Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has proposed to market his platform, auctioning millions of username and channel links as NFT assets and how it is potentially profitable in a post he made on August 22 on his telegram channel to which has 651,000 subscribers.
“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 stated.
The CEO was impressed by The Open Network (TON)’s recent sale of domain names that totaled over more than 2 million Toncoin, each of which trades for $1.29 at writing time, netting approximately $3 million.
“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 Telegram CEO said.
The Open Network (TON) launched its domain name system service last July, providing users with names for cryptocurrency wallets. Auctions are always open for users to place bids for domain names anytime on TON. Domain names gained popularity last May, selling around 3 to 5 digits. Permitting users to create ad hoc domains or purchase them from the secondary market as NFTs. Just as last month, ENS domain 000.eth sold for 300 ETH (approximately $320,000 at the time).
TON was originally created by Telegram developers as a layer-1 blockchain, but was forced to forfeit ownership and handed over to The Open Network community in June 2020. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against Telegram for allegedly conducting an unregistered securities sale for $1.7 billion in the form of a GRAM token.
Nevertheless, Telegram is still closely involved with the TON blockchain. App users can now directly exchange Toncoin through bots that automate activities but doesn’t necessarily endorse them. Telegram isn’t the only company that jumped on the NFT bandwagon, Unstoppable Domains together with Blockchain.com announced their partnership plans to launch blockchain NFT domains.
Telegram CEO Durov believed that the company can write “bullet-proof” smart contracts for the network and was inclined to try out TON as the underlying blockchain for their future marketplace.
Editor’s Note: This article by The Mega Maxi is not a financial advise.
