How valuable is your digital identity? Thanks to the instant messaging application Telegram, it may soon be possible to learn this value in crypto. Telegram plans to allow users to present their digital identities on a public marketplace to see if other people also think your name is of good value.
Telegram announced in an official thread that the company is almost ready to launch an auction platform for usernames on the TON (The Open Network) blockchain, originally developed and operated by Telegram. Transactions will use the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency Toncoin.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, said in August that he was interested in such an auction platform after seeing how much cryptocurrencies were made from auction wallets and domains on legacy blockchains.
“If TON was able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram would have been with 700 million users if we put the reserved @usernames, group and channel links up for auction,” Durov said, adding that ownership of these usernames is secured on the blockchain, similar to NFTs. added that it will He also said that other elements of Telegram such as stickers, channels and even emojis could go up for auction as well.
The founder also noted that in addition to users’ t.me addresses (i.e. usernames), all four-letter usernames including “@bank, @club, @game, @gift” (in English for @s used are “@” bank, @club, @game, @gift”) stated that it could be put up for auction.
Telegram is not actually a first
If this sounds strange to you at first glance and you’ve wondered why there is such a need, let’s say that the sale of digital usernames is nothing new. As noted by The Block, usernames on the Ethereum blockchain have long been sold through the Ethereum Name Service. You can easily find many other projects announcing the intentions of users to sell NFTs of their digital identities for online play.
Telegram has experimented with crypto before, although it was forced to abandon its efforts on its own Telegram Open Network and Gram cryptocurrency after it was investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for selling unregistered securities. After a federal judge ruled in favor of the SEC, Telegram said it was leaving Gram and withdrew from development on the blockchain. The developers transferred control of the blockchain to the TON Foundation in 2021.
Telegram has 500 million monthly active users and is widely used in countries like Iran, thanks to its end-to-end encryption that allows for anonymous messaging, BusinessofApps reported. This anonymity is one of Telegram’s most important reasons for preference. As the Korea Herald points out, the app gained a small popularity boost after South Korean company Kakao and its app KakaoTalk recently suffered a few-day outage that cut off communication with millions of users.
But this adherence to anonymity has also caused some friction with governments. Last week, Germany fined Telegram $5 million for failing to set up systems to report illegal content. Due to its anonymous nature, Telegram is often used by many radical online groups and political dissidents.
There are other privacy-focused apps, too, including Signal. While Durov and Telegram criticize other messaging apps like WhatsApp for their obvious links to the data vortex, which is Meta, the new head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, criticizes Telegram for using cloud backups.
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