Telegram raised another $ 850 million in the second round of financing and now has over $ 1.7 billion. Thus the messaging service wants to build the project Telegram Open Network, short TON. This includes the development of a separate blockchain platform and a cryptocurrency.
After already 850 million dollars have flowed in the course of the first round of financing, came in the second round, the same amount. The total of 94 investors each had to insert at least one million dollars.
The app Telegram was founded in 2013 and now has about 200 million users. According to the company, the number is increasing by 700,000 every day and it is hoped to break the 2 billion mark by 2022. With the TON, an attack on traditional e-commerce providers such as MasterCard, Visa or PayPal is planned. With the help of the Blockchain platform, extremely fast and cost-effective transactions should be possible.
Total attack with own cryptocurrency
The cryptocurrency embedded in the platform will be in the name of Grams and should allow users to make online purchases. In the app, a wallet is integrated, which should serve the sending or the receipt of the coins. Unlike other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, blockchain should make it possible for transactions to happen much faster. Although skepticism is expressed in the industry, Telegram claims that several million transfers can be made every second.
Next steps: numerous tests
After a recent round of financing, numerous tests regarding the security and technical requirements of the network are on the plan. Towards the end of the year, the final version of the Blockchain and the Wallet and finally the payment processing will be unlocked. After that, the implementation of other services such as storage services or its own dedicated proxy service is planned.
