Wayyyy back when we were all younger and less jaded with the world, our favourite encrypted messaging app got it's grubby little hands into our pockets via an ICO for the GRAM. They did a bit of work (only right considering the $1.7b ish raise they had!), and developed a product! Then, big daddy grumpy pants SEC decided to ruin the party. So telegram gave all the monies back. End of story? 

Apparently not, my shortsighted friend! 

The product they made was good. And what do you do with a good product you're not allowed to sell? Take it home and play with it all by yourself? No. You give it away, if you're the telegram team anyway. I'd have probably taken it home. 

So, fast forward to like, now, and your Uncle Clem stumbles upon this quiet little beauty. 

https://tonlabs.io/

FREE TON crystals (stupid name but whatever),  aren't free, but the code was. They've built it out even more than where it left off. Added some bells, a few whistles, appointed some charming French Pseudo celebrity as the CEO (@cyrilpaglino, also with Dune Network and others) to put a pretty face on the cold, hard Russian Technology, and voila. 



Gotta be honest, I'm struggling to be my usual sarcastic self about this one. Sure, price has fell off since launch. Fine, giving away 85% of the coins to big biz to get them to use the chain may be risky (who will buy their bags?), but the tech and attitude are there.

And hell, it can't be worse than Tezos, right?