Telegram may launch an NFT marketplace soon, hints founder Paul Durov

August 26, 2022

By Anjali Kochhar

Paul Durov, founder of global instant messaging service platform Telegram has hinted in a recent post that he is keen on adding “a little bit of web3″ to the messaging platform in the coming weeks.

The statement came after Telegram Open Network (TON) recently conducted a successful auction of their domain names where ‘Wallet.ton’ username was sold for $2,60,000 and ‘casino.ton’ was sold for $2,44,000.

“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. 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),” Durov said in a Telegram post.

The Telegram co-founder wants to create a platform where username holders could sell these usernames to interested parties through blockchain via NFT-like smart contracts.

Durov believes that when it comes to scalability and speed, TON probably has the best technology to host such decentralized sales.

It should be recalled that the messenger platform has rolled out crypto payment capability recently. Users can now download Telegram’s official wallet bot, which can allow them to buy cryptocurrencies, trade them, and send them to other wallets.

“We expect this functionality to expand into consumer-to-business payments, allowing users to quickly purchase products and services by sending Toncoin using the bots,” the TON Foundation said in a statement.

The company also aimed to explore Web3 with decentralised storage last year, this project was called Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain. The project was abandoned after it ran into a controversy with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission accusing Telegram of a securities law violation.

About the author

Anjali Kochhar covers cryptocurrency stories in India as well as globally. Having been in the field of media and journalism for over three years now, she has developed a sharp news sense and works hard to present information that goes beyond the obvious. She is an avid reader and loves writing on a wide range of subjects.

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