Telegram recently delayed their open network, TON, and their cryptocurrency, GRAM, once again. There is one related project that has not experienced these setbacks, however. TON OS, an operating system for the TON blockchain, will soon get an open source release. TON Labs, a third-party group of TON infrastructure developers, are planning to open source the main components of the TON OS on GitHub tomorrow. Mitja Goroshevsky, CTO at TON Labs, confirmed the news to Cointelegraph on May 6. TON Labs to issue a token known as TON Cash within a month As reported by industry publication, ForkLog, the release …

Soon after missing the April 30 deadline to launch the Telegram Open Network (TON), Telegram sent another letter to its investors. In the new letter, Telegram reportedly said that American TON investors will not be able stay in the TON project for another 12 months. American TON investors will be only eligible for an immediate 72% repayment instead of a 110% refund option in April 2021, Russian news agency RBC reports on May 4. Telegram had to retract the 110% option due to regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. The news comes after Telegram offered to refund its investors on April …

As Telegram again delays the launch of its Telegram Open Network (TON) after missing their April 30 deadline, some key players in the crypto industry don’t want Telegram to launch the coin at all. Michael Novogratz, CEO of crypto merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, and one of the biggest Bitcoin (BTC) bulls, expressed a sceptical stance to Telegram’s blockchain and crypto project in an April 30 tweet. Novogratz wants to turn 400 million Telegram users into Bitcoin consumers According to Novogratz, there is no need to launch either another blockchain network or another cryptocurrency. Novogratz, who is confident that Bitcoin will …

Encrypted messaging platform Telegram appears to have accepted a United States court ruling that the company cannot distribute its Grams tokens or launch the Telegram Open Network (TON) until the dispute has been resolved. With Telegram missing its deadline to launch TON by April 30, a refund clause in Telegram’s purchase agreements means that investors can now claim refunds. However, while proposing an immediate refund of 72% of investors’ stakes, the platform is also offering repayment of 110% on April 30, 2021. Investors who opt to accept the loan may be able to redeem their stake for crypto assets in …

Google Play market and Apple's AppStore will reportedly soon feature the Telegram Open Network (TON) operating system (OS), an end-to-end open-source infrastructure that allows developers and users to work with the TON blockchain. The TON OS will soon become available on smartphones and personal computers for mainstream users, a source close to Telegram told Russian news agency RBC on April 29. TON OS is not an alternative to existing operating systems, but will serve as an add-on for devices, making them able to support blockchain applications. Big plans for the future The source said that with TON OS, users can …

South Korean authorities have managed to trace the digital fingerprints of at least 40 people suspected of having paid with cryptocurrencies to access videos of rape and sexual exploitation of minors in the context of the "Nth Room" case. According to a report published on April 27 by local news agency Yonhap News, a raid on 20 of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea yielded information that the police have used to find users, thus setting a precedent for investigations on crypto-related crimes in the country. Payments sent to Nth Room’s mastermind Yonhap also reported the story of a …

After years of unsuccessful efforts to block Telegram in Russia, the country’s government is now considering lifting the ban due to the coronavirus outbreak. According to an April 22 report by Russian news agency Kommersant, two deputies at the State Duma have prepared a draft bill on terminating the ban of Telegram’s encrypted messenger app in Russia. If you can’t beat it, join it In the bill, the State Duma deputies reportedly argued that Telegram has become an “official service” used by state authorities to raise awareness about the measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The officials elaborated that local …

An unnamed investment firm dubbed ‘Investor Z’ is one of almost a dozen firms battling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) to keep their Gram token investment strategies secret. The 11 investment firms want their proprietary analyses of the Telegram initial coin offering (ICO) to be redacted from the case. Investor Z argued that divulging their strategies is like publicly revealing the recipe for Coca Cola. The long running case has seen the SEC granted an injunction against the worldwide distribution of Grams as they have been deemed securities under US law. VC firms want strategic analysis sealed On …

Cryptocurrency-related tweet volume and membership figures for Telegram crypto groups have both taken a dive since 2018 — but there are promising signs that social media engagement is starting to turn around. Joshua Frank, from analytics and finance management startup The Tie, told Cointelegraph nearly all cryptocurrencies saw a reduction in related Tweet volume from January 2018 to April 2020: “In January of 2018, Bitcoin’s 30-day average tweet volume peaked at just over 80,500 tweets per day. It has fallen 66% since that all-time high. That said, the majority of the drop off in Bitcoin Twitter volume occurred in 2018 …

The Blockchain Association, a major United States-based trade association in the crypto sphere, has filed a new brief in support of Telegram amid the firm’s continuing legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC). The amicus brief and the SEC’s lack of clarity The April 3 brief takes the SEC to task for backtracking on its own guidance for legally distributing digital assets. Referring to the inconsistency that issuers of digital assets must cope with when dealing with the SEC, the brief says that “No settled precedent or agency rulemaking addressed whether and when digital assets amounted to securities.” …

A New York judge has ruled that the injunction barring Telegram from issuing its Gram tokens extends to all entities in the United State and overseas. On April 1, U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, responded to the encrypted messaging firm’s request for clarification as to the scope of the court’s March 24 preliminary injunction. He denied Telegram’s move to distribute tokens to the non-US-based participants of its 2018 initial coin offering (ICO). Approximately $1.27 billion of the funds raised to finance the development of the Telegram Open Network (TON) came from overseas-based investors Judge Castel sides with SEC The …

While Telegram isn’t giving up its ongoing legal battle with United States regulators to launch its TON blockchain project, some online perpetrators are taking advantage of the messenger’s popularity to expose millions of user records of third-party versions of Telegram app. Per an investigation by cybersecurity firm Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko, at least 42 million Iranian “Telegram” usernames and phone numbers were leaked via unofficial Iranian-made versions of Telegram, while real Telegram is banned in the country. 42 million Iranians that are willing to use the banned messenger got their data exposed According to a March 30 report …