Telegram worldwide messaging application plans to launch a network and token for its blockchain-based Telegram Open Network (TON) platform in March of 2019. The news was communicated to us by a source close to the founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov today, in January. 23.
Telegram, which reportedly has more than 200 million active users per month and is among the ten most popular messaging applications in the world, collected almost 1,7 billion dollars in two rounds of private primary coin offer (ICO) last year as for Telegram, so for the future TON platform.
The source stressed that Durov did not want to confirm the specific release date for TON and that the March estimate remains unchanged.
According to a separate report from the Russian business media, the Durov team told investors that TON is 90% ready, but delays are possible due to the “innovative nature of development”.
As reported, the details published so far suggest that TON will strive to function as a “new way to exchange data” and will work on its own cryptocurrency platform, dubbed “Gram”.
As reported in May of 2018, the stunning success of Telegram's preliminary sales prompted the company to subsequently decide to cancel the public ICO, which was to take place later in 2018.
Despite rumors that Russian billionaire and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich backed the project, only two entrepreneurs — Qiwi payment service co-founder Sergei Solonin and Wimm-Bill-Dann co-founder David Yakobashvili — have publicly confirmed their investments to date. day.
After the news that TON was “ready for 70%” in October last year, the Iranian government strengthened its restrictions on the messaging application, saying that any cooperation with the application to launch its token Gram would be considered an act against national security and undermining national economy. Iran has introduced a series of bans against Telegram since April 2018.
The app has also been conspicuously blocked in Russia - Durov's birthplace - since April 2018, officially due to Durov's refusal to hand over the app's encryption keys to authorities under local telecommunications law. According to data at the time of the block, about 10 million Telegram users are in Russia.