Newly published court documents reveal that an anonymous venture capital firm identified as “Investor F” sought to have evidence redacted from the first court hearing for the dispute between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Telegram. On Feb, 18, Investor F asserted that emails directly requested by the SEC contain “confidential and commercially sensitive documents” detailing the firm's strategic considerations regarding prospective cryptocurrency investments and custody solutions. The request states that the firm operates in a “highly competitive market” in which “discussions about investment strategy are commercially sensitive.” Investor F sought that the SEC be permitted to …

Following a two-hour hearing, a New York federal judge has extended the restraining order that prohibits Telegram from distributing its Gram tokens. On Feb 19, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York reserved judgment on the US Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC)’s request for a preliminary injunction regarding Telegram’s 2019 Gram sale. The SEC believes that the Gram token - which the company described as a utility token for the forthcoming Telegram Open Network (TON) - is a security. The regulator shut down Telegram’s ICO last October and an injunction from …

Another United States regulatory agency has weighed in on Telegram’s ongoing legal battle with the Securities Exchange Commission. Following a request by the New York Southern District Court, a division at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a letter with the court on Feb. 18, expressing its views on the complicated case involving Telegram’s digital currency Gram. CFTC says digital currency is a commodity According to the letter, the CFTC’s stance on the case is “relatively straightforward” and stipulates that a “digital currency is a commodity.” Submitted by the CFTC’s Office of General Counsel, the letter represents the …

A group of international Telegram Open Network (TON) contributors have submitted a court document criticizing United States regulators’ line of attack against the project. The group has formed a non-profit association, “The TON Community Foundation,” and collectively submitted the brief on Feb. 14 in the form of an amicus curiae. An amicus curiae is a brief that offers expertise or insight into a given case on behalf of an entity that is not formally party to the case itself — i.e. an entity that is neither a plaintiff, defendant, nor legal counsel for either side. The court can decide whether …

2019 was one hell of a year for Pavel Durov. The serial entrepreneur announced and made moves to release the Telegram Open Network, or TON — the blockchain associated with his Telegram messaging app. The idea of TON is to allow users to go beyond simply sending messages and emojis to each other, by using the app’s underlying infrastructure to transact a cryptocurrency called Gram in a completely trustless and secure manner. But the United States Securities and Exchange Commission had other plans for the launch of Telegram’s new blockchain product, filing an emergency restraining order in October in an …

This is the second article in our series on integrating payment channels on Telegram Open Network. In the first part, we introduced the network, detailed our experience of the contest, and explained how synchronous and asynchronous smart contracts work. As the next addition to the series, this article details how we built a synchronous payment channel on the network during TON’s contest back in September. Here, we will be talking only about Fift (TON’s general-purpose programming language) and FunC (TON’s programming language for writing smart contracts). The TON white paper provides more in-depth information about payment channels, but we will …

Commissioner Hester Peirce of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is known for her work on the regulator’s approach to crypto, enough to have earned the moniker “CryptoMom.” On Thursday, Feb. 6, she presented a new proposal looking to build a safe harbor for networks in their infancy seeking to avoid classification as securities. On Feb. 10, Cointelegraph got the chance to speak with the commissioner at greater length about her goals and hopes for the proposal. What is a safe harbor and why don’t firms want tokens to be securities? Briefly, Peirce’s proposal seeking to give tokens run …

A Feb. 3 paper authored by Nikolai Durov, a Telegram co-founder, lays out the details of Telegram Open Network’s consensus mechanism, named Catchain. The proposed solution is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm, similar to that used by NEO or Cosmos. BFT algorithms are attempted solutions to solve the Byzantine Generals problem, where actors of a particular network need to maintain its functionality even if some nodes are unreliable or malicious. How Catchain works Catchain will work for as long as one third of nodes are not malicious, which is equivalent to the theoretical limit outlined …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week SEC tells Telegram its crypto is worth less than donuts The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has gotten its claws out as it takes Telegram to task over its offering for Gram tokens. In a feisty memo to the Southern District Court of New York, the regulator rejected the messaging platform’s claims that its …

On Jan. 27., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fortified its case against Telegram, saying its Gram token is worth less than donuts. The SEC’s counter In the latest in their battle with Telegram and the Telegram Open Network (TON), the SEC argued in a memo to the Southern District Court of New York: “Telegram offered and sold Grams as securities when it promised to deliver them in exchange for funds pursuant to the Purchase Agreements. That reality will not have changed if the Court permits Telegram to deliver Grams to the Initial Purchasers as part of a broad public …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week World Economic Forum debuts framework for central bank digital currency It was a c-c-c-cold week in Davos, but Cointelegraph’s reporters wrapped up warm to bring you all the news from the World Economic Forum. One particularly big announcement saw the WEF unveil a central bank digital currency policymaker toolkit. The framework, created in tandem with …

Earlier this week, the Chamber of Digital Commerce went ahead and filed an amicus brief for the ongoing court hearing taking place between Telegram — one of the world’s most widely used encrypted messenger services — and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. In its most basic sense, an amicus brief is a legal document that provides non-litigants with the right to submit their views and opinions in relation to an ongoing case for the court’s consideration. The brief was authored on behalf of the Chamber by Lilya Tessler, a partner and the New York head of Sidley Austin …