Telegram's ICO - it is the next stage of the global revolution of decentralization. It is the time, when decentralization will go mainstream and the current country-based world will shake to the foundation. No less.
Bitcoin was the first. The idea is huge, but it is inconvenient to use.
Bitcoin’s grand vision to transform the world, to get rid it of “greedy bankers”, to build a new decentralized financial system with equal opportunities for everyone attracted millions of early backers that supported the idea and helped it to grow further. That’s understandable, as the Bitcoin has the roots in the eternal ideals always appealing to the majority of humanity such as equality, good for everyone, “take from the rich and powerful and give to the poor”.
However, now, after 9 years of Bitcoin existence, its flaws became apparent even to the most devoted supporters. The argument of being a “digital currency” doesn’t stand any longer as even innovative Steam ceased to accept Bitcoin, while Microsoft being indecisive [1]. High transaction fees, slow transaction time, huge price fluctuations and no user-friendly interface forced Bitcoin advocates to drop some ambitions and to position it as a store of value, as a “Digital Gold” or “Gold 2.0”. With the possibility of declining prices, which shatters the store of value argument as well, hundreds of competitors, numerous forks, little actual adoption and lightning network still far away, Bitcoin march on the world is on pause.
Being the first, Bitcoin real accomplishment was the forming of an entirely new cryptospace, with the focus on the world’s decentralization, that will continue rolling with or without Bitcoin itself. With the foundation being laid out, there wouldn’t be the better moment for the most ambitious, Telegram’s ICO, as it is called by Cointelegraph and Coindesk [2,3].
TON is the next stage of the decentralization revolution.
What is Telegram now? It is a messaging app with user-base of 200 million [2]. Only it is much more than just that. Its privacy-focused nature and resilience to governmental demands made it the perfect tool for ensuring the free flow of information worldwide. Protesters around the world use Telegram to coordinate their actions against their oppressive governments. Those who value their anonymity finally recieved an opportunity to do so in a simple and user-friendly way. And, of course, Telegram is the main messaging app for the cryptocommunity, where you can trade, look for a job, get news, know about ICOs and soon it will become much more.
Telegram promises to deliver:
“TON Storage – "A distributed file-storage technology, accessible through the TON P2P Network and available for storing arbitrary files, with torrent-like access technology and smart contracts used to enforce availability."
TON Proxy – "This layer can be used to create decentralized VPN services and blockchain-based TOR alternatives to achieve anonymity and protect online privacy."
TON Services – "A platform for third-party services of any kind that enables smartphone-like friendly interfaces for decentralized apps and smart contracts, as well as a World Wide Web-like decentralized browsing experience."
TON DNS – "A service for assigning human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts, services and network nodes." [2]
And the main goal is to deliver TON cryptocurrency - an alternative payment method for everyone.
The right time, the right place.
Now, you may say that TON will face severe competition in the cryptospace, or ask how it differs from more than 1300 other cryptocurrencies. Well, please, consider these two mind-blowing reasons:
- Telegram CEO – Pavel Durov have exactly the right mindset to deliver what is promised.
Some call him the “Russian Zuckerberg” for creating a Russian social network Vkontakte, which boasts 467 million of registered users [4]. But what is more important, back in Russia, he had very strained history with oppressive Russian governmental system. In 2011, when he refused to shut down the pages of opposition politicians after controversial parliamentary elections he answered them in Twitter with this:
The government reaction? They sent a full SWAT team to his home.
In interview to The New York Times Pavel said: “They had guns and they looked very serious. They seemed to want to break the door.” [5]
After that, Duriv learned that 48 percent of VKontakte had been sold to the friends of the Russian president – Mr.Putin, despite a contractual requirement to give him right of first refusal. [5] He resigned from the CEO post of his company and left Russia.
Later, he commented: “I’m out of Russia and have no plans to go back. Unfortunately, the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment.” [6]
Also, Pavel is known for having libertarian views, believing in free markets, allowing users to upload audio and video files, without regard to copyright and thinking of himself as of “a legal citizen of the world.” He also offered a job to Edward Snowden – a man, who revealed that the US government spied on people’s private information and had to flee the US in order evade punishment [7]. This, the fact of being dumped by the government out of his own company, plus his refusals to reveal Telegram user’s personal information to Iranian and Russian governments, make him a person truly devoted to decentralization ideals and already proven ability to deliver quality digital products.
2.Adoption for TON is already there. And the right one.
As was mentioned above, Telegram has 200 million users, which is itself a huge amount. If it was a country, it would be on the 7th place by the population count [8]. None of other cryptocurrencies has anything near to this number. And furthermore, Telegram is especially popular among the current cryptocurrency enthusiasts and adopters. It is the №1 messaging App for them. Adding TON currency and additional functions Telegram hits exactly it’s target audience, which insures its usage and places it well ahead of the competitors, whose adopters are scarce and fragmented.
Telegram is going to bring the whole decentralization idea to the next level. If Mr.Durov delivers easy-to-use interface TON will become the first truly successful cryptocurrency with massive scale and level of adoption. Combined with the stunning $3-5 billion, which TON aims to collect through ICO, it will put it so well ahead of its competitors, that they will hardly be able to catch up.
With TON, only by using a mobile, anyone in any country will be able to communicate, transfer money, files, access the internet privately and freely. The old boundaries and regulation will cease to exist, as no one will be able to control what people plan and do. All the grand vision, promised by cryptocurrencies will be available on your phone. In one App. In Telegram.
The decentralized future has arrived.
Bitcoin: 1KTmAWQ5cjKVjhVCjum73mKtWQqiSny5gu
Ethereum: 0xc6a29e9cd9dc33c339f4a3047bfb021a389cc4ca
Doge: DFofSoFEkT1JPpqGNgFNuDQCZvqWRnYBLM
References:
Microsoft resumes Bitcoin payments after halt over instability https://www.coindesk.com/microsoft-resumes-bitcoin-payments-after-halt-over-instability/Telegram's $1.2 Billion ICO Could Be the Most Ambitious Token Sale Yet https://www.coindesk.com/telegrams-1-2-billion-ico-ambitious-token-sale-yet/Telegram $500 Mln Pre-ICO Aims To Be Largest Ever https://cointelegraph.com/news/telegram-500-mln-pre-ico-aims-to-be-largest-everVkontakte user base https://vk.com/catalog.phpOnce celebrated in Russia programmer Pavel Durov chooses exile https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/technology/once-celebrated-in-russia-programmer-pavel-durov-chooses-exile.html?_r=1Durov out for good from VK.com plans a mobile social network outside Russia https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/22/durov-out-for-good-from-vk-com-plans-a-mobile-social-network-outside-russia/?ncid=rssEdward Snowden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_SnowdenCountries by population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population