Telegram Cryptocurrency ‘Gram’ Available by October 

Telegram has hinted that the first batches of its Gram cryptocurrency will be available to a select group of investors by October 2019 and the Pavel Durov-led firm also plans to make the Gram wallet available to the nearly 300 million users of Telegram shortly, reports The New York Times on August 27, 2019.

Telegram Forges Ahead with GRAM

Per sources close to the matter, in a bid to fulfill its promise to investors, Telegram is putting preparations in top gear to make its Gram tokens available to some investors within the next two months.

Just like Facebook’s Libra, Telegram’s Gram token is designed to function as a global currency, making it easier for people to move money across the globe in a secure and cost-efficient way, however, unlike Libra, Telegram has hinted that Gram will be entirely decentralized.

Telegram claims its distributed ledger, Telegram Open Network (TON) will be run by node operators scattered across the world, similar to the Bitcoin blockchain. In essence, even Telegram itself will have no control over Gram transactions.

Racing Against Time 

As reported by BTCManager earlier in February 2018, in a first of its kind, Telegram successfully raised a whopping $850 million during its initial coin offering (ICO) pre-sale, which was open to only high net worth individuals and venture capitalist firms.  

Reportedly, Telegram previously promised its high-profile backers which includes Benchmark and Lightspeed Capital, as well as Russian investors, that they’ll have access to the purchased Gram tokens by October 31, 2019, or get refunds. 

In a bid to meet the scheduled release date of Gram to these investors, Telegram is reportedly looking to launch the testnet of Gram network in the coming weeks, to make certain there are no bugs that could scupper its plans.

If all goes as planned, some investors will be able to trade their Gram tokens on supported exchanges, however, those who participated in its pre-ICO may have to wait a little longer.

While Facebook’s Project Libra is yet to receive the “blessings” the of financial regulators both in the U.S. and overseas, it is still unclear how Telegram plans to scale these huge regulatory mountains awaiting its multi-billion-dollar crypto project. 

In related news, on August 26, 2019, BTCManager informed that Telegram users will soon be able to trade bitcoin and altcoins on the platform via Button Wallet.