Here’s what Telegram’s cryptocurrency may mean for Hong Kong protests
- Telegram is the most widely used app for the city’s protesters to organise and disseminate information
- First-time installations of the app in Hong Kong surged in July, when it gained about 110,000 new users
For the anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, privacy is a priority. The cautious steps they have taken to protect their identities include wearing masks on the streets, paying for single-trip MTR fares with cash and using encrypted messaging apps.
Telegram, the most widely used app for the city’s protesters to organise and disseminate information, is moving to provide additional layers of anonymity to its users – from a new security setting that would effectively conceal their mobile phone numbers to the launch of its own cryptocurrency.
The planned security update to Telegram will allow protesters to cloak their mobile numbers, preventing authorities from discovering their identities in the app’s large group chats, according to a recent Reuters report, which quoted a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The app’s new digital coin, called the Gram, will be released within the next two months, The New York Times reported last week, citing three investors who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had signed non-disclosure agreements with Telegram. This cryptocurrency can be stored in a Gram digital wallet, which will be made available by Telegram to its more than 200 million users worldwide.
Those development show how technologies to avoid surveillance and persecution are not only becoming more sophisticated, but also how there is a broader awareness today about the extent of digital snooping in the world.
