The two most important projects in the currency circle in 2019, Libra and TON, encountered heaven and hell respectively today.
The first U.S. senator to support Libra appeared
After nearly 4 months of stalemate with regulation, an authoritative American politician finally expressed his willingness to support Facebook's Libra stable currency plan.
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds
According to a report by Coindesk on October 17, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds wrote to Anchorage, a member of the Libra Association, stating that he is willing to trust Facebook ’s Libra project and expects the company to play a leading role in the technology industry. And give American consumers a new technological experience.
At the same time, Mike Rounds also intends to confront Senator Brian Schatz, asking him to return the warning letters sent to VISA, MasterCard and Stripe. In addition to reminding the dangers of the Libra project, the content of the letter also implies that if these companies participate, their Businesses that have nothing to do with Libra may face stricter supervision.
In the letter, Rounds stated: "Technology like Libra can help consumers who do not have banks or are deprived of bank access rights. It can also help the existing banking facilities system to solve the problems that cannot arise between those who are isolated from banks." The current status of the link. "
intercepted from Anchorage's official Twitter
Today, Anchorage also thanked the senator on its official Twitter for his support and promised that Libra will work hard to achieve its mission and looks forward to more cooperation with regulatory authorities. .
However, many central banks still feel a backlash against Libra and intend to let the government directly issue "digital legal tender" to maintain monetary sovereignty. According to "Babbitt", the Group of Seven (G7) Stable Currency Task Force stated that Libra and other stable currencies The currency will have a huge impact on the global financial system , and it can only be launched after all risk concerns are completely resolved.
However, G7 does not deny Libra’s potential in the payment field, but hopes that relevant projects must comply with clear and risk-proportional regulations in design.
Telegram is under regulatory scrutiny, and a huge investment of 1.7 billion may be lost.
On the other hand, Telegram’s TON project is not doing so well.
Since receiving the "lawyer's letter" from US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Telegram has faced a major enemy. In addition to announcing that it will postpone the official launch date of TON to the end of April 2020, it has also previously reminded investors: If TON does not If it can be launched as scheduled before October 31st, Telegram will refund the money. The launch day of
is imminent. Can Telegram really keep its promise and return the huge investment of US$1.7 billion?
"Beep News" proposed four possibilities and analyzed their feasibility based on the current situation of Telegram:
1. It is determined that it cannot be launched online and a full refund will be issued.
To paraphrase Wan Hui, the founder of Primitive Ventures, commented on Weibo: "If a full refund is really made as agreed, it might be the 'king-level project' with the highest return rate after the bear market." Yes, a full refund. It’s a good thing for investors, but it’s the worst option for the Telegram team, because it means that the TON project is completely dead, and TON’s early investors will not allow this to happen.
2. Delay the launch and pay compensation to the SEC.
"Coindesk" reported today that Telegram responded to the SEC's accusation on the grounds that "TON is not a security." This operation seems to have been seen somewhere... Previously, Block.one, which developed EOS (EOS), also used this trick to deal with the SEC. In the end, they obediently paid a fine of US$24 million (0.6% of the 4 billion raised).
However, since Yuozi Coin has already been listed, it is a retrospective case, and Block One had almost no other business before Yuozi Coin, so there is no information to be disclosed to the SEC. But Telegram is different. It is a company that has been established for a long time and is of course obliged to disclose more information to investors. Therefore, "Beep News" believes that Telegram may be fined more heavily and miserably.
3. Delay the launch and compensate American investors.
This is a method proposed by a lawyer to avoid SEC supervision by returning money to American investors. After all, the SEC can only manage matters in the United States, so Telegram can still carry out TON projects in other countries.However, this project is too tempting for investors, and it is difficult to guarantee that no Americans will participate in investment in the future. This is not a long-term solution.
4. Delay the launch and no refund will be given.
Russian media "the Bell" once mentioned that investment projects may not return investor funds based on "force majeure clauses", such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and the outbreak of war, which also include national supervision and legal actions. This SEC crackdown is likely to fall under a "force majeure clause."
However, this move is also the worst choice for the TON team. No matter they do not refund for any reason, it will cause Telegram's credibility to plummet, which is not good for a giant company.
In order to maintain independence, Telegram may go bankrupt.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov
"Beep News" further revealed that in order to maintain independence, Telegram has no business model at all.
First of all, founder Durov is almost using his wealth to run Telegram, including selling houses, land, and cars. Even the funds earned from other businesses will be used to support Telegram. Telegram has always been owned only by Durov and his relatives. It has no board of directors, will not place advertisements in Telegram, or accept investments or acquisitions.
It’s hard to believe that a well-known social software that has been in operation for more than 4 years has been burning money in recent years. In 2017 alone, Telegrma burned US$70 million. If the company has been unable to generate additional revenue to balance expenses, then It is likely to face bankruptcy in the future, which may be the reason why Durov wants to develop the TON project.
Faced with internal and external troubles, Telegram must come up with the best plan to survive the critical moment of life and death.
Source: coinicle
