Telegram co-founder plans to launch an NFT marketplace, wishes to add ‘little bit of web3’

Paul Durov, founder of Telegram is keen on adding ‘”a little bit of web3″ to the messaging platform in the coming weeks. This comes after Telegram Open Network (TON) recently conducted a successful auction of their domain names where  ‘Wallet.ton’ username was sold for $2,60,000 and ‘casino.ton’ was sold for $2,44,000.
Domain names on Telegram are essentially usernames that users can use.  “If TON has been able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved usernames, group and channel links for auction. In addition to millions of catchy t.me addresses like storm or royal, all four-letter usernames could be made available for sale (bank, club, game, gift etc),” he said in a Telegram post.
The Telegram co-founder wants to create a platform where username holders could sell these usernames to interested parties through blockchain via NFT-like smart contracts. “Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emoji, could later also become part of this marketplace,” he adds.

Durov believes that when it comes to scalability and speed, TON probably has the best technology to host such decentralized sales.
Telegram has rolled out crypto payment capability recently. Users can now download Telegram’s official wallet bot, which can allow them to buy cryptocurrencies, trade them, and send them to other wallets. “We expect this functionality to expand into consumer-to-business payments, allowing users to quickly purchase products and services sending Toncoin using the bots,” the TON Foundation said in a statement.
It should be noted that Telegram aimed to explore Web3 with decentralised storage last year, this project was called Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain. The project was abandoned after it ran into a controversy with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission accusing Telegram of a securities law violation.