The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov announced the closure of the blockchain project Telegram Open Network (TON) with its own cryptocurrency Gram, which has been working on for the past two and a half years. This decision was made due to the fact that a U.S. court recognized Gram as a securities and banned its transfer to original buyers.
“Imagine that several people combined their funds to build a gold mine and then split the gold mined there. And then a judge comes and says: “A lot of people invested in a gold mine, because they wanted to get profit. They did not want to keep this gold for themselves; they wanted to sell it to other people. And therefore, you are not allowed to give them gold, ”Durov explained the current situation.
Moreover, according to the founder of Telegram, an American court has banned the sale of cryptocurrency not only in the United States, but also around the world, because otherwise US citizens may find a way to access it. According to Durov, such a decision means that other states do not have the right to decide what is good and what is bad for their citizens.
“If the United States decided to ban coffee and close coffee houses in Italy, because there might be some Americans there, we doubt that anyone would agree. But despite this, we decided not to continue developing TON. Unfortunately, the American court is right in one thing: although we, people outside the US, can vote for our presidents and elect parliaments, but we are still dependent on the States in terms of finance and technology (fortunately, not coffee), ”he wrote. in your Telegram channel.
Durov stressed that the United States has control over the dollar, the global financial system, and the tech giants Apple and Google, as a result of which they can block any bank accounts or remove unwanted applications from the App Store and Google Play.
“Unfortunately, we - 96% of the population of the rest of the world, are dependent on the decisions of those chosen by 4% of people living in the USA,” he said.
Moreover, according to him, in the future this state of affairs may change, but at the moment the world is in a vicious circle: “You cannot make a too centralized world more balanced just because it is so centralized.”
The founder of Telegram also urged people to be vigilant, and not to invest money or transfer personal data to those who use his name, Telegram brand or TON to promote any initiatives.
“The active participation of Telegram in the development of TON is over ... None of the current or past team members are involved in any of these projects. And although networks based on the technology created for TON may appear, we will not have a relationship with them and are unlikely to somehow support them, ”said Durov.
- US Supreme Court Building
- Reuters
- © Joshua Roberts
The first information about the TON blockchain platform appeared in early 2018. Telegram reported a raise of about $ 1.7 billion. According to the initial plans, the project was to be launched before October 31, 2019. However, shortly before the launch, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc.
During the litigation, the Gram cryptocurrency was recognized as a security, and its transfer to customers was prohibited. Against this background, the launch of the blockchain platform was postponed indefinitely. At the same time, there were reports in the media that Durov invited TON investors to return 72% of the invested funds in connection with the postponement of the project or to receive 110% of the investments at the end of April 2021.
Note that Anton Rosenberg, a former partner of the Durov brothers on work on the VKontakte social network and Telegram messenger, in an interview with RT in January 2018 indicated that investing in cryptocurrencies, including Gram, is risky, as these are assets with high volatility. Speaking about the TON blockchain platform, he also emphasized that "not a single state wants to see a competitor to its central bank."
Meanwhile, Pavel Durov has previously criticized the United States. In particular, he cited seven reasons why, in his opinion, IT entrepreneurs should not move to Silicon Valley: a tough police state, inaccessible healthcare, limited cultural life, mediocre secondary education, high taxes, high cost of development and poor market prospects in the 21st century.
According to him, the United States of America "is not the best place either for life or for running an IT business."
“Human rights and freedoms are much better protected in the countries of Northern and Central Europe, and economic growth in the 21st century is concentrated in Asian countries. America is still able to lure some already-held entrepreneurs and developers from around the world with cheap investor money, but moving to the United States today is akin to buying an asset at the peak of value, ”the founder of Telegram stated.