Telegram（消息服务）

Telegram 是一款强调安全性和速度的跨平台消息应用程序。

Telegram, founded in 2013, was initially personally financed by Pavel Durov's earnings from the social network VKontakte. However, recognizing the limits of his own resources, Durov began seeking opportunities to monetize the application. In 2017, the brothers launched their own blockchain, Telegram Open Network (TON), along with the Gram cryptocurrency.

Telegram 成立于 2013 年，最初由 Pavel Durov 从社交网络 VKontakte 获得的收入提供个人资金。然而，杜罗夫认识到自己资源的限制，开始寻找通过该应用程序获利的机会。 2017 年，兄弟俩推出了自己的区块链 Telegram Open Network (TON) 以及 Gram 加密货币。

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for Gram was launched in January 2019. At the time, Telegram already had nearly 200 million users, and the new coin had the potential to become incredibly popular. Although competitors like Ethereum offered more advanced technologies, they lagged behind Telegram in terms of user reach. Durov successfully raised $1.7 billion for 2.9 billion Gram digital coins from 171 initial buyers worldwide, including notable Russian investors like Roman Abramovich, Sergey Solonin, and David Yakobashvili.

Gram 的首次代币发行 (ICO) 于 2019 年 1 月推出。当时，Telegram 已经拥有近 2 亿用户，新代币有潜力变得非常受欢迎。尽管以太坊等竞争对手提供了更先进的技术，但它们在用户覆盖范围方面落后于 Telegram。杜罗夫从全球 171 位初始买家那里成功筹集了 17 亿美元，价值 29 亿克数字货币，其中包括罗曼·阿布拉莫维奇、谢尔盖·索洛宁和大卫·雅科巴什维利等著名的俄罗斯投资者。

However, on October 11, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Telegram's owners of illegal asset sales and filed a lawsuit. By then, more than 1 billion Grams had been sold to 39 buyers in the U.S. In 2020, a court ruled that Telegram Group Inc. (the holding company) and its subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. (the token issuer), registered in the British Virgin Islands, must cease distributing tokens.

然而，2019年10月11日，美国证券交易委员会（SEC）指控Telegram所有者非法出售资产并提起诉讼。至此，超过 10 亿克已售给美国 39 位买家。 2020 年，一家法院裁定，在英国注册的 Telegram Group Inc.（控股公司）及其子公司 TON Issuer Inc.（代币发行人）维尔京群岛，必须停止分发代币。

The court determined that, from a formal standpoint, Gram is a security, and therefore, the Telegram team should have disclosed information about their financial position, management structure, potential risks, and more before the ICO. Durov attempted to contest this determination in court, but was unsuccessful. The company was ordered to return $1.2 billion to investors and to pay an $18.5 million fine.

法院认为，从形式上看，Gram 是一种证券，因此 Telegram 团队应该在 ICO 之前披露有关其财务状况、管理结构、潜在风险等信息。杜罗夫试图在法庭上对这一决定提出异议，但没有成功。该公司被责令向投资者返还 12 亿美元，并支付 1850 万美元的罚款。

After this, Durov publicly abandoned the project and, unexpectedly, released its code as open-source, handing it over to an “independent” community of developers separate from Telegram. Officially, Telegram is no longer connected to TON, which is now known as The Open Network. However, the cryptocurrency is still used within the app, including for advertising payments, and its value continues to be influenced by news related to Durov and the messenger.

此后，杜罗夫公开放弃了该项目，并出人意料地以开源方式发布了其代码，并将其移交给了独立于 Telegram 的“独立”开发者社区。正式地，Telegram 不再连接到 TON，现在被称为开放网络。然而，加密货币仍在应用程序内使用，包括用于广告支付，其价值继续受到与杜罗夫和信使相关的新闻的影响。