Telegram team to launch blockchain platform for selling usernames

The Telegram team announced an imminent launch of a marketplace to sell account identifiers.

According to the statement, work on the TON-based blockchain platform is “nearly complete”.

Founder Pavel Durov announced the marketplace’s launch in August. He said he is “impressed” by the TON team’s auctions for selling domain names.

According to Durov, on the new platform owners of names will be able to transfer them to interested parties in secure blockchain-based deals via “NFT-like smart contracts”.

“Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emoji, may also become part of this market,” added the founder of the messenger.

Earlier, in May 2020, Durov announced the shutdown of the Telegram Open Network (TON) project amid a legal clash with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a ban on token distribution.

After the shutdown of TON, several independent teams continued to work on a blockchain based on the project’s code. Among them are Free TON (renamed to Everscale), a Chinese project by TON Community and NewTON.

The latter in May 2020 launched the test network NewTON Blockchain. In August 2021, the TON team transferred the domain ton.org and the project’s GitHub repository to the project, which renamed itself The Open Network.

In December, Durov publicly supported the developers of this network.

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