Telegram proclaims username auctions on TON blockchain • TechCrunch

Telegram introduced right this moment that can it maintain an public sale for usernames — for each particular person accounts and channels — via a market constructed on high of the TON blockchain.

In August, Telegram founder Pavel Durov first talked about the concept by noting the potential of including “a bit little bit of Internet 3.0 to Telegram within the coming weeks.” At the moment, he stated he was impressed by the success of the TON Basis’s public sale of domains.

“I’m actually impressed by the success of the public sale TON just lately performed for his or her area/pockets names. Pockets.ton was offered for 215,250 Toncoin (~$260000) whereas on line casino.ton was offered for ~$244000.

If TON has been in a position to obtain these outcomes, think about how profitable Telegram with its 700 million customers may very well be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel hyperlinks for public sale,” he stated. Now the corporate is placing this plan into motion.

Telegram and TON Basis are utilizing a separate web site Fragment.com as a hub for these auctions. Customers will have the ability to log into the positioning utilizing Telegram, the tonkeeper app, or their TON-based wallets. The web site may also assist customers hyperlink their Telegram accounts to the handles that they’ve purchased.

At launch, the chat app is auctioning 4 and five-character handles that can be obtainable for everybody. Telegram customers may put up their very own current handles for public sale. Every deal with put up for public sale will finish in per week with an additional hour for closing bidding. The corporate is setting a minimal public sale worth for 4 character handles at 10,000 toncoins — which converts to roughly $18,400 on the time of writing.

“Because the partnership between TON and Telegram deepens, the synergy between the 2 initiatives will allow the continued
creation of tangible use-cases of blockchain know-how. For the primary time, social media customers will have the ability to transparently show that they personal their handles because of their tokenisation on the TON blockchain,” Andrew Rogozov, Founding Member of the TON Basis stated in an announcement

Telegram had large ambitions within the web3 world but it surely needed to ditch these ambitions. In 2018, the corporate hatched up plans for Telegram Open Community (TON) blockchain challenge and an preliminary coin providing (ICO). The challenge received backing from big-name buyers together with Benchmark and Lightspeed Capital, which put up $1.7 billion. Nevertheless, after a authorized battle with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), Telegram was compelled to forsake the challenge.

After Telegram stopped engaged on TON, numerous impartial teams continued the event with Toncoin getting backing from Durov and successful the rights to ton.org web site in 2021. However the Telegram founder has tried to distance himself from direct involvement with the challenge.

Telegram has been attempting numerous strategies to earn cash to maintain the corporate sustainable. Final yr it launched advert spots on public channels. Earlier this yr, the corporate launched a paid plan that enables giant file transfers, unique stickers and reactions, and the power to transform voice messages into textual content. The brand new announcement of username public sale on the blockchain is one other step to get some extra moolah within the financial institution.