While Facebook’s Libra token hits a wall with regulators, and recently with partners, Telegram is charging ahead with its own crypto ambitions. The popular messaging app today updated its Terms of Service to officially introduce Grams Wallet, which says it could be offered as a standalone application or as incorporated into its messenger.
Although it seems a minor development, the announcement still interesting as Telegram has largely proceeded in secrecy and never released public statements about their involvement in cryptos. As such, the announcement could amplify questions about what it could face from government authorities after it made its plans public. The Pavel Durov-led app, anyways, has always operated with a degree of disregard for the opinions of regulators, including in his native land Russia.
Telegram is planning to make the crypto wallets available to nearly 300 million global users of its popular messaging application.
No control over the TON Blockchain
While early users of its coin, the Gram, are expected to receive the first batches soon, the updated ToS explain that Telegram doesn’t store their public or private keys, backup phrases or passwords, or any other credentials.
Gram is intended to become a new cryptocurrency and a way to move money anywhere in the world, but the issuer warns that if a user loses his credentials, the social app won’t be able to recover or retrieve lost data, nor access to his coins.
The encrypted messenger service also said it has no control over the TON blockchain network, through which Gram transactions are created, validated, and recorded in the public ledger. The TON blockchain project is scheduled to launch no later than October 31, according to the existing agreements with TON investors.
Telegram canceled its initial coin offering back in 2018 after the popular messaging app raised a record-setting $1.7 billion from a group of less than 200 private investors.
Telegram sold its Gram virtual coins in two private funding rounds , with proceeds going to create a decentralized network for the app. The second round of fundraising has collected $850 million from 94 accredited investors, who were required to pump a minimum of $1 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
