The blockchain industry is full of claims about performance capabilities, particularly when it comes to transactions per second (TPS). A recent claim stands out: TON (Telegram Open Network) reported a peak TPS of 104,715. This more than quadruples the Visa payment network’s throughput of 24,000 TPS. Visa’s network utilizes a centralized architecture that lacks the same security features as decentralized blockchains, making TON’s achievement all the more remarkable.

Since before their mainnet went live, CertiK has proudly served as a long-standing security collaborator with the TON Foundation. It's an honor for us to have been involved in TON's evolution from its early stages to where it stands today. TON sets a high bar for security, mandating exhaustive audits for every software release.

CertiK is thrilled to contribute beyond security assessments. Verifiable performance is an essential quality for any Layer 1 protocol, and it's uncommon to see organizations willing to undergo performance evaluations as rigorous as the one we performed for TON.

To validate the TPS count, we undertook a comprehensive verification process. In this post, we outline the methodological steps we followed to verify TON’s reported TPS count.

The Importance of TPS Verification

Transactions per second is a critical metric for the scalability and efficiency of a blockchain network. However, these claims can vary based on different conditions like network load, transaction complexity, and more. Therefore, third-party verification is vital to establish credibility.

TON’s Skynet dashboard includes the results of the TPS testing.

Methodological Steps

Test Environment Set-Up

Our role was to validate the test network configured by TON. This involved a rigorous verification of their network setup to ensure the integrity of the test. Our validation process focused on confirming the number of nodes in operation (256), the specific software version in use, and the precise configuration of the validator nodes.

Benchmark Contracts

In the course of our verification process, TON deployed benchmark smart contracts to their test network. These contracts were engineered to generate a high volume of transactions rapidly to stress-test the network's capacity. These transactions involved the execution of a complex smart contract, not just the simple transfer of tokens. Our task was to validate that the deployed smart contracts corresponded accurately with the source code version purported by TON. This step was crucial to confirm that the stress tests reflected genuine transaction capabilities.

Tooling

We used tonlib-cli to interact with our testnet, specifically utilizing get_txs_on_period to fetch transaction counts for the verification process.

Data Collection

Our data collection was concentrated on obtaining transaction counts at precise one-minute intervals over a period of 25 minutes. This targeted approach allowed us to gather critical information on transaction throughput within a controlled time frame, enabling a focused analysis of network performance under peak conditions.

Data Analysis

Our analysis was based on transaction count data per minute. We used this data to ascertain the TPS achieved by TON, ensuring the figures matched the reported peak performance.

1. 66152
2. 663489
3. 1526714
4. 2060561
5. 3178689
6. 4336021
7. 5445765
8. 6181690
9. 6328841
10. 6806474
11. 6580138
12. 6626999
13. 6598634
14. 6454589
15. 6366045
16. 6406834
17. 6451220
18. 6426421
19. 6214998
20. 6344840
21. 6417424
22. 5712089
23. 3629201
24. 1335199
25. 23155

Due to data quantization the above figures represent 65 second intervals, as there are five second increments in the counter. Thus, in the 10th minute TON processed 6,806,474 transactions, which is equivalent to 104,715 TPS.

Results and Conclusions

Under the conditions specified, we can confirm that TON reached 104,715 TPS during the 10th minute of the test. These results set a new standard for what blockchain networks can achieve in terms of scalability and performance.

The verification of TON's TPS opens avenues for further research, particularly in comparing its performance under different stress scenarios and with other high TPS blockchains.

Final Thoughts

As an industry leader in blockchain cybersecurity and code auditing, CertiK takes the verification of performance metrics like TPS seriously. Our methodological approach towards verifying TON's TPS claim underscores our commitment to fostering a more reliable and transparent blockchain ecosystem.

As previously noted, CertiK and the TON Foundation have been in partnership since 2022, consistently working to enhance and fortify the TON ecosystem. Adhering to the TON Foundation's stringent security standards, more than six audits have been conducted. These audits go beyond traditional in-depth manual reviews to include formal verification methods as well. The inclusion of such exhaustive checks, particularly the use of formal verification, is a rare practice in the blockchain world, typically sidestepped due to the significant resources it requires. We'd like to extend our sincere commendation to the TON Foundation team for their unparalleled dedication to security and their swift remedial measures following each audit.

It's an honor for us to work alongside a world-class engineering team, as we strive to achieve groundbreaking milestones and foster innovation in the Web3 space.