How Telegram's CEO Wants To Bring Web3, NFTs To 700M Users

Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging platform Telegram, is exploring adding “a little bit of Web 3.0” to the app in the coming weeks. 

What Happened: In a post to his 651,000 subscribers on Monday, Durov proposed auctioning reserved Telegram usernames, groups, and channel links as assets on the blockchain. 

In addition to the millions of Telegram addresses that could be auctioned, Durov suggested that all four-letter usernames like “bank” and “game” could also be made available for sale. 

“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 said.

Durov’s proposition comes after being inspired by the $3.2 million auction that was recently carried out by The Open Network (TON).

The blockchain network successfully auctioned 2000 .ton domain names for 2,392,002 Toncoin TON/USD. The highest valued sale was for the Wallet.ton domain, which sold for $260,000, followed by Casino.ton domain, which sold for $244,000.

Why It Matters: Telegram was directly involved in the TON blockchain’s development but handed over the reins to independent developers after the SEC alleged that it had conducted a $1.7 billion unregistered securities offering of GRAM tokens.

Durov plans to use the TON network as the primary network that would facilitate its decentralized auctions because of its scalability and speed.

“Our team can write bullet-proof smart contracts for TON (since it was us who invented its smart-contract language), so we are inclined to try out TON as the underlying blockchain for our future marketplace,” he said.

See Also: HOW TO BUY AN ENS DOMAIN

Price Action: At press time, the native token of the TON blockchain was up 16% over 24 hours. It gained 17% against Bitcoin BTC/USD and 15% against Ethereum ETH/USD.

Illustration by IgorKom on Shutterstock