Pavel Durov will pay bitcoins to VPN teams amidst the block of Telegram in Russia

The popular messenger Telegram has been banned in Russia by Roscomnadzor - the state agency responsible for what many observers consider state censorship of the Internet. Despite the fact that it blocks actual terrorist websites, sometimes its blocks are made in favor of the current government. This case is no different, stresses founder of Telegram Pavel Durov, explaining this by the lack of desire to decrypt private data to the FSB, the KGB successor.

The ban is now actively being bypassed with the use of virtual private networks or VPNs which are also getting blocked in Russia. To encourage more teams to be part of the Digital Resistance program (as Pavel Durov calls this clash with the Russian authorities), he will start paying them with bitcoins.

While the Russian audience is small in the total share of Telegram, Mr. Durov was never really fond of the current government which went largely unchanged since the time he left Russia. The whole story might also attract more investors to the upcoming Telegram Open Network (TON) Bitnewstoday has described several times.

Image courtesy of Bitnewstoday