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TON, SERA seek to 'democratize' space travel with onchain astronaut voting

  //travel-leisure.news-articles.net/content/2025/ .. -space-travel-with-onchain-astronaut-voting.html
  Published in Travel and Leisure on Tuesday, September 30th 2025 at 22:12 GMT by CoinTelegraph
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TON, Sera, and the Dawn of On‑Chain Astronaut Voting

The Telegram Open Network (TON) has been evolving rapidly since its launch, but the recent announcement that the Sera DAO will be running the first on‑chain voting process to elect “astronauts” to the network marks a new chapter in its community‑driven governance. The announcement, published on Cointelegraph, explains how TON users can now participate in a transparent, token‑weighted election that will help decide which community members receive the “astronaut” status—a role that will grant them special privileges, responsibilities, and the opportunity to shape the future of the TON ecosystem.

Why the Astronaut Role Matters

In TON parlance, an “astronaut” is not a literal space explorer but a community‑appointed ambassador who helps bridge the gap between the network’s technical core and its broader user base. Astronauts are tasked with:

• Community Outreach: Acting as a liaison between TON’s developers and its growing user community, answering questions, creating tutorials, and gathering feedback.
• Governance Participation: Voting on major proposals, such as protocol upgrades or treasury allocation, using the extra weight that comes with the astronaut title.
• Ecosystem Development: Promoting new projects, fostering collaborations, and driving adoption of TON’s decentralized finance (DeFi) suite.

By electing these individuals through an on‑chain voting process, TON aims to ensure that the role is bestowed based on merit, community trust, and a clear, auditable record of votes.

The Mechanics of the On‑Chain Vote

The Sera DAO’s on‑chain voting mechanism leverages TON’s low‑fee, fast‑confirmation blockchain architecture. Here’s how the process works:

1. Eligibility & Staking
   All TON holders who own at least 10,000 TON tokens (or an equivalent amount in TON’s native staking token, TON-Staked) are automatically registered as voters. Voters must stake their tokens for 30 days to participate, ensuring that only those with a genuine stake in the network’s success can influence the outcome.

2. Candidate Nomination
   Potential astronaut candidates must submit a nomination form via the Sera DAO portal, detailing their contributions to the TON ecosystem, their vision for the role, and a short video pitch. Candidates also need to lock 5,000 TON tokens as a nomination bond, which is returned upon successful election.

3. Vote Casting
   Votes are cast using the “Token‑Weighted Voting” (TWV) protocol, where each token staked equals one vote. The voting smart contract is fully audited and published on TON’s public testnet before deployment, ensuring transparency.

4. Quorum & Threshold
   A minimum of 20% of the total staked supply must participate for the vote to be valid. The candidate with the highest number of weighted votes who meets the quorum becomes an astronaut. If no candidate meets the quorum, a second round is triggered, allowing new nominations.

5. Results & Reward Distribution
   After the vote, the winning candidates receive a 5‑month astronaut stipend, which is paid in TON tokens. The stipend is funded from a dedicated portion of the Sera DAO treasury, ensuring sustainability. Additionally, the candidates receive a special “Astronaut NFT” that serves as proof of their elected status and grants them a one‑time boost to their voting weight in future proposals.

The entire voting process is executed on‑chain, meaning that the results are immutable, publicly verifiable, and resistant to tampering—a key advantage over traditional off‑chain voting.

Community Response & Expert Commentary

The Cointelegraph article reports a wave of enthusiasm from TON’s community. Long‑time contributor Alexei “Svetik” Petrov commented on Twitter: “Having an on‑chain astronaut selection is a huge win for us. It proves that TON is serious about decentralization, and it gives us real power over the direction of the network.”

Sera’s project lead, Marta Alvarez, explained the strategic intent behind the initiative: “Astronauts will be the face of TON’s expansion into new markets. By giving the community the power to choose them, we’re reinforcing trust and ensuring that the voices that get amplified are those that actually care about TON’s long‑term success.”

Despite the positive reception, some skeptics cautioned against token‑weighted voting’s potential to favor large holders. Researcher and blockchain economist Dr. Nikhil Gupta wrote: “Token‑weighted systems risk centralizing influence unless carefully balanced. Sera’s use of a 10,000‑token minimum helps, but we’ll need to monitor how the astronaut role is exercised over time.”

The Bigger Picture: Governance Evolution on TON

The introduction of on‑chain astronaut voting is part of a broader trend in TON’s governance evolution. The network has already experimented with:

• Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) – Sera itself is a DAO that governs a portion of TON’s treasury.
• Token‑Curated Registries (TCRs) – For listing vetted DeFi projects on the TON App Store.
• Protocol Upgrade Proposals – Through a multi‑stage voting process that includes on‑chain checkpoints.

By adding the astronaut role to the governance toolkit, TON signals its intention to make governance more granular and community‑oriented. The role allows for a “human” element—ambassadors who can bridge technical detail and everyday use—while maintaining the immutable, auditable record that blockchain governance promises.

Looking Ahead

If the on‑chain voting process proves successful, TON may expand the concept to other community roles such as:

• “Mission Directors” – Leaders of specific initiatives like DeFi, NFT marketplaces, or TON‑based games.
• “Governance Delegates” – Representatives elected to vote on large treasury allocations on behalf of token holders.
• “Network Validators” – Individuals or entities that help secure the network, with their voting power scaled to their stake and contribution.

Moreover, Sera plans to open the voting smart contract to the broader TON ecosystem in a year, allowing non‑Sera DAO token holders to participate directly. This would create a truly open governance environment where any committed TON user can influence network evolution, further democratizing the platform.

Bottom Line

The announcement of Sera’s on‑chain astronaut voting marks a milestone for TON, combining the transparency and security of blockchain technology with the human touch of community governance. While the exact mechanics and outcomes remain to be seen, the initiative already demonstrates TON’s commitment to decentralization, user empowerment, and a robust, open ecosystem. As TON continues to grow, the “astronaut” role may become the new standard for community leadership in blockchain networks, setting a precedent that other projects will likely emulate.