Moscow (AFP)

Encrypted messaging Telegram has announced the end of its ambitious virtual currency and payment system project following a long showdown with the American market policeman (SEC).

"Unfortunately, a US court has blocked the completion of TON," Russian messaging co-founder Pavel Durov said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday evening, "officially announcing that Telegram's active involvement in (this project) is complete ".

The TON network (Telegram Open Network), based on blockchain technology, was to create a whole secure and fast payment system that wanted to be "an alternative to Visa and Mastercard".

It had to be accompanied by a virtual currency, the "Gram".

For this, Telegram had collected the record sum of $ 1.7 billion from 200 private investors, during a massive fundraising in cryptocurrencies (ICO).

The SEC had taken legal action on the grounds that Telegram had not registered its offer and its conditions with the market policeman. A legal battle ensued.

"During the last two and a half years some of our best engineers have worked" on this "revolutionary" project, regretted Mr. Durov, explaining that the American justice would have prohibited the use of these products "in the whole world".

Criticizing the financial "dependence" of the rest of the world on Washington, he called for "decentralization".

Founded in 2013 by brothers Pavel and Nikolaï, creators of the popular social network VKontakte ("Russian Facebook"), Telegram has made safety a priority and made its refusal to collaborate with the authorities a workhorse.

According to its website, the Telegram development team is based in Dubai, while the company is registered in the British Virgin Islands. The social network has 400 million users.

Veiled in mystery, the launch of TON has been delayed several times in the past two years.

Telegram recently began offering exit doors for investors, going as far as offering to reimburse up to 110% of the funds invested, according to documents sent to investors consulted by specialized media, including Forbes Russia.

This setback for Telegram comes a month after the Libra association, which is piloting the digital money project initiated by Facebook and which was seen as one of the main competitors of the TON project, presented a less ambitious version of its cryptocurrency.

After months of discussion and criticism from many governments, the association, made up of businesses and non-profit organizations, has announced that Libra is becoming a "multi-currency" that will include "currency" Libra. unique ", like LibraEUR, used in the Euro zone.

A project far from the initial idea of ​​a universal currency for the 2.7 billion users of the American giant.

© 2020 AFP