Telegram is uniquely positioned to establish the first mass-market cryptocurrency by providing a platform that combines these properties. Telegram will use its expertise in encrypted distributed data storage to create TON, a fast and inherently scalable multi-blockchain architecture. TON can be regarded as a decentralized supercomputer and value transfer system. By combining minimum transaction time with maximum security, TON can become a VISA/Mastercard alternative for the new decentralized economy. The Telegram Team will rely on its 10-year experience in building user-friendly interfaces for tens of millions to create light wallets, exchanges, and identification services that will allow users to get on board with cryptocurrencies in an intuitive way. Integrated into Telegram applications, the TON wallet will become the world’s most adopted cryptocurrency wallet. Telegram will leverage its existing ecosystem of communities, developers, publishers, payment providers, and merchants to drive demand and value for TON cryptocurrency. A whole new economy saturated with goods and services sold for cryptocurrency will be born — similar to WeChat’s fiat-based marketplace, but not confined to a centralized service. A Brief History of Telegram Telegram was founded in 2013 by libertarians to preserve freedom through encryption. The project has declared not-for-profit goals and remains independent and self-funded. Like 1 Wikipedia, which for years has been a role model for the Telegram founders , Telegram has chosen a .org domain to emphasize its non-commercial status. The physical infrastructure of Telegram reflects its founders’ belief in larger decentralization. Telegram deploys a distributed server infrastructure to synchronize encrypted data across multiple independent server clusters spread across different continents and jurisdictions. The resulting combination of speed, encryption, and independence attracted millions of users 2 within a few months after the project’s launch in 2013. Telegram kept evolving with an average of 12 major updates a year. By February 2016, it had 100 million monthly active users and was delivering 15 billion messages daily. 1. Founder of Facebook for Russia donates $1M to Wikipedia at DLD. 2. Why Telegram has become the hottest messaging app in the world. 5 / 23