Telegram plans ICO for several billions

Rumors about the Telegram messenger creating its own cryptocurrency turned out to be not fiction, but reality. The company plans to launch its own blockchain platform and create a cryptocurrency on it, which can be used to pay not only in the Telegram application.

The token will be called Gram and will be integrated into the application, which means that at the moment 180 million people will immediately be able to become its users. Due to the fact that the application is already used around the world, the news of the initial coin offering (ICO) of this token has attracted the interest of many investors. Creating its own currency could give Telegram independence from banks and governments, which is exactly what Pavel Durov wants after he and his brother Nikolai were forced by other shareholders with close ties to the Russian government to sell their shares in the company.

The white paper describes the Telegram Open Network as a third-generation blockchain, which consists of a main chain and from 2 to 92 accompanying blockchains. It is also indicated that the Telegram Open Network will be able to process 1 million transactions in one second, which means that Gram can be used to make microtransactions. Telegram plans to release the first version of the product by the end of the first quarter of this year, with a full-scale platform expected to be ready by the end of 2019. During the presale, Telegram Open Network plans to raise $500 million, but this figure may change before the initial coin offering. The minimum investment amount for investors at the pre-ICO stage will be $20 million. According to sources, the Gram token cannot be purchased for either Bitcoin or Ethereum, like all the others. Investors will be able to buy cryptocurrency exclusively for fiat. 

With the help of the Telegram Open Network, Telegram will be able to create an analogue of the WeChat application, which is very widely used not only as a chat messenger, but also as a form of payment in China. The main differences will be the decentralization of the Telegram platform and the fact that it will support cryptocurrency. It has not yet been confirmed by the company’s management, however, some sources claim that it will be possible to store not only digital, but also traditional currency on the Telegram wallet. 

We previously wrote about this project and presented an advertising TON video

According to https://techcrunch.com