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Part 5 of 7
Inside TON
In a 132 page white paper, Telegram has outlined a four-stage plan:
▶️ “TON Services” will be a platform for third-party services of any kind that enables smartphone like friendly interfaces for decentralized apps and smart contracts.
▶️ “TON DNS” is a service for assigning human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts services and network nodes. With TON DNS, accessing decentralized services could be like “viewing a website on the World Wide Web.”
▶️ “TON Payments” is a platform for micropayments and a micropayment channel network. It aims to be used for “instant off-chain value transfers between users bots and other services”. Safeguards built into the system are designed to ensure that these transfers “are as secure as on-chain transactions”.
▶️ The “TON Blockchain” will consist of a master chain and 2-to-the-power-of-92 accompanying blockchains. Its most notable aspect is that it will have an “Infinite Sharing Paradigm” to achieve scalability. Thus, TON blockchains aim to be able to “automatically split and merge to accommodate changes in load”. This would mean new blocks are generated quickly and “the absence of long queues helps keep transaction costs low, even if some of the services using the platform become massively popular”.
It will also consist of “Instant Hypercube Routing” designed so the blockchain can maintain top speed even as it grows. Its proof of stake approach will reach consensus through a variant of the ‘Byzantine Fault Tolerant’ protocol, again increasing speed and efficiency. And it will also use 2-D Distributed Ledgers. This means the TON can grow new valid blocks on top of any blocks that were proven to be incorrect to avoid any unnecessary forks. In other words, TON aims to be ‘self-healing’.
TON’s third generation blockchain will be based on a dynamic ‘proof of stake’ secured by multiple parties with a high degree of fault tolerance. It will also handle storage of ID, payments and smart contracts. So, instead of relying on proof of work to create its currency, Telegram will rely on a new, less energy-hogging way of mining cryptocurrency than the original Bitcoin method.
The claim is that it will be capable of a vastly superior number of transactions, around 1 million per second. In other words, similar to the ambitions of the Polkadot project out of Berlin — but with an installed base of 180 million people. This makes it an ‘interchain’ with so-called ‘dynamic sharding’.
🌐 via techcrunch
#telegram #ico #ton #blockchain #gram #cryptocurrency
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Part 3 of 7
Understanding Telegram Open Network
Durov’s idea is to launch an entirely new blockchain, using the Telegram’s 180 million users as rocket fuel to power forward into mainstream adoption off cryptocurrency and making Telegram, effectively, a kingmaker of other cryptocurrencies, because of its existing scale.
According to Telegram’s white paper that TechCrunch has review portions of, its cryptocurrency will be called “Gram” and could potentially gain immediate mainstream adoption by being tied to Telegram’s chat app.
Sources say Durov has decided to combine both a centralized and decentralized infrastructure, since a totally decentralized network doesn’t scale as fast as one which has some elements of centralization, hence why Telegram needs to own its own blockchain.
Moving to a decentralized blockchain platform could kill two birds with one stone for Telegram. As well as creating a full-blown cryptocurrency economy inside the app, it would also insulate it against the attacks and accusations of nation-states such as Iran, where it now accounts for 40% of Iran’s internet traffic but was temporarily blocked amongst nationwide protests against the government.
Telegram has played a delicate political balancing act to try and retain its users in the country, shutting down some channels for calling for the downfall of the government, while keeping others open.
🌐 via techcrunch
#telegram #ico #ton #blockchain #gram #cryptocurrency
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Part 1 of 7
Telegram plans multi-billion dollar ICO for chat cryptocurrency
Encrypted messaging startup Telegram plans to launch its own blockchain platform and native cryptocurrency, powering payments on its chat app and beyond. According to multiple sources which have spoken to TechCrunch, the “Telegram Open Network” (TON) will be a new, ‘third generation’ blockchain with superior capabilities, after Bitcoin and, later, Ethereum paved the way.
The launch will be funded with an enormous Initial Coin Offering, with forthcoming private pre-sales ranging into the hundreds of millions, potentially making it one of the largest ICOs to date. Demand is driven by the fact that rather than the ICO coming from a fresh startup, Telegram is a well-established messaging platform used around the world.
Adopting a homegrown cryptocurrency could give Telegram’s payment system enormous independence from any government or bank — something Co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov is known to covet after investors took over his last company, Russian social network VK. Durov has not responded to TechCrunch’s several attempts to contact him regarding this story.
The potential for a cryptocurrency inside a widely adopted messaging app is enormous.
With cryptocurrency powered payments inside Telegram, users could bypass remittance fees when sending funds across international borders, move sums of money privately thanks to the app’s encryption, deliver micropayments that would incur too high of credit card fees, and more.
🌐 via techcrunch
#telegram #ico #ton #blockchain #gram #cryptocurrency
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Telegram new feature for sync phone contacts
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Telegram 4.7
With 4.7 by supporting multiple accounts. You can add up to three accounts with different phone numbers to your Telegram app, and then quickly switch between them from the side menu. Notifications will keep coming from all accounts, unless you change this in the Notification settings.
https://telegram.org/blog/themes-accounts
#updates #accounts
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Snowden messed public channels with private chats
http://telegra.ph/Telegram-and-Freedom-of-Speech-10-29
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
New stable version 1.2.6 of Telegram Desktop is available. It supports viewing and sending of grouped media albums. You can read about albums here:
https://telegram.org/blog/albums-saved-messages
The update is available on the official website https://desktop.telegram.org, as an auto-update in Settings and on Mac App Store. It will be available in Microsoft Store in a couple of days.
In case you are curious, here is the full video:
https://youtu.be/1RG85wFrKl8
And the link if you want to share it to non-Telegram contacts:
http://telegramgeeks.com/2017/12/telegram-will-launch-ico/
telegra.ph up and running again ✅
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Right now you may experience some problems with @telegraph due to some errors with dotPH (The Official Domain Registry of the Philippines).
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Supergroups updated to allow 50k members! WTF!
#groups
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
🖥 Telegram Desktop v1.1.24 🖥
— Radically improved navigation. New side panel on the right with quick access to shared media and group members.
— Pinned Messages. If you are a channel admin, pin messages to focus your subscribers’ attention on important announcements.
— Also supported clearing history in supergroups and added a host of minor improvements.
#desktop #updates
The Bot API v.3.5 is alive and well.
- Added support for the new albums feature.
- Added support for pinned messages in channels.
Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#november-17-2017
Part 4 of 7
WeChat But With Crypto
With TON, Telegram aims to develop cryptocurrency-based utility akin to WeChat, which has blossomed into much more than a chat app and acts as default payment mechanism for many in China.
While payments can be made very quickly in WeChat for a variety of services, the system remains very centralized. A decentralized platform such as TON could offer more security and resilience.
Sources say that Telegram plans to allow users to hold both Telegram’s currency and fiat currency in a forthcoming wallet.
There’s also the existing developer ecosystem Telegram has built up around it, where bots and services are offered by third-party developers. Again, here TON could, in theory, underly everything a developer brings to Telegram.
🌐 via techcrunch
#telegram #ico #ton #blockchain #gram #cryptocurrency
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Part 2 of 7
Selling a TON of cryptocurrency
Telegram is understood to be considering raising as much as $500 million in the pre-ICO sale at a potential total token value in the range of $3 billion to $5 billion. However, those figures could change before the ICO, which could come as soon as March. Those figures would make it possibly the biggest private crypto raise to date after Tezos, which raised over $230 million in July.
A pre-sale in an ICO is a minimum cap on investments (sometimes with discounts) to attract big investors (‘whales’) before a wider token sale to retail investors. The public, retail phase of an ICO tends to raise less because there is a long tail of people investing small sums. But front-loading the ICO with institutional investment inspires confidence for retail investors.
Those pre-sale investors may be required to place a minimum buy-in of $20 million if they’re outside of Durov’s inner circle. Sources say that the ICO will require real fiat currency like US dollars for buy-in, not Bitcoin or Ether as others ICOs have to date.
Top-tier institutional investment firms have expressed interest, but Durov is said to be wary of accepting their cash. One firm rumored to have pushed for a pre-sale allocation is Mail.Ru Group (formerly DST), founded by Russian emigre Yuri Milner. A spokesperson for DST did not reply to our inquiry about this story.
🌐 via techcrunch
#telegram #ico #ton #blockchain #gram #cryptocurrency
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Telegram is currently blocked in Iran
reason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Iranian_protests
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉
I hope you enjoyed the Telegram product updates this December. Stay tuned – we are going to make 3 big announcements in January.
On a less joyful note, Iranian authorities started blocking Telegram in Iran today after we publicly refused to shut down channels of peaceful Iranian protesters, such as @sedaiemardom.
We are proud that Telegram is used by thousands of massive opposition channels all over the world. We consider freedom of speech an undeniable human right, and would rather get blocked in a country by its authorities than limit peaceful expression of alternative opinions.
When it comes to freedom of speech, Telegram is as unrestricted as a mobile app can get. In 2015, after Apple and Google reached out to us in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, we added the simplest Terms of Service theoretically possible in an app: no calls for violence, no porn and no copyright infringement on public broadcast channels.
Since then, Telegram has been blocking hundreds of violent public channels daily (including those reported in @isiswatch), making sure our rules are applied equally and fairly to all players, regardless of their size and political affiliation.
Yesterday we had to suspend @amadnews, a public channel that started calling its subscribers to use Molotov cocktails and firearms against police. The admins of the channel reached out to us after the fact, apologizing for breaking our rules and pledging not to promote violence in the future. As a result, they have been able to reassemble most of their subscribers (800,000) in a new peaceful channel, which we welcomed.
Obviously, our neutrality and refusal to take sides in such conflicts can create powerful enemies. Iranian officials have filed criminal charges against me back in September for letting Telegram spread “uncensored news” and “extremist propaganda”. Today they imposed a block on Telegram – not clear whether permanent or temporary.
And yet, doing the right thing is more important than trying to avoid having enemies. We’re extremely lucky to have been able to consistently apply our principles in 2017. We will continue doing it in 2018 – and beyond.
Tweet cited by Snowden
https://twitter.com/mosharrafzaidi/status/947167335131033600
http://telegra.ph/Telegram-and-Freedom-of-Speech-10-29
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
There is a rumor saying that telegram will start an ICO
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
If you got problems with telegra.ph you can use graph.org links instead.
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Telegram is facing problems with some messages.
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Highlights of the last interview of bloomberg with Pavel Durov
▶️ TELEGRAM MONETIZATION
Another thing the Durov considers out of bounds is profit. He sees Telegram as a charity that he’ll start to monetize early next year, but only enough to fund expansion. And unlike his earlier creation, VK, which will face political pressure from the Kremlin as long as it’s based in Russia, he said Telegram can’t be bought — at any price.
▶️ TELEGRAM USERS
The encrypted messenger he’s been working on, Telegram, which he calls hack-proof, already has about 180 million users, including 40 million in Iran alone, and is luring half a million more each day.
▶️ BIG NEWS NEXT YEAR
Clad in black t-shirt and jeans, the St. Petersburg native said he’s planning to announce “something big” in the new year.
▶️ IRAN
And then there’s Iran, which recently charged Durov in absentia with crimes related to Telegram’s popularity among terrorists, human traffickers and pedophiles.
“I’m motivated by curiosity,” he said. “It’s super-interesting to see what it’s like to run the most popular social media platform in a country like Iran.”
With Twitter and Facebook banned, Telegram accounts for about 40 percent of all Iranian internet traffic, according to Techrasa, a market researcher. And that’s after local wireless carriers convinced officials to ban the encrypted voice-call function Durov rolled out in April. Telegram hosts 500,000 Farsi “channels” where users can post and curate all kinds of content that others can monitor for free.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-12/cryptic-russian-crusader-says-his-5-billion-app-can-t-be-bought
#durov #interview
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
New update for public links:
- Read the message at browser.
- Embed public messages from channels/groups in your website.
#web #preview #update
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
🖥 Telegram Desktop 1.1.24
— Added this fancy side panel.
(Right now this update is only available at alpha version)
#desktop #update #alpha
ℹ️ @geeksChannel
Telegram Blocked in Pakistan
It is reported that most of the users facing the issue have confirmed that the problem is specifically related to PTCL users. However, some people think that PTCL might have unintentionally blocked the Telegram app.
We are hoping that concerned authorities, such as PTA and PTCL might look into the matter soon and take some steps to fix it.
ℹ️ Source
#telegram #censorship #pakistan