Pavel Durov just declared that his TON (Telegram Open Network) project is going to be discontinued. The reason for this is the ongoing legal fight that took place with the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission. He declared:
“Today is a sad day for us here at Telegram. We are announcing the discontinuation of our blockchain project. Below is a summary of what it was and why we had to abandon it.”
A blog post accompanied the announced. It showed that the SEC won a preliminary junction so Telegram cannot launch TON or distribute the gram tokens. This is quite a quick shift for the company because 2 weeks ago it declared that the network is going to be launched in April 2021.
At the end of April, Telegram said that investors are going to receive 72% of the funds they offered immediately, or 110% of them back in one year, after TON was launched. US investors cannot now use the latter option. Durov did not declare if all investors will be refunded or how much of the initial investment will be received.
Pavel Durov made references to third-party efforts taken to launch a TON blockchain independent version. However, he said that no employees from Telegram were involved. He said:
“While networks based on the technology we built for TON may appear, we won’t have any affiliation with them and are unlikely to ever support them in any way. So be careful, and don’t let anyone mislead you.”
TON Labs is the name of a startup that was running a testing network. It launched its very own TON version the past week and it was named “Free TON”. The news appeared after Telegram announced that new delays appeared.
Durov also talked about the injunction that barred gram distribution. He said that the judge indicated the fact that if grams will be issued, US citizens can access them.
“Sadly, the US judge is right about one thing: We, the people outside the US, can vote for our presidents and elect our parliaments, but we are still dependent on the United States when it comes to finance and technology (luckily not coffee).”
The United States has huge power because of the strength of the USD and the influence it has. It practically affects the financial system of the entire world. Such influence can lead to Google and Apple removing apps from their stores. The end of the post was an appeal to decentralization.
“I want to conclude this post by wishing luck to all those striving for decentralization, balance and equality in the world. You are fighting the right battle. This battle may well be the most important battle of our generation. We hope that you succeed where we have failed.”
