Table of Content

About Telegram

In 2019, during a significant protest in my country, Telegram stood out as a beacon of privacy and integrity amidst a landscape of compromised digital freedoms. While other social media platforms capitulated to governmental pressure, Telegram remained steadfast in its commitment to user privacy and freedom of expression. Despite immense external pressure, Telegram refused to sell the information of protesters or shut down their channels.

Almost all of the social media companies used their backdoors to enter our people's virtual private space and shut down protesters' pages (or anyone saying anything against the government). These companies included Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

So, this is only one first-hand experience, amongst many, that I have had by using Telegram about two decades. The Telegram team are constantly improving their service and are pushing boundaries, which gives me a high faith in their work.

Telegram Open Network

The Telegram Messenger team, led by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, begin exploring blockchain solutions for Telegram Messenger. Finding no current Layer 1 blockchain able to support Telegram's 9-figure userbase, they decide to design their own layer-1 chain, then called Telegram Open Network and TON coin is a native coin in this  ecosystem.

Now, TON Foundation — a not-for-profit community is focused on supporting and developing the network and now is responsible for the development of TON coin. This community is a separate entity from Telegram. While technically an arms-length affair, the ad payments setup could result in Telegram "holding an unhealthy share of Toncoin, which will be too concentrated for a decentralized ecosystem," Durov said in a post to his own channel. 

"To limit Telegram’s share of TON at ≈10% of the supply, we’ll be selling the upcoming surplus of our TON holdings to long-term investors — under 1-4 years lockup and vesting plan, but at a discount to the market price. This way free-floating TON will get locked up, stabilizing the ecosystem and reducing volatility," he said in his post. 

The Open Network coin

Having a strong and active community behind a open-source project is vital. To make sure that you are betting on the right horse, check the TON coin community releases and future works. 

References

+ My hands-on first-hand experience with Telegram for around two decades :) 

+ Ton coin road map: TON’s roadmap 

+ Ton coin white paper: The Open Network (ton.org) 

+ Ton payment article: TON Blockchain Sets New Wallet Record as Telegram Dumps Euro Switches to TON Payments (coindesk.com)