This battle may well be the most important battle of our generation,” said Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, in his announcement that the TON blockchain project was being shut down. After living and working out of several jurisdictions, he eventually anchored his next project, Telegram, in Dubai. With the eventual goal of decentralization, Telegram began to develop the TON blockchain and its related ‘gram’ token. His vision of decentralization and political independence resonated with many, and in particular, a group of Russian engineers who picked up the open-source code left behind. This group of initial members, later forming the TON DeFi Alliance, revived Telegram’s abandoned blockchain, aptly renaming it the “FreeTON” project.

Source: Forbes July 30, 2021 00:22 UTC