Telegram might be planning an ICO and in-chat digital currency: rumors multiply

First rumors on digital token or possible cryptocoin the team of the popular cryptographically enhanced messenger called Telegram plans to implement started to appear at the end of 2017. Unlike with that fake story on Vitalik Buterin who made a suggestion for Catalonian pro-independence activists to hold an ICO, Pavel Durov never directly denied those plans, even though he once stated on Twitter that all trustworthy announcements regarding Telegram are available only at the official website and blog.

Since then, the rumors did not fade away, but instead travelled from the local Russian sources (Telegram’s project leader was born in this country) to quite respectable media outlets, including TechCrunch. Their own sources confirm the rumors about the TON, or the Telegram Open Network, which is going to be blockchain-based and the new cryptocurrency is going to be called Gram. As this is the codename TechCrunch’s correspondents saw in the white papers, it might change on the release stage.

As for the technical details, the blockchain of the TON is going to include a master chain and supplementary blockchains and offer latest scalability technologies like sharding and smart contracts.