The CEO and founder of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been released from French custody under judicial supervision, following his arrest at a Paris airport on Saturday, August 24.
After spending 80 hours in custody in Paris, Durov is now free – although he must visit a French police station twice a week, and is unable to leave the country.
Investigations into Durov continue, over concerns that Telegram’s end-to-end message encryption is enabling the platform to facilitate criminal activity.
What does this mean for tap-to-earn gaming?
There are concerns that Durov’s arrest will have negative repercussions for tap-to-earn games – such as Hamster Kombat, PixelTap, Tapmonsters and more – as these titles are built on Telegram.
Since news of Durov’s arrest broke, the $TON token – the operating currency of Telegram’s The Open Network – has dropped from $6.79 USD to $5.54 at the time of writing.
Despite this shake-up of the Telegram gaming ecosystem, popular titles have yet to be affected by the developments – although some are concerned that action against Durov or Telegram directly could harm these games.
France is not the only country in which Durov is under investigation, as India have also opened their own inquiry into his activities. This may deter developers from choosing to build on the Telegram ecosystem, as any action taken against Telegram could result in sweeping changes across multiple jurisdictions that cripple tap-to-earn.
Why is Durov being investigated?
Durov is being investigated for 12 offences in France, including “complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group,” and “complicity in the organized gang distribution of images of minors of a child pornographic nature, drug trafficking, organized gang fraud, criminal conspiracy to commit crimes or misdemeanors.”
From these charges, Durov faces a potential sentence of 20 years in prison. The end-to-end encryption of Telegram is speculated to be at the heart of France’s concerns, with the country thus deeming the platform to be a risk to national security.
In response to Durov’s arrest, numerous individual and organisations across the blockchain community have rallied to his support, with TRON founder Justin Sun pledging $1 million USD to help with legal bills and Durov’s bail, which had been set at $5.56 million USD.
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