Popular messenger Telegram on Tuesday that it is abandoning its blockchain platform Telegram Open Network (TON). This decision followed a lengthy legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Today is a sad day for us here at Telegram. We are announcing the closure of our blockchain project,” Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov wrote on his channel. According to him, the American court made it impossible to further develop the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain platform for the messenger, which is used by more than 400 million users.
"How so? Imagine that several people pooled their money together to build a gold mine, and then divided the gold that could be extracted from it, Paul wrote. “And then the judge comes and says: “These people invested money in a gold mine because they wanted to make a profit. And they didn't want to keep the mined gold for themselves, they wanted to sell it to other people. Because of this, they are not allowed to mine gold.” If you don't see the point of this, you're not alone - but that's exactly what happened with the TON (housing/mine) network and GRAM (gold) tokens. Judge given the argument in reaching its decision that people should not be allowed to buy or sell GRAM coins the same way they buy or sell Bitcoin."
Durov’s announcement seems quite unexpected, since last month Telegram assured people that it would launch TON by April 2021 and offered to return $1,2 billion to investors.
Durov noted that according to the court’s decision, the GRAM cryptocurrency cannot be distributed even outside the United States, since Americans “would have found workarounds” to access the TON platform.
At the end of March, US District Judge Kevin Castel of Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit to block the launch of the TON blockchain platform.
Telegram first introduced investors to the idea of the TON blockchain and its cryptocurrency in 2017. Benchmark and Lightspeed Capital, as well as several Russian investors, invested $1,7 billion in exchange for a promise to become the first owners of the new cryptocurrency.
“I want to end this post by wishing good luck to all those who strive for decentralization, balance and equality in the world. You are fighting the right battle. This battle may well be the most important battle of our generation. We hope that you will succeed where we failed,” Durov wrote.
Source: 3dnews.ru