No, it’s not just you: Telegram is down for many users across the board – so you might have to move your cryptocurrency and blockchain discussions to another platform for the time being.
The popular encrypted messenger has confirmed it is struggling with server downtime due to a power outage. The issue is affecting users in Europe, Middle East, and certain parts of Asia. It seems that Russia and countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (like Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Moldova) are most severely affected.
Telegram has been struggling with intermittent downtime for a couple of hours now, but it is worth noting that some users report being able to connect to the service occasionally.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has since taken to Twitter to confirm the downtime and to ensure that the company is working on a solution.
Our users in Europe, Middle East and the CIS countries are experiencing connection issues at the moment. We are looking into the issue and hope to bring you back online soon.
— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) March 29, 2018
The datacenter engineers say power in will be up very soon, so fingers crossed.
— Pavel Durov (@durov) March 29, 2018
It appears that the abrupt Telegram outage has sent cryptocurrency enthusiasts into panic. The messenger has become the go-to platform for heated debates on crypto-assets and blockchain.
Indeed, many crypto-startups are creating their own Telegram groups where users can engage with founders and employees, and exchange information between each other.
Telegram is down.
Valuation of all Blockchain/Crypto companies are going down as well.
Spammers can't spam.
Spammers can't scam.?♂️
— Mohammed Rafy (@rafyasarmatta) March 29, 2018
Currently “crypto mentors” managing their tg groups cause of the #TelegramDown $btc $alts #bitcoin #cryptocurrency #trading pic.twitter.com/2gZsEAfyBJ
— MrGekkoCrypto® (@MrGekkoCrypto) March 29, 2018
Telegram is down so instead I'm spending my time reporting bots talking about Ether cryptocurrency replying to the tg founder
— The MuttButt (@MutleyArts) March 29, 2018
In any case: The popular messenger should be back up within a few hours – so bear with it, you can survive a few hours without talking crypto.
Interestingly, earlier this year news surfaced that Telegram is gearing up to run its own initial coin offering (ICO). The white paper leaked online shortly after. In fact, the company is already rumored to have racked up $850 million in a private token sale.
Update: It seems the service is back up and running. Durov has also issued an apology to its users:
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