Telegram now lets users send cryptocurrency through TON blockchain spinoff

Telegram now allows users to send Toncoin, a cryptocurrency built from Telegram’s abandoned blockchain efforts, directly from conversations in the messaging app (via Protocol). At post on TwitterTON (Open Network), announced that Telegram now supports Toncoin transactions at no cost.

TON includes a short video showing how crypto transactions work on the platform. To get started, you need to add Telegram Wallet Boat to the attachment menu, which allows you to “buy cryptocurrency with a bank card, exchange it, and transfer it to another wallet.”

When you are ready to send the crypto, you can pull the Wallet from the attachment menu while chatting, enter the amount of Toncoin you want to send, confirm all the details, and then press “Send.” Your recipient will receive Toncoin via chat.

In 2020, Telegram disable the cryptocurrency operation itself after facing pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The project, originally known as the Telegram Open Network (TON), was developed by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai in 2018. A year later, the SEC ordered Telegram to stop Gram sales, the token was linked to a TON block, after it said it failed to register the $ 1.7 billion in sales it collected as part of Pre-Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

Even after Telegram abandoned the TON project, a group of developers remained afloat, renaming the Open Network and changing Gram to Toncoin. Durov stated Supporters of the project last December, noted “I’m proud that the technology we’ve created is still alive and evolving … TONs are still many years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm.” Earlier this month, the TON Foundation was successful raising $ 1 billion in donations.