The crypto-payments industry is growing rapidly, with millions of users now turning to cryptocurrency for transactions. Blockchains such as TON have become popular due to their advantages, including fast transfer processing speeds and low fees. However, as the number of transactions increases, so does the need to accurately identify recipients. This is where the memo tag helps.
Memo is an important tool that ensures correct execution of transactions. Its use is especially relevant when working with centralized exchanges and wallets. In this article, we will look at what tag memo is, how it is used in the TON network and why it is important.
TON Blockchain: Basic Information
The TON (The Open Network) blockchain was originally developed by the Telegram team, but later the project became independent. Its goal was to create a decentralized platform with high bandwidth and low commissions. Despite the fact that the project is relatively young, it has already formed its own ecosystem around it, including wallets, exchanges, proxies, hosting and other resources.
Now the TON network is actively used for payments, including transfers in the cryptocurrencies Toncoin and Tether, which makes it a convenient tool for e-commerce. You can learn more about TON acceptance in our article.
The main advantages of the TON blockchain are:
Transaction speed. The average confirmation time on the network is only a few seconds.
Low fees. Thanks to the advanced consensus algorithm, the cost of transferring on the network is much lower compared to other blockchains.
Wide functionality. In addition to cryptocurrency transfers, TON supports smart contracts and the development of decentralized applications.
TON is rapidly gaining popularity among cryptocurrency users, making the need to understand what a memo tag is all the more urgent.
What is a memo in cryptocurrency. Let’s understand the essence of the concept
Memo is an additional field used in crypto transfers to identify the recipient or the purpose of the payment. It can contain numbers, letters or a combination of them. For example, when transferring several payments to one address, the memo tag allows you to distinguish to whom a particular transfer is intended.
This mechanism is used not only in the TON network, but also in other blockchains:
In the XRP network, it is called destination tag.
The Stellar (XLM) and EOS networks use a similar field to indicate the destination of a transaction.
In some wallets, the memo tag or its analogs are mandatory for making a deposit to an exchange.
The key role of memo is to prevent confusion when sending funds. For example, if an exchange uses one address for all users, it is the memo that helps identify who owns the incoming payment.
Many users are wondering what happens if they don’t specify memo when transferring? If the tag is omitted, the payment may be credited incorrectly or not arrive at the recipient’s account at all. Therefore, when using cryptocurrency systems, it is important to pay attention to the instructions provided.