A brand-new online market for unique usernames and channels has been introduced by Telegram. The Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain, first conceptualized by the Durov brothers, who founded the app around 2018, serves as the foundation for this online store. The TON mainnet went fully up and operational later in 2022. The instant messaging app will auction off four or five-letter handles through this market and make shorter usernames available to users.
The introduction of this blockchain marketplace is meant to hasten the adoption of the technology, which serves as the foundation for cryptocurrencies.
“Social media users will be able to clearly show that they own their handles for the first time,” CoinTelegraph cited Andrew Rogozov, a TON Foundation founding member.
The first username auction on the Telegram marketplace will run for a week. The exact day this auction will begin is still unknown.
A four-character handle costs at least 10,000 Toncoins, or roughly Rs. 13 lakh. The price of the TON blockchain’s native coin, according to CoinMarketCap, is $1.67. (roughly Rs. 140).
Additionally, individual Telegram users will have the option to sell their usernames at auction.
Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, first suggested introducing this marketplace in August. At the time, he had proposed that a blockchain auction could be held for millions of reserved Telegram addresses.
He was motivated by the sale of more than 2,000 “.ton” domain names, which brought in 2,392,002 Toncoin total, each of which trades for $1.33 (roughly Rs. 100), netting approximately $3 million (around Rs. 24 crores) earlier this year.
On July 30, the first TON DNS auctions went live. Similar to the “.eth” domains offered by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), users may now access decentralized apps without having to input a large string of characters from their wallet addresses.
