Not much was known about Pavel Durov until his recent interview with Tucker Carlson where he anticipated an increase in government surveillance necessitating the development of secure communication devices just like crypto hard wallets.
Here are some of the key points:
- Durov highlighted a global trend of decreasing privacy due to heightened government surveillance, necessitating the development of secure communication hardware.
- He praises the UAE’s geopolitical neutrality as ideal for fostering privacy and anti-surveillance efforts.
- Durov maintains control over Telegram by funding it through his own assets, including substantial holdings in fiat and Bitcoin, avoiding venture capital to prevent external influence.
Durov was dubbed as the “wealthiest man in UAE” with a $15.1bn net worth at the time.
Pavel Durov also mentioned the following:
- Telegram only has around 30 engineers of whom won their competition at contest.com.
- Telegram has 900 million active users, estimated to reach a billion within 2024.
- Supports Elon Musk’s X, saying what they were trying to do was in line with what Durov was doing.
- When Tucker asked if he should go into business with Mark Zuckerberg, Durov said “no comment.”
When Telegram launched Telegram Premium, in just a week, they exceeded 4mn users
Durov has been a long-time supporter of the TON blockchain, announcing his endorsement on Dec 24, 2021. The founder also announced plans of expanding into Web3 and the NFT space on Aug 12, 2022.
The integration of TON started with Durov’s announcement on Aug 22, 2022, saying “Let’s see if we can add a little bit of Web 3.0 to Telegram in the coming weeks.” Shortly after, Telegram said it would write smart contracts for the TON marketplace, noting the following:
“TON probably has the best technology to host such decentralized sales. Our team can write bullet-proof smart contracts for TON (since it was us who invented its smart-contract language), so we are inclined to try out TON as the underlying blockchain for our future marketplace.”
Telegram quickly grew, becoming the most popular cloud-based messaging app second to WhatsApp on Feb 19, 2022, even surpassing Facebook Messenger and Signal at the time.
Here’s a timeline of Telegram’s integration of TON
- Oct 27, 2022 — Telegram launched its Telegram usernames auction (which he later claimed only took 5 people including himself just 5 weeks to make), confirming rumors of a Telegram x TON partnership shortly after.
- Sept 15, 2023 — Durov announces Telegram’s official partnership with TON.
- Feb 28, 2024 — Durov announced Telegram will use the TON blockchain for ad revenue payments and withdrawals.
- Feb 29, 2024 — Durov planned to limit Telegram’s shares in the TON ecosystem, selling around 10% of excess TON assets.
- April 16, 2025 — Toncoin surpassed Doge, with Pavel Durov sharing a TG story celebrating, saying “Sorry, Elon!.”
Other interesting facts about Telegram.
- Oct 29, 2022 — Durov said Apple gave them a notice about certain content creators selling content through third-party solutions and not paying Apple the “30% tax.”
- April 28, 2023 — Brazil banned Telegram
- Oct 25, 0223 — A Russian stock broker, BCS World of Investments, said they planned to purchase Telegram bonds that were issued in 2021, giving clients the option to buy Telegram shares at IPO.
Durov said he owned the Telegram 100% during his interview with Tucker Carlson.
- Nov 15, 2023 — Durov revealed a glimpse of Telegram’s AR glasses interface for the Apple Vision Pro.
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