TON Blockchain to Extend Web3 Domain Service to Telegram Users

Social media giant Telegram will auction four- and five-character social media handles, which are similar to domain names, on a marketplace on the TON blockchain.

Telegram and the TON Foundation will host the social media handle auction on a website called Fragment.com, with the minimum price for four-letter names set at 10,000 Toncoin.

What you need for the Telegram auction

Telegram will initially offer four and five letter Telegram handles to the general public and will also allow users to auction their handles. The auctions last one week.

“For the first time, social media users will be able to transparently prove that they own their handles thanks to their tokenization on the TON blockchain,” said Andrew Rogozov of the TON Foundation.

People wishing to participate in the auction can log into Fragment.com using Telegram or the non-custodial wallet apps tonkeeper and TON wallet. The wallet must contain Toncoin before a user connects it to Fragment. To bid, the user must select one of the auctions, enter an amount and pay. Whoever has the bid first to the blockchain will win the auction and you will receive your money back if you don’t win.

Handles may not be available on all Telegram clients. The social media company will soon roll out updates to existing platforms that will offer support.

The first TON DNS was launched earlier this year

The TON Foundation launched its own Web3 domain name system, TON DNS, on June 30, 2022. A Web3 domain name system serves a similar purpose to a Web2 DNS. In Web2, the domain name system matches an Internet Protocol address with a human-readable name. Instead of typing a numeric IP address 172.217.204.10 into your browser’s search bar, you can type Google.com.

The Web3 equivalent of an IP address is a crypto wallet address. These usually consist of long strings of letters and numbers that can be shared with any crypto user who wants to send you money. Instead, services like Ethereum Name Service and Unstoppable Domains let you share human-readable web-like addresses with people who send you money. ENS will enable you to create addresses ending in .eth, while Unstoppable Domains will allow you to own an address ending in .crypto, .bitcoin or one of several other domains.

Domain name

At launch, TON DNS allowed you to create domain names ending in .ton. Like the new Telegram handles, the domain names were auctioned off, with the first auction on July 30, 2022. Wallet.ton was the most expensive, selling for $260,000, while casino.ton sold for $244,000.

Developers can also bid on their smart contracts to have custom domain names. Ton domain names are NFTs that a user can store, sell or give a blog post. NFT owners are responsible for paying a small annual renewal fee to the domain name smart contract. Otherwise, the domain will be re-auctioned.

In contrast, the new Telegram handles do not need to be renewed. The auction with the highest minimum bid at press time is 63,000 Toncoin.

TON is up 23.49% to $1.61 at press time. It has a market value of just under 2 billion dollars.

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