Telegram Passport service, which was launched at the end of July, will reveal its main function after Gram cryptocurrency’s appearance. With it, users will be able to pass identification in order to buy or sell coins. Passport is an element of the TON blockchain platform (earlier the company raised $1.7 billion for its development). In the future, it will be possible to pay with Gram for various services and content that will appear in the system. The Telegram team has launched a new service on June 26. In the description of the project's website, it is stated that users can download documents to their Passport, where they will be stored in an encrypted form, as well as receive the ID, with which it will be possible to log in to the platforms, requiring the individual’s confirmation.
Currently, Telegram Group Inc., owned by Pavel Durov, is suing Lantah LLC from Florida, U.S. because of the rights to the Gram trademark, under which the latter one has announced its release of the cryptocurrency. Telegram still has a chance to win the rights to issue the token under this name.
The decision on Telegram's application for the Gram trademark will be made no earlier than August 28.
Note that Durov’s company filed an application to register the trademark to the European Union Intellectual Property Office in late April. However, later Lantah LLC managed to challenge it.
In accordance with the rules of objection to an application, representatives of the intellectual property office of the European Union will consider the arguments of both sides.
Lantah LLC attempted to register the Gram trademark in February 2018. By this time the blockchain platform Telegram Open Network (TON) had already been presented to the public.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. Since Telegram itself is an anonymous application, Passport utility will be the only way to verify the identity of financial services that will be connected to the system.
2. The transactions’ participants will be identified, so the project team can avoid accusations of financing terrorism and money laundering.
3. Due to all these problems with the trademark registration, Telegram cannot yet unveil the bigger purpose of the new passport services.
Documents in Telegram Passport are stored in an encrypted form. Even during the testing of the project, experts said that it will avoid the anonymity of crypto payments.
Last week Virgin Security experts reported that Telegram Passport is vulnerable to brute force attacks, and if users don’t set a strong enough password, their data can be easily hacked.