• Telegram founder’s proposal: NFT auctions with Telegram domains
• Secure smart contracts possible via the TON blockchain
• Response from Telegram users
Telegram founder Pavel Durov was impressed by the recent success of a domain/wallet name auction by TON on his Telegram channel with 651,000 followers. Individual domain names such as Wallet.ton or casino.ton have each sold for over 150,000 Toncoin, which is equivalent to well over $200,000. In total, according to BeInCrypto, the auction is said to have brought in around 3 million US dollars.
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Auction of memorable Telegram domains
Pavel Durov can imagine that auctions of Telegram @ usernames, group and channel links among the 700 million users of the messenger service could be much more successful. Popular t.me addresses such as @storm or @royal could also be put up for sale, as could any four-letter username.
“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. Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, such as channels, stickers or Emoji, could later become part of this marketplace too,” Pavel Durov wrote on Telegram on Aug. 22.
NFT auctions on the TON blockchain
The TON blockchain was originally developed by Telegram. However, it had to be handed over to “The Open Network” as part of an arbitration procedure, since the American Securities and Exchange Commission classified the world’s largest initial coin offering of 2.9 billion GRAM tokens in 2018 as an illegal sale of securities. Trading in toncoins is currently permitted on Telegram, but there has no longer been a strategic connection since the arbitration process.
In order to offer NFTs at scale, the TON blockchain could provide necessary technology for the transactions: “When it comes to scalability and speed, TON probably has the best technology to host such decentralized sales,” according to Pavel Durov.
Because his team invented the smart contract language, it is able to write very secure smart contracts for TON. This makes TON the ideal blockchain for such a project. The Telegram boss does not give any further details on the implementation of the NFT project, he only ends his post with a vague announcement: “Let’s see if we can add a little Web 3.0 to Telegram in the coming weeks.”
Reaction of Telegram users
The idea of auctioning off the domain names did not go down well with Telegram users, as Telegram recently confiscated numerous public usernames that could be considered for auction at a later date. According to Hackernoon, the reactions of Telegram users to the announcement of NFT auctions were so strong that Pavel Durov disabled the possibility to react to his post.
Influence on the course development of the toncoin
Since the Telegram boss announced on August 22 that he wanted to use TON as a blockchain for his NFT project, the price of the cryptocurrency has risen significantly. Since the announcement, the Toncoin has gained around 25 percent and is currently trading at $1.45 (price as of August 30, 2022); in the meantime, the TON even ranged around 1.51 US dollars.
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