Four years on, Telegram’s blockchain project gains ground in Africa

cointelegraph.com:

It was 2018 when privacy-focused messaging platform Telegram announced that it was in the process of building a blockchain-based decentralized computer network technology called The Open Network (TON). 

However, following a lengthy litigation battle that lasted until May 2020 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over its $1.7 billion initial coin offering (ICO), Telegram had to sever its ties with the project, leading many to believe that TON was done for.

That said, far from everyone’s expectations, the TON project seems to have found a new lease on life and is thriving. For starters, the TON Foundation recently revealed that it was choosing TONcoin as its official ecosystem fund, securing an initial collective commitment of approximately $250 million from major firms within the industry including Huobi Incubator, KuCoin Ventures, MEXC Pioneer Fund, 3Commas Capital, blockchain startup Orbs and TON Miners.

As part of the development, reports suggest that TONcoin will be working closely with the TON Foundation to deploy the aforementioned sum of money to explore a wide array of opportunities within the nonfungible token (NFT), Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) spaces, as well as for the incubation and development of various novel programs, grants, hackathons and more. On the subject, TONcoin Fund managing partner Benjamin Rameau said:

Even after shutting down its involvement with TON a couple of years back, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has publicly expressed his support for the project, especially during Q4 2021 when Telegram revealed that it was integrating TON’s payment solution into its existing user interface.

It also bears mentioning that the TONcoin fundraiser comes on the same day that a number