In a conversation with Tucker Carlson, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, talked about how important privacy is in the world of cryptocurrency while also being worried about the reliability of secure hardware.
Even though the crypto industry is very committed to privacy and security, Durov, who is known for being hard to find, stressed how surveillance gear could be a threat to these values. Despite government interference, he remained positive about the future and said that technology advances like those seen in the crypto sector could protect privacy.
“I’m an optimist. I think some new secure hardware communication devices will be created in a similar way that now we have hardware wallets to store your cryptocurrency. Maybe we’ll have secure communication devices to send messages or do voice calls.”Pavel Durov
Telegram CEO Discusses Crypto Innovations.
During the interview, Durov made a suggestion that new hardware communication devices might come out in reaction to growing worries about privacy online. He talked about how the crypto market has come up with innovative answers to this problem, citing hardware crypto wallets as great examples.
When Durov talked about Telegram’s move into the crypto world, he brought up The Open Network, a project that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fought in 2019. The SEC’s restraining order stopped Telegram from releasing its planned token, Gram, because it was thought to be breaking securities laws by holding an illegal initial coin offering (ICO).
“To be completely fair, Telegram did take outside money, we issued bonds three years ago… and before that, we had a a cryptocurrency project that also raised funds. There were instances where we raised outside funding. But when it comes to the company’s equity, we didn’t give anyone ownership or voting control or anything like that.”Pavel Durov
Even though regulatory setbacks happened, Telegram’s blockchain project kept going, at least at first, with strong backing from blockchain fans. After that, Telegram showed its support for the TON ecosystem by adding Toncoin, the TON ecosystem’s own cryptocurrency, to its system for sharing advertising income with channel owners.
The long interview also covered a lot of interesting ground, such as Durov’s choice to move Telegram’s offices to Dubai and an attempted robbery that happened after he met with Jack Dorsey, who was CEO of Twitter at the time, in San Francisco.
