- Telegram CEO Pavel Durov wants to put the platform’s usernames and channel links on the market as NFTs.
- More than 2,000 domain names by The Open Network (TON) sold for $3 million in Toncoin at a recent auction.
Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, wants to put the platform’s usernames and channel links on the market as NFTs.
Durov suggested on Monday, in a post to his personal Telegram channel, which has 651,000 followers, that millions of reserved Telegram addresses could be sold on the blockchain as assets.
“This would create a new platform where username holders could transfer them to interested parties in protected deals—with ownership secured on the blockchain via NFT-like smart contracts,” he said.
Durov wrote that the recent sale of more than 2,000. ton domain names by The Open Network (TON) had given him an idea.
At the time this was written, each Toncoin was worth $1.29, so the sale brought in about $3 million.
The name wallet. ton, which sold by itself for 215,250 Toncoin, made the most money at the sale. Casino.ton and bank.ton, which came in second and third, sold for 200,000 and 157,500 Toncoin, respectively.
“If TON has been able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel links for auction,” the CEO said. “In addition to millions of catchy t.me addresses like @storm or @royal, all four-letter usernames could be made available for sale (@bank, @club, @game, @gift, etc.).”
“Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emoji, could later also become part of this marketplace.”
TON was made by Telegram at first, but in June 2020, the Open Network community took over control of the blockchain.
As part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company had to give up its ownership.
The SEC has filed a complaint against Telegram for selling $1.7 billion worth of unregistered securities in the form of GRAM tokens.
