Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, has announced the end of Telegram Open Network (TON) and the linked Gram tokens after a prolonged battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
It has been reported that Durov said Telegram is now officially terminating its involvement with the project, as the TON network and Gram token were announced back in 2017.
However, in the post, named “What Was TON And Why It Is Over,” Durov said that they made the decision in response to a US court forbidding Telegram from distributing its Gram tokens anywhere in the world.
Durov wrote:
“The US court declared that Grams couldn’t be distributed not only in the United States, but globally. Why? Because, it said, a US citizen might find some way of accessing the TON platform after it launched So, to prevent this, Grams shouldn’t be allowed to be distributed anywhere in the world – even if every other country on the planet seemed to be perfectly fine with TON.”
Also, in the post, he clearly criticized the involvement of the US government and efforts to prevent the launch of a project based on principles of decentralization pioneered by Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Breaking: @Telegram’s blockchain project TON and Gram cryptocurrency are terminated, @durov announced https://t.co/NEU9TK3kVP — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 12, 2020
By repeating his recent negative remarks about the US, Durov wrote that the global community is still dependent on the US when it comes to finance and technology.
He said:
“Unfortunately, we – the 96% of the world’s population living elsewhere — are dependent on decision makers elected by the 4% living in the U.S.”
Durov also highlighted that the court decision breaks sovereignty of jurisdictions around the world by saying:
“This court decision implies that other countries don’t have the sovereignty to decide what is good and what is bad for their own citizens. If the US suddenly decided to ban coffee and demanded coffee shops in Italy be closed because some American might come there – we doubt anyone would agree.”
Likewise, by ending the TON project, Telegram seems to have lost their long-running legal battle to the US SEC, as the SEC brought an action against Telegram in October 2019, a few days before the firm was planning to launch the TON network.
Ton Open Network: The End. Telegram founder Pavel Durov wrote in his blog that the Telegram Open Network (TON) would be discontinued due to the company's ongoing legal fight with SEC.https://t.co/CstRIh49Fu pic.twitter.com/VMHCH47g6M — ICO Analytics (@ICO_Analytics) May 12, 2020
In the lawsuit, the SEC charged Telegram of violating the US securities law by conducting its $1.7 billion initial coin offering in 2018.
<img width="1600" height="900" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.cryptonewspoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Telegram-CEO-Pavel-Durov-Announces-The-End-Of-TON-And-Gram-Tokens-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-16083 lazyload" />
Image: U.Today
In March 2020, a US court recognized that the SEC had a good chance of proving that Telegram’s GRAMs were unregistered securities, as Durov consequently suggested a remunerate plan on April 30 by apparently accepting the court’s decision.
It has been analyzed that Telegram’s departure from the TON project may not be the end of the Telegram Open Network’s story, as Durov’s sudden announcement comes after the Free TON, an independent community of validators, launched the TON blockchain independently from Telegram on May 7.
Moreover, Mitja Goroshevsky, a key member of the Free TON community and CTO at TON Labs, commented on Durov’s announcement:
“Well it’s quite clear. Pavel was forced to do this statement. Literally. Yet I agree with every sentiment it has and particularly with the last statement regarding decentralization. This resonates exactly right with Free TON goals. We will continue to develop, build and distribute TON around the world. We will get it into the hands of millions of people. Because that is the right goal!”
With respect to the Free TON launch, Durov clearly said that Telegram will not have any affiliation with any entities involved in further deployments of the TON technology.
Thus, Durov concluded:
“I want to conclude this post by wishing luck to all those striving 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 succeed where we have failed.”
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: NewsColony