Telegram is finally calling it quits with its cryptocurrency subsidiary Telegram Open Network (TON) after a judge in US court ruled against Telegrams efforts to form TON.
In an announcement on his channel, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov confirmed that “Telegram’s active involvement with TON was over. TON is a blockchain platform designed to offer decentralized cryptocurrency to anyone with a smartphone. TON was designed to share the principles of decentralization pioneered by Bitcoin and Ethereum, but to be vastly superior to them in speed and scalability.”
The US sec ordered Telegram to halt sales of its cryptocurrency (called Gram) after it failed to register an early sale of $1.7 billion in tokens prior to launching the network. Arguing that you can’t bring more balance to an overly centralized world exactly because it’s so centralized.
According to the judge, the Grams (gold) couldn’t be distributed not only in the United States but globally. Reportedly, a US citizen might find some way of accessing the TON platform after it launched. So, to prevent this, a decision was reached to stop grams from being distributed anywhere. Grams shouldn’t be allowed to be distributed anywhere in the world.
Durov spoke against the ruling in his announcement, arguing that American courts shouldn’t have the power to stop the sale of cryptocurrency beyond US borders. and he urged others to take up the decentralization fight in Telegram’s stead. “This battle may well be the most important battle of our generation,” he wrote. “We hope that you succeed where we have failed.”
Durov argued that the decision implies that. Other countries don’t have the sovereignty to decide what is good and what is bad for their own citizens. The United States when it comes to finance and technology. The US can use its control over the dollar and the global financial system to shut down any bank or bank account in the world.
Durov said, “For the last 2,5 years, some of our best engineers have been working on TON. A next-generation blockchain platform and a cryptocurrency we were going to name Gram. We were very proud of the result. And the technology we created allowed for an open, free, decentralized exchange of value and ideas. When integrated with Telegram, TON had the potential to revolutionize how people store and transfer funds and information”