Telegram claims that its TON blockchain has not been dead but is now being used as Toncoin. Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, published a post on his Telegram channel recently. This gave support to the project.
He wrote that Telegram had said goodbye to TON last year and expressed his hope that future generations would continue with their vision of a mass-market, blockchain platform.
He also included a link to the Ton coin group. According to Coin Market Cap data, the statement caused a 30% increase in the price of ton coin tokens.
This was an unusual move by the company. It had never commented on projects using its blockchain code before and abandoned it after a dispute with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020.
This endorsement seems to end the informal rivalry that existed between two teams that took over TON’s open-source code and launched separate Proof-of-stake Blockchains: Free TON (recently rebranded as Everscale and Toncoin). Their tokens can be found on many crypto exchanges.
Durov stressed the lack of a Telegram link between Toncoins and Toncoins: “Unlike the original TON Toncoin is separate from Telegram. Its team deserves the same success, and I wish them all the best.
They have everything they need to create something extraordinary, if they have the right strategy for going to market.
Some observers still believe that the statement raises the question of Telegram’s connection with Toncoin. This could be a violation of a ban by the SEC on crypto tokens being launched until 2023. The ban was imposed after Telegram settled with the regulator.
Fedor Skuratov, a former community manger at TON Labs (a venture-backed company that helped Telegram test its blockchain before it quit the project), said, “The key question is whether the U.S. Justice System would be willing to investigate the connection [between Telegram & Toncoin]”
Skuratov suggested that Durov may be trying to prove to the U.S. regulator it could not actually stop his technology. Skuratov said that Durov “supported Toncoin, but formally distanced itself from it at the time.”
Telegram didn’t respond to CoinDesk’s press request.
The Winner Is Chosen
Telegram was forced to close TON because of the obligation. It had to find money to pay back investors who had paid in advance to receive tokens.
The company sold bonds in February to raise $1 million. This was its first ever securities sale. According to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti Telegram is also planning an initial public offering (IPO), in 2023. The goal is to achieve a $30 billion-to-50 billion valuation.
In 2018, Telegram began work on the TON Blockchain. It raised $1.7 billion from two private funding rounds, including Silicon Valley household names as well as Russian billionaires as well as institutional investors around the globe.
After a eight-month battle with the SEC about whether the token was a security or not, Telegram ended the case. paid $18.5 million in penalties and stated that it would no longer support this project.
Soon thereafter, a group consisting of professional validators and developers led by TON Labs released a version the blockchain called Free TON. A second version of the blockchain was launched in 2021 by another group, which they called Newton.
Anatoly Makosov was Newton’s top developer. requested Telegram through a request on GitHub for the ton.org domain’s ownership and the project repository.
Telegram accepted. The project was soon given the name TON, and it was listed on a variety of small-cap crypto exchanges.
Skuratov stated that Durov supported Toncoin over Everscale because Toncoin’s team does not “position itself as independent” and “follows Telegram’s legacy’ without any leadership ambitions. Durov likes that.”
Skuratov stated that Ever scale cut all ties to Telegram in order to avoid any “toxic” association with the project being investigated by the U.S. regulator.
Alexander Filatovite, CEO of TON Labs, stated that Ever scale is no longer connected to Telegram’s Project, even at a technical level. He has switched to a new programming language.
Filatovite explained that the former Free TON community made a conscious decision to switch to the Rust implementation (TON is on C++), and rebrand Ever scale as the ecosystem. “But we share the original roots of Ton coin, so i want to wish them luck.”