According to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, a marketplace for auctioning addresses might be available shortly. Durov stated in a message on his Telegram channel, which has 651,000 users, that millions of reserved Telegram addresses may be auctioned off as blockchain assets.
Durov said that he was motivated by The Open Network's (TON) recent sale of over 2,000 '.ton' domain names a sale totaling 2,392,002 Toncoin, each of which trades for $1.33 (about Rs. 100) at the time of writing, netting almost $3 million (roughly Rs. 24 crores).
"Imagine how successful Telegram might be with its 700 million users if we auctioned off reserved @ handles, group and channel connections," he remarked.
Durov proposed that Telegram employ comparable technologies to launch a new marketplace for buying and selling "catchy t.me addresses like @storm or @royal, as well as all four-letter user names:"
"This would result in the creation of a new platform where username holders could transfer them to interested parties in safe transactions, with ownership secured on the blockchain using NFT-like smart contracts. Other features of the Telegram ecosystem, such as channels, stickers, or emoji, might eventually be included in this marketplace "He said.
Although Telegram created TON, management of the blockchain was transferred to The Open Network community in June 2020. The company was obliged to give up ownership as part of a settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which filed a lawsuit against Telegram for allegedly executing an unregistered securities transaction in the form of GRAM tokens for $1.7 billion.
Nonetheless, Telegram remains deeply linked with the TON blockchain. The chat platform now allows users to swap Toncoin directly using bots that automate platform activity. Telegram permits these bots but does not necessarily promote them.
The first TON DNS auctions took place on July 30, and, like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) ".eth" domains, the ".ton" variation allows users to access decentralized apps without having to write a large string of letters and numbers from their wallet addresses.
