Telegram to auction hoarded usernames as NFTs?

Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, announced that the social media platform has suffered hoardings of 70% of usernames by certain Iranian users who are not actively utilising them. This was uncovered by the Telegram team and 99% of the usernames were recovered in mid-August.

Hoarding usernames made it impossible for other Telegram users to search, select, activate, and employ these addresses “for their accounts, groups and channels,” said the CEO, Pavel Durov. Some users that have tried using these hoarded usernames to create accounts fell victims to scams.

The team decided to retrieve them all and make them accessible to anyone around the world while making sure they are utilized optimally for the good of the community.

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Usernames to be distributed by auctioning 

The usernames will be given back to the community via auctioning. This method, according to Pavel Durov, will motivate recipients “to put them to good use” as they create value that will serve the entire Telegram community.

Durov noted that this step might be unpleasant for the initial holders however, it was decided for the general good of everyone on the Telegram platform. “I look forward to seeing how millions of great Telegram addresses,” he said, “will be revived and finally start serving our community.”

As of June this year, the team released Telegram Premium, for its 700 million users with features ranging from ability to share files up to 4gig, faster downloads, voice to text permission, animated profile picture, and more.

Few days ago, Pavel Durov revealed that over $3 million was realized from the sale of .ton NFT domains. If Telegram is to auction the usernames as NFTs, it’ll be one of the largest NFT auctions considering Telegram has over 700 million users. 

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