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Russia’s internet watchdog has blocked an estimated 16m IP addresses in a massive operation against the banned Telegram messaging app that could set a new precedent for Russian online censorship. As we all know, Telegram is also a very popular channel for ICOs.

How could this affect ICOs targeting Russian participants?

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/17/russia-blocks-millions-of-ip-addresses-in-battle-against-telegram-app

As usual, if the people want something, they will get it in one way or another. The Chinese ban didn't stop Chinese crypto entusiasts from particiapting in the market.
The Telegram ban won't stop the Russians.

I have read that they failed to block it in most cases, plus you can avoid blocking with VPN. And the block only hurts Russian users, so no effect for other countries.

It could be hard at the first for them but i think they will find new alternatives fast since the ban wasnt enforced because of ICOs but other reasons . Basically out of fear of losing control of information .

All participants who want continue use telergram will install VPN and use it. Some days ago Pavel Durov said telegram team work under programm which will skipping block

I couldn't agree more, and although the ban's effects will probably show at first it will fade soon enough.

Yes, this is true. There is a lot of ways to access telegram. Some of the examples is, you can access it using VPN connection. Based on this news (https://www.ccn.com/telegram-banned-in-russia-on-heels-of-1-7-billion-ico/), Pavel Durov said that the VPN connection is the way to access again the Telegram apps.

Telegram wasn't really such a big channel for promoting ICOs. To get people registered in your telegram group ICOs had to promote their group and pay extra money for that. Instead of promoting themselves through telegram they had to pay money to promote Telegram app. And anyway from what I have seen only airdrops were promoting their telegram group and force people to join it. Serious ICOs would let people choose where they want to register and how they want to receive news from them. So by banning telegram Russia didn't resolved much, probably they did this just for their country and the goal was not to affect ICOs

I'm from Russia and if you think that I've stopped using telegram you are wrong. No one here cares about this block. Russia is not China with "the great firewall". There is no technical way to ensure this blockage.

This lock can be compared with the blocking of advertising in facebook or twitter, it does not affect how ICO, all found another way

 Durov also said that he will support VPN services, so I think for a long time will fight with Telegram and you can not survive for the Russians. They will definitely find a way out

This is bad for ICOs investors in Russia, which is preventing investors from accessing ICOs. It also has a strong influence on the Crypto market, causing the market to stop and go down. If investors want to approach ICOs, I think they can fake IP to be able to participate in the telegram.

There's still a lot of Russians on telegram channels that I'm in, you really can't be stopped them, especially if they are participating in one project and they need to be in that telegram channel, Russians are known to be one of the biggest investors in Ico so no way you can stop them.

In Russia, the application of telegrams continues to work, but there is no convenience in switching over the link through the browser

lol,guys,do u rly want to know what is going on with telegram in Russia(im from Russia) ? Governments are trying to ban telegram right now. They banned 16mln ip of Amazon ,Google and other cloud services, because telegram used them to avoid ban, so Viber, Twitch, Blizzard,russian banks and many other service cracked cause of that. But telegram is still working.

I think it will be more difficult, but if it is, then it is a great success! TELEGRAM -> BAD FOR ICOS? maybe or not! Depends on all of us!

This here is the whole truth! I dare add, the gospel truth

Cryptocurrency has really seen a lot this day in the hands of stranglers trying to smoother it from left, right and centre. But we count it all joy for this shows the potential that industry has. Only good things are attacked. But blocking telegram IPs for ICOs won't debar the Russians from participation.

I never understand why goverments banning communication channels, social media ? This is blocking freedom.
For freedom people will able to communicate all over the world. Goverments are afrading of their people and banning communication channels.

Telegram is the best platform to communicate the dev and team with investors and supporters.
Countries like Russia are really stopping cryptocurrencies.
They are blocking what people want, this is not the democracy we want in our lives, that is why there's no ( or hard to have ) world peace.

ohh it is so bad news.
why Cryptocurrency is not yet ecceptable in all country.
maybe crypto and blockchain is too fast.
let's we see how it in the future.
i just wait and see it.

Roskomnadzor thus only taught even more people to use VPN, ICO is not affected in any way, especially Pavel Durov is already actively developing methods to combat blocking. So that nothing terrible not happened

Telegram is already blocked by many Isps and countries around the world but that is not the real problem as you can easily access it by using any free vpn service, there are many vpn apps also available for android and ios.

Agreed. Telegram not the first one banned. Torrents all them prohibited. So what? Did we stop downloading?

It has been annouced today if Pavel tried to combat through use bitcoin. ICO is fine, it's not a big problem in my opinion becuse there is a lot of social media platform just like telegram such as slack or discord and many more.

in General, this should affect the ICO.but I think that everything will be fine and telegrams will not be blocked forever never

Russia has an incredibly important place in the field of cryptocurrencies and I am sure that they will cope with this small problem

Experts warned that Russia could move on to bigger social media sites like Facebook (Stated in the article). That sounds worse. Let's hope decisions will change and that the situation will not worsen.

Despite the restrictions in many countries Telegram is doing fine. I don't see any correlation between this ban and future ICO projects.

Telegram has repeatedly refused to grant the user a user encryption message access to Federal Security Service (FSB) Russia.
The FSB reasonably requires such access to guard against security threats, such as terrorist attacks. However, Telegram assesses the granting of such access is tantamount to violating user privacy.
it will cost the lives of 15 million Russians. On the other hand, blocking would not have any impact on improving Russia's security.
Terrorist threats in Russia will remain the same because extremists will continue to use various communication channels encrypted in other messaging services, or via VPN

Those who want to ban the ICO, even telegram blocked by them. It's another problem.  Russians can still find alternative ways for communications like other countries. Fortunately there are vpn and other alternative social media campaigns.
Maybe, should create new account on telegram and automatically add vpn.

They will not be able to block the telegram. Yes, the PC version is problematic, but everything works on the phone. They block by IP, and to block Telegram over IP it is necessary to block IP of Google Play, App Store and Microsoft.

telegramm will continue to work in the russia using vpn.
similarly in Ukraine banned vkontakte, but it continues to use

Yes, in any case it will affect the Russian market of crypto currency, not for the good.
But while all this is bypassed, and there are no big problems. There are some inconveniences in the work, but this does not hinder much.

There will always be another way, simply put. We are in the digital age where blockages can be overridden in many ways.

And even if Russia succeeds to block Telegram, ICOs still have many channels to route their updates, news, announcements and all modes of communications.

I don't think it's a biggie for ICOs but will definitely hurt one way or the other, but it surely won't stop them.

Yes, but some Russian Telegram users report still being able to use the app, even without using a VPN.
They also asked Apple and Google to pull Telegram from their Russian app stores.

Definitely so. The ban can easily be bypassed by using VPNs or proxies. Moreover, Telegram is going to implement a built-in VPN soon so it shouldn't be a problem at all.

I think it does not matter.  People avoid blocking and will continue to use the telegram. I think everything will be fine.

It's bad for russians, not for ICO I guess.

Well, Telegram is an application which was used by the majority of Crypto traders in order to gain daily updates about their tracking ICO projects and every other information regarding ICO and bounty programs which I can see a hot topic in this forum. I am really lucky that I am not a Russian citizen because banning the Telegram app would have affected me a lot as I am using it on a daily basis and it is one of my major marketing tools which earns me a good income on regular basis. But I am sure that my Russian friends would find some other way to market and get information for their respected ICO's and Crypto projects.

The news is not so bad delivered, because there are still many ways to get into it with VPN is also very able to access it, but I am sure it is not too many Russians who are concerned with blocking and keep using telegram I hope it just scare it, and not too influential for ICO and Facebook and Twitter to block all crypto ads that do not affect ICO because there are many other ways to promote ICO.

This is bad only for participants from Russia. But this will not affect the future development of ICO projects and crypto. Especially there are ways to bypass the lock, something like a VPN.

The most fun in this situation is that other companies suffer from blockings, and telegrams so and not blocking)

I think it would affect ICOs somehow, however, we all know that as a crypto enthusiast, we would most likely do our best to at least gain access and gain profit from crypto one way or another. Even I, if ever crypto will be banned in our country, I would still find ways to earn through crypto even if it not supported by our government. So, it will only have a little effect on crypto, I guess.

Yes this is from russians only so even they will blocks telegram for their people still there's a way to use this application. I've heard and read just now that there is country who would like to stop using such an application for the cyrpto users. But I think it will not effect as a whole in Ico's performance.

I don't think it will have much effect. They can use some VPN or proxies and access the Telegram app anyway if they need to. Those that know this workaround at least. But as I always say, the market itself will show over time, if it was influenced by this bad news. It is still holding its own for the past 2 months after all those bad news and we are slowly crawling out of bearish time.

I dont think that is very bad news. Just because one country bans the telegram for X reason doesnt left us out of the options. I am sure ICO's are just fine with not having the telegram in one country. The telegram campaigns were launched just recently and I dont think its gonna hit it badly if its banned in one country right now. There are many more countries who aren't gonna take steps like that and ICO will still continue to run the campaign over there. Its really small thing to know as we have seen a whole country banning the ICO itself (china) yet we are having good time running them.

this is a nice move for them in order to reduces more and more frauds, i believe most of the fraud people and scammers are base on that countires. And since this is another country which is potentially a crypto haven i believe more people with band intention will be taking advantage about the hype of industry. I suggest you'll be aware of their modus operandi nowadays. Be inform and don't let your hard earned holding to be taken away by those persons who does not not to play the game fair.

Exactly. They have much opportunities for secure enter. It not exist government global firewall. But any can make own vpn+proxy.


I see a lot of the nationalism and even fascism in those words. Maybe not on this forum or in other topics?

People have the ability to quickly adapt to new conditions and avoid all barriers! I think this prohibition will not become an excuse. I believe that cryptology will not suffer from the fact that the Russian authorities block IP addresses!