Adam Back Challenges GRAM After Pavel Durov Says Nobody Prints Bitcoin
Blockstream CEO Adam Back publicly questioned the inflation mechanics of Telegram’s newly rebranded Gram (GRAM) token, responding to Telegram founder Pavel Durov praising Bitcoin (BTC) as a protection in opposition to authorities cash printing.
The remarks circulated on X, the place Durov argued in an interview that governments relentlessly increase the cash provide whereas Bitcoin stands aside. Back, a longtime cypherpunk and core Bitcoin contributor, replied instantly throughout the thread that somebody is nonetheless printing GRAM, a pointed reference to the token’s inflationary provide schedule.
Durov’s Bitcoin Conviction Has a Long History
Durov has held BTC as his major private reserve for over a decade. He bought roughly 2,000 BTC in 2013 at a median worth of round $700 per coin and has maintained the place by means of a number of market cycles. Those holdings reportedly helped fund Telegram’s working prices in periods when the platform ran with out conventional income streams.
His Bitcoin advocacy, nonetheless, arrives because the Telegram ecosystem completes its most important token transition in years. Telegram’s native token was recently rebranded from Toncoin to Gram, restoring a reputation that appeared within the challenge’s authentic 2018 blockchain whitepaper earlier than US regulators compelled an earlier halt. All holdings transformed at a 1:1 ratio, with no motion required from holders. Exchanges have since up to date their listings to mirror the brand new ticker.
GRAM Has No Hard Supply Cap
In distinction to Bitcoin’s protocol-enforced ceiling of 21 million cash, GRAM carries no equal restrict. The community generates new tokens every day by means of validator rewards, sustaining an annual inflation fee of roughly 0.3% to 0.6%. Total provide at the moment sits close to 5.2 billion tokens. Meanwhile, the availability ceiling stays a governance query somewhat than a cryptographic fixed.
Back has argued that Bitcoin’s financial credibility relies on a hard and fast, auditable issuance schedule that no governance determination can override. He due to this fact made a parallel argument earlier in 2026, rejecting a contested fork proposal on comparable grounds that altering Bitcoin’s core guidelines produces a separate asset, not an improve.
GRAM’s emission parameters, against this, relaxation with community validators somewhat than a protocol rule hardened in opposition to exterior stress. That distinction sits on the heart of his problem to Durov.
The debate in the end facilities on the variations between Bitcoin’s fastened financial coverage and GRAM’s validator-driven issuance mannequin, which continues to form discussions in regards to the token’s function within the Telegram ecosystem.
More broadly, the alternate highlights the continuing debate over what traits qualify a digital asset as a long-term retailer of worth and the function financial coverage performs in that evaluation.
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