The Telegram team launched the Fragment marketplace to sell account identifiers.
“Auctions for the most valuable usernames have already begun; you can check this. In a few days we will also provide users the ability to sell existing usernames on Fragment,” wrote Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
In the screenshot below, the most expensive lot is @bank, valued at 63 000 TON. According to the data on CoinMarketCap, this is more than $100 000.
“For the first time in the history of social networks, a fair, transparent market for user names has been created. Finally, people will own their addresses in social media, protected by an immutable registry of a decentralised network,” emphasised Durov.
Back in August 2020, the Telegram founder announced the launch of the marketplace in August. According to him, on the new platform owners of names will be able to transfer them to interested parties in secure blockchain deals via ‘NFT-like smart contracts’.
“Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emojis, may later also become part of this market,” added the founder of the messenger.
Back in May 2020, Durov announced the closure of the Telegram Open Network (TON) project after a legal clash with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a ban on token distribution.
After TON’s closure, 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 from TON Community and NewTON.
The latter launched the test network NewTON Blockchain in May 2020. In August 2021, the TON team transferred the ton.org domain 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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