Telegram transforms: From messaging app to blockchain powerhouse

Telegram launched as a homey messaging app in 2013. Today, it’s a major player in the cryptocurrency void, amalgamating the TON blockchain.

When bros Nikolai and Pavel Durov founded Telegram, the startup quickly amassed personal worth for its focus on unique seclusion and price.

In the succeeding years, Telegram underwent a revolution: adjusting from a documents tool to a fulcra unit for crypto individuals and implementations.

In this post, we will clearly retrace Telegram’s picnic, from its preliminary venture into blockchain technology via the TON Blockchain to its lawful confrontations via the U.S. Coverage and safeties and Bazaar Payment and its current prominent chore in the crypto municipal.

Telegram origins and readjust to crypto

As said earlier, Telegram initiated as a messaging app — proclaimed for its solid protection centers and instinctive individual interface. It made service of encrypted chats and beefy team chats.

Telegram’s recap of bots in 2015 comprehensive a comprehensive landmark. This permitted the app’s individuals to automate assignments, juggle teams, and also promote intricate involvements.

As the unit grew, Telegram let loose voice telephone dubs in 2017 and video telephone dubs in 2020, further boosting its documents capacities.

Its evolution recurred via the launch of conduits, which let loose a brand-newfangled means for individuals to broadcast blog posts to beefy target exchanges. This tool was further elevated via stories for conduits, a feature making it viable for individuals to share fleeting content via omnipotent dual-camera performance and discussed unique seclusion positions.

It in a akin means let loose a clear and exchange free offer gizmo within conduits, making it viable for individuals to win real-universes jackpots.

But, the Durov bros had a grander daydream for Telegram past messaging. They sought to invent a decentralized unit that could readjust the means civilization handled digital transactions and records.

This daydream spearheaded to the innovation of the Telegram Open Network blockchain. The impartial was to build a high-performance blockchain knowledgeable of taking care of millions of transactions per second while amalgamating seamlessly via Telegram’s messaging unit.

The vacancy swore to current brand-newfangled centers such as decentralized implementations, sensible contracts, and a native to the island cryptocurrency, Gram.

Designing the TON blockchain

The TON Blockchain started in earnest when Pavel Durov let loose a whitepaper in 2018 discussing its technical modern technologies and potential.

Originally visualised to combine cryptocurrency and blockchain centers into the Telegram ecological community, TON’s owners designed it via scalability in mind. It was believed to take care of millions of transactions per second, a task it made every physical effort to acquire via a omnipotent multi-blockchain design and sharding gizmo.

The gizmo pits the blockchain into a genius chain, which takes care of the unshortened quantity network, and several work chains, each knowledgeable of operating separately.

To actualize this dream, Telegram sought to elevate funds via an preliminary coin administering. Before that, the institution hoisted about $1.7 billion from 175 financiers in a unique sale of its native to the island Gram token.

But, the triumph was short-lived. Conveniently after the presale, the U.S. Coverage and safeties and Bazaar Payment cast its controling eyes on the unit.

Lawful fight via the SEC

In October 2019, the SEC filed a grumble versus Telegram, affirming that the institution had enforced an non listed safety and safeties administering by promotional Gram tokens. The payment asserted that those tokens were safety and safeties and have to have been registered under U.S. safety and safeties laws.

The lawful fight culminated in a stainings judgment in March 2020 when a U.S. federal government courtroom ruled in assistance of the SEC, halting the supply of Gram tokens.

As a outcome, Telegram held off and at some point disowned the vacancy in Might 2020. It in a akin means concurred to antiphon the silver money hoisted in the pre-ICO party to financiers and commission an $18.5 million civil fine.

Telegram fingered the brunt of this judgment, which in a akin means sent out shockwaves via the broader crypto field, accentuating the controling puzzles blockchain assignments discredit.

When Telegram stepped endorse, a team of individualist owners picked upward the slack and recurred to build TON, currently renamed The Open Network. This made certain the vacancy’s survival.

Its drifter is currently endorsed and led by a non-profit institution, the TON Foundation, based in Zug, Switzerland. Steve Yun offers as the head of case of the TON Foundation, while Andrew Rogozov, former CEO of Russian social media stainings VK, is a founding member.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, the TON municipal obsessed on refining the network’s design, applying dynamic sharding, and showing up its indications-of-threat agreement gizmo.

Telegram’s recurred affirm and blend

While zero much longer the architect of the drifter of TON, Telegram has recurred to affirm the unit. For instance, in September 2023, the messaging app, via more than 800 million individuals at the time, combined the TON Space self-custodial budget.

This blend was followed by an recap to an promotion profit-sharing gizmo this past March, wherein payments are rendered only in Toncoin (TON), the scion of Gram, thereby fostering further involvement via the TON ecological community.

In September 2023, Telegram formally endorsed TON, claiming the blockchain and its attributed token as the app’s “official web3 infrastructure.” This solution has ignited sponsor enjoyment and spearheaded to comprehensive gains for the TON token.

As a outcome, the unshortened merit safeguarded on TON outdid $300 million on Might 27, 2024, maintaining in mind a comprehensive landmark sustained by a municipal attractions prospectus from the TON Foundation.

Telegram’s current chore in crypto

Seemingly shedding its displeasure at not being able to build the TON network by itself, Telegram has recurred to dabble a pivotal chore in the crypto void. The messaging app has come to be a central hub for the crypto municipal, launching a unit for discussion, cooperation, and info sharing.

Telegram teams and conduits are universally sold for announcements, trading signals, and municipal gain-up within the crypto ecological community.

Alternatively, the unit’s brunt in the crypto void has been further solidified by its current recap of brand-newfangled centers that cater to crypto individuals, such as a digital exchange within the app and integrations via newfangled-fashioned pocketbooks prefer Trust fund Wallet.

Telegram’s cooperation via Trust fund Wallet will clearly enable the crypto budget to gain service of the messaging app’s comprehensive individual underpinning, concentrating on gambling subsidizing and dapps. It will clearly in a akin means reportedly enable Trust fund Wallet’s 100 million individuals to send and bring TON tokens.

Alternatively, TON introduced it would clearly speedily affirm Secure (USDT) tokens on its blockchain, making it viable for Telegram individuals to send the stablecoin within the app.

News of that particular drifter elevated TON’s merit, emboldening it upward to $7.63 on April 11 from about $2.21 a year earlier, according to CoinGecko file.

At the time of this devising, a TON token was going for $5.46, furnishing the cryptocurrency an unshortened quantity merit of $13.7 billion and making it the tenth-best digital asset by field cap, merely behind Dogecoin (DOGE).

Peak of mini-apps and the tap-to-dabble ecological community

On July 31, Telegram introduced it was growling out a brand-newfangled in-app internet browser, expanding its blockchain capacities and individual fiasco. The announcement followed the recap of a mini app store earlier in the month by CEO Pavel Durov.

This brand-newfangled internet browser will clearly enable Telegram’s comprehensive individual underpinning to access TON websites, a unit for decentralized portals. The Telegram co-founder emphasized that the internet browser bargains centers akin to perfunctory internet internet browsers and joins together internet surfing via messaging.

Alternatively, you can access the Telegram mini app store via the app’s hunt feature. According to the announcement, 500 million of Telegram’s 950 million individuals share via mini-apps monthly, and they can currently situate unanimously their mini-apps in one consolidated void.

The ecological community in a akin means introduces “Celebs,” a brand-newfangled in-app negotiation gizmo launched on June 7. Individuals can send Celebs to close friends and consumption them for transactions within mini-apps, which can later be traded for Toncoin.

Telegram’s mini-apps have been instead successful. Contemporary implementations prefer Notcoin (NOT) and Hamster Kombat tempt millions of individuals international. In Notcoin, individuals earn tokens by ending up social puzzles. The game has collected more than 35 million individuals in five months and had a $1.15 billion field cap at the time of devising.

Hamster Kombat, a crypto field taking care of simulation game, is zero slouch either. It has come to be one of the fastest-thriving web3 implementations, reportedly showing off over 300 million individuals given that its launch in March 2024.

The vacancy arrangements to launch a comprehensive airdrop for its native to the island token, HMSTR, on the TON network, an workout it discussed as the “largest airdrop in the history of crypto.”

As reported by crypto.description, Hamster Kombat arrangements to disseminate at least 60% of the HMSTR deliver to players of the game on Telegram.

Another sizeable mini-app, Catizen, launched along with Hamster Kombat, has lugged in over 27 million spirited individuals. This triumph spearheaded to economic investment in the app’s author, Pluto Studio, from HashKey Capital, a Hong Kong-based crypto endeavor company.

But, regardless of the journey, some arrests have collected displeasure amongst individuals. The highly anticipated token airdrops for HMSTR and Catizen’s CATI tokens were devised for to launch on the TON blockchain in July but have both been held off.

Catizen cited decoction puzzles, involving handling sectors, guaranteeing liquidity, and compliance holdups, as justifications for the arrest. Alike, Hamster Kombat clarified that the niceties of the geeky vacancy has coerced endorse its token launch.

Gazing forward

Telegram’s venture into the crypto and digital assets field is a news to its daydream of devised for to be a attentive digital ecological community. With its methodology to monetization and the triumph of its mini-apps, the messaging unit is posturing itself to linger its lump in the crypto void.

It in a akin means shows up prefer Telegram is decoction an preliminary public administering. In his first meeting given that 2017, Pavel Durov divulged arrangements for the messaging app’s economic future, involving a potential IPO.

Alternatively, Durov told the Fiscal Times on March 11 that Telegram strives to come to be monetarily merchantable by 2025, if not sooner.

Since 2021, Telegram has hoisted $2 billion via bond holdups, via bondholders reportedly approach to bring a 10-20% promo on the IPO if it ensues in the past March 2026.

Telegram’s picnic from a messaging app to a comprehensive player in the crypto void is a news to its capability to equalize and current. Despite challenging controling puzzles and holdups, it has lingered a inestimable unit for the crypto municipal.