Telegram's Pavel Durov hints at 'NFT-like smart contracts' to auction usernames
Durov made the suggestion after the auction of wallet domain names on The Open Network (TON), a blockchain developed by the Telegram team. The price of TON – the native token behind The Open Network surged since the discussion.
Pavel Durov, founder of instant messaging service Telegram on Tuesday, suggested it could soon offer Non Fungible Token (NFT)-like smart contracts to auction usernames.
“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 suggestion comes shortly after the auction of wallet domain names on The Open Network (TON), a layer-1 blockchain made by Telegram. In July, The blockchain project piloted TON DNS, a service that gives users the ability to assign human-readable names to digital entities like crypto wallets, smart contracts, and websites.
What would the new Telegram look like?
In a message to a personal Telegram group named Durov’s Channel, the Telegram founder noted that he was really impressed by the success TON's recent auction for wallet names. “Imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel links for auction," he wrote to the channel. According to Durov, other elements native to Telegram can also be part of this new ecosystem including channels, stickers and emojis at a later stage.
The price of TON – the native token behind The Open Network also surged since Durov's discussion. According to CoinMarketCap, TON has increased to 15.78% in the last few hours.