO — announced a major update integrating its custodial and self-custodial wallets.

Previously only custodial by default, Wallet in Telegram will integrate its default custodial wallet solution with TON Space, a separate self-custody solution that has been available in beta.

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Custodial versus non-custodial (self-custodial) wallets. Source: MoonPay

Since its launch in September 2023 , TON Space has been available in beta as an additional option to store crypto with self-custody, gathering more than 100 million users.

Related: TON could help DeFi break into mainstream: Report

As a result of the upcoming update, TON Space will become an equal counterpart to the standard custodial solution provided by Wallet and exit its beta. The Open Platform CEO Andrew Rogozov said:

“We want TON Space to become a gateway for the entire TON ecosystem, empowering Telegram’s 950 million users to seamlessly access decentralized applications built on TON. Improving the accessibility of blockchain solutions is the first step toward achieving mass adoption.”

By having equal access both to custody and self-custody, Telegram users can experience the benefits of “ being their own bank ” and holding private keys with self-custody, in addition to the standard custody option, which uses a third-party custodian.
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