Russian rootsĭurov rose to fame in Russia after setting up a social network Vkontakte, shortly after Facebook was launched. Yet, aside from Durov, node owners and blockchain-based startups have been slow to overtly take any concrete action to avert the catastrophe. While three percent seems a small proportion, it’s enough to upend a system. They are key components of blockchain technology, processing transactions and maintaining the distributed ledger. According to Bitnodes, around three percent of all nodes are located in Russia.

Little wonder then that a nationwide Internet shutdown, with only a state-controlled intranet as back-up, has sparked fears for Russia’s miners. According to expert opinion, unplugging Russia form the Internet, even if only temporarily, could destablize the wider Internet, and also impact the mining of both bitcoin and Ethereum, if Russia’s ill-advised “test” were to go ahead. The repercussions of Russia’s meddling will also be felt much further afield. This has since been denied by officials and industry executives, but Durov’s Telegram is red hot with rumors and plans for revolt. In February, the BBC suggested that authorities were planning a test run as early as this spring. If passed, only upper house approval and President Vladimir Putin’s signature stand between plans to cut off the country’s Internet from the outside world, with traffic routed through state controlled channels. The second reading of the draft law on an “autonomous Internet” will take place in the Russian state parliament, the Duma this week. He’s been pro-active in resisting censorship and created a clever system of changing IP addresses that currently outsmarts the government ban.”īut now the government has plans to do much more than ban Telegram, it’s seeking to sever Russia from the Internet itself. Putin set to ban it last year, but failed, thanks to Pavel. Telegram, says Svetov, is used by “pretty much everyone in Russia.

'Telegram is the last remaining secure messenger available to Russians today and it’s been under assault from the government for the past year,” says Mikhail Svetov, a spokesman for protest organizers, the Russian Libertarian Party, who spoke to Decrypt via Telegram (what els e?) from Moscow.

Telegram internet