SNEAK PEEK
- Telegram has announced launching a username auction platform.
- Some more elements related to the Telegram ecosystem like stickers or emojis, channels, may be added to the marketplace in future.
- Paid usernames are nothing new and have been in action already.
Though you might refuse to pay a social media platform for a username, Telegram hopes you will agree to pay.
Today NFT News, in August, reported when the Telegram founder proposed an idea to auction usernames as NFT-like smart contracts. Now, the popular application is practically looking forward to launching a username auction platform on TON or The Open Network blockchain.
In August, Pavel Durov, Telegram founder, disclosed the project and mentioned inspiration from a recent TON auction’s success for their wallet usernames. A few, including “casino.ton,” made $200,000 upon being sold.
Durov said that if TON has got such amazing results, Telegram will definitely be successful owing to its 700 million active users, provided they put reserved @usernames, channel links and groups for auction.
You might not know but paying for usernames is quite common. About half a million people have already paid for usernames on Ethereum via ENS.
There’s no doubt that getting the wished username of social channels like Telegram and Twitter is becoming way harder. This is the reason there are people who don’t mind going to any length to get their desired usernames. Talking about tips and tricks online, they recommend all things possible right from urging the platforms to reassign usernames that are unused to detailing copyright schemes.
Also there are those who go beyond and hack the real owner to acquire social media names.
It was in 2018 when Telegram started discovering blockchain solutions besides working on the then-named Telegram Open Network. The same year, it made $1.7 billion during TON tokens’ private sale.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in October 2019, alleged Telegram for carrying out an unregistered securities offering and even sued it. Telegram. Owing to the pressure from regulators, the social app left the project in 2020.
However, open source developers continued working. This year, Telegram revamped as ‘The Open Network’ with a live and completely functional mainnet.
