The popular encrypted messaging app Telegram will launch its own blockchain platform and cryptocurrency, CointTelegraph reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The new platform will be dubbed either “The Open Network” or “Telegram Open Network” (TON) and is supposed to be based on an improved version of blockchain technology.
Anton Rozenberg, a former employee of Telegram’s publishing division Telegraph posted on Facebook what he claims is an advertorial video for the new platform. He also pointed out that TON would aid those under oppressive governments, since they would be able to transfer money natively through the messaging app. This could serve to break the state’s control over citizens’ money, added Rozenberg.
The currency of TON will be called “Gram” and the platform will be natively integrated with many of the most popular messaging apps. The platform will utilize light wallets, making it unnecessary for users to download a large and unwieldy Blockchain.
The TON platform also won’t have to go through a multi-year bootstrap period like most new platforms, since the Telegram app already boasts 180 mln users, according to Bloomberg.
Telegram is already immensely popular with the blockchain community, as cofounder Pavel Durov proclaimed:
“Like right now, the entire Blockchain and cryptocurrency community just switched to Telegram.”
Durov insists Telegram is not for sale at any price, because his users’ privacy is too valuable to risk.