Pavel Durov

not clear whether we wouldn't be in violation of the sanctions regime.

So we did something else.

We created an economic incentive for people who would set up proxy servers for Telegram.

Any person, say an Iranian engineer, could come up with a proxy server, distribute its address among users in Iran, and whoever connected through the proxy of this person would be able to see a pinned chat, an ad.

placed there by the system administrator, the owner of the proxy.

And this is how you can monetize your proxy.

So it created this market, which resulted in Iranians fixing their own problem.

And as a result, we kept millions or maybe tens of millions of Iranian users

Up until this day, I think Telegram is still banned in Iran today, but we probably have something like 50 million people relying on Telegram from that country.

People find a way around.

Well, this is something I never talked about publicly because I didn't want people to freak out.

Particularly at the time, it was spring 2018.

We were trying to raise funds for TON, a blockchain project, working with all kinds of VCs and investors.

In the meantime, we had a couple of countries trying to ban Telegram.

So it was exactly the best moment for me to start sharing anything related to my personal health.

I never fall ill.

I believe I have perfect health.

I very rarely have headaches.

or bad cough.

I don't take pills because I don't have to take pills.