Pavel Durov


Pavel Durov of Telegram: WhatsApp Sucks

Published on Sep 23, 2015

Mike Butcher sits down with Telegram's Pavel Durov to discuss the limitations of WhatsApp, the importance of privacy, and the implications of having ISIS as users.
 

Pavel Durov: Telegram, Freedom, Censorship, Money, Power & Human Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast
Sep 30, 2025

Pavel Durov is the founder and CEO of Telegram.

Outline:

0:00 - Introduction
3:07 - Philosophy of freedom
6:15 - No alcohol
14:20 - No phone
20:16 - Discipline
41:28 - Telegram: Lean philosophy, privacy, and geopolitics
56:50 - Arrest in France
1:13:01 - Romanian elections
1:23:56 - Power and corruption
1:33:29 - Intense education
1:45:29 - Nikolai Durov
1:49:58 - Programming and video games
1:54:11 - VK origins & engineering
2:11:24 - Hiring a great team
2:20:40 - Telegram engineering & design
2:39:42 - Encryption
2:44:39 - Open source
2:49:26 - Edward Snowden
2:51:58 - Intelligence agencies
2:53:10 - Iran and Russia government pressure
2:56:19 - Apple
3:03:16 - Poisoning
3:35:31 - Money
3:44:23 - TON
3:54:13 - Bitcoin
3:57:12 - Two chairs dilemma
4:03:52 - Children
4:15:02 - Father
4:19:33 - Quantum immortality
4:26:05 - Kafka
 
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