Gram

The network grew out of a project the Telegram team started and had to abandon after proceedings brought by a US regulator. An independent community picked up the work and carried the chain to launch; the coin's name traces back to the original design.

The architecture is built for scale: the chain divides into shards that process transactions in parallel and are tied together by a masterchain, with the number of shards able to change under load — the network grows by splitting rather than by enlarging a block. Consensus runs on proof of stake with validator collateral, and the fee per operation stays small and predictable. A native naming system, distributed by auction, replaces long addresses.

Its defining feature is not the engineering but the distribution channel: wallets and applications embed directly into the messenger's interface, so a user reaches the blockchain without installing anything separate. Payments, games and in-app services are built on top.

Its strength and its exposure are the same thing: the audience arrives from one messenger, and that platform's rules govern how reachable the network's applications are.