CANTO VIII: RESISTANCE AND REPRESSION: THE RETURN OF PERUN
Governments intensify efforts to block or control Telegram and TON, including attempts at censorship and surveillance.
As Telegram and TON grow more powerful, the forces of centralized power begin to move. In 2024, Russia bans Telegram again, more seriously than before, not just a ban, but active blocking of the network through internet providers. The government that Durov escaped tries again to cage what it can no longer control. But the decentralized nature of both Telegram and TON means that the ban succeeds only partially; users find ways around it through proxies and encrypted tunnels.
The United States, through the FBI and through subtle pressure on technology companies, begins a campaign against Telegram. The message is clear: Telegram is not cooperating with American law enforcement. Telegram cannot be subpoenaed. Telegram cannot be forced to spy on users. Therefore, Telegram is a threat to American security. Indictments begin to be discussed. Pavel Durov is threatened with arrest if he enters the United States.
Britain, too, moves against Telegram, claiming that the application is a haven for illegal activity. But the truth is more subtle: Telegram is a haven for activity that the government cannot see, and governments are fundamentally opposed to activity they cannot see. It is not that criminals use Telegram, it is that Telegram ensures that only criminals and non-criminals are indistinguishable, because neither group is visible to surveillance apparatus.
In 2024, Telegram reported hundreds of millions of users. That reach offered potential distribution for TON applications, not proof that everyone had an active wallet, balance or on-chain transactions. Availability varied by country and service; self-custody also required care with keys and wallet recovery.
But here is the crucial thing: Telegram and TON do not depend on any single nation's approval, any single court's ruling, or any single government's enforcement. They are built as technologies that assume the worst about power, that it will come, that it will be hostile, and that the only response is to build systems so decentralized that power cannot reach them. Veles stands in the marketplace, and the lightning of Perun strikes everywhere around him, but the marketplace remains open because the merchants have learned to trade in the shadows that the lightning cannot reach.
They can ban the website. They can ban the ports. But they cannot ban the mathematics.