Telegram has abandoned its Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project after their ongoing legal battle against US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirmed founder Pavel Durov.
Telegram has been working on TON blockchain and its native cryptocurrency grams since 2017. However, after their legal fight against the SEC and their ruling, the company has decided to discontinue the blockchain.
“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. We were very proud with the result – the technology we created allowed for an open, free, decentralized exchange of value and ideas,” Pavel Durov announced.
With TON, Telegram aimed to create a decentralised blockchain platform, which will be maintained by a community of third-party developers. The company or its affiliates don’t promise or commit to developing features and apps for TON blockchain after it’s launched.
“When integrated with Telegram, TON had the potential to revolutionise how people store and transfer funds and information. Unfortunately, a US court stopped TON from happening.”
One of the most critical parts of Telegram’s announcement was that at the time of launch of the TON blockchain, neither the blockchain or Gram cryptocurrency would be integrated with the existing Telegram messenger app. Earlier this year, the company also said that Telegram’s TON wallet application will be available for transactions as a standalone product and will compete with other crypto wallets in the market.
However, the company also mentioned that the integration of their messenger and crypto wallet apps might be on the table in the future “to the extent permitted under applicable laws and governmental authorities”.
Durov concluded by announcing that “Telegram’s active involvement with TON is over” and to not trust any sites using his name, “Telegram brand or TON abbreviation to promote their projects”.
“No present or past member of our team is involved with any of these projects. 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.”
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