Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, has revealed that Telegram intends to convert stickers and emojis into digital tokens called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This means users can own these assets uniquely and even generate income by creating and trading them.
Durov Explains Tokenization of Stickers on Telegram
At the Token2049 event in Dubai today, Durov discussed Telegram’s strong connection to decentralization and blockchain tech. He mentioned that Telegram is currently the only social media channel to tokenize usernames and anonymous numbers. This innovative feature has brought about $350 million in sales and grants owners 95% of the resulting income. Telegram initiated the username auctioning process back in 2022, with unique ones like casino.ton fetching over $200,000.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, shared that certain usernames have been resold at prices 33 times their original value. Impressively, he believes there’s still potential for even greater price increases within the Telegram team.
“We’re not content with staying put. Our goal is to advance. Here’s the thing: We’re passionate about socially significant NFTs. We’re talking about NFTs that are woven into the fabric of human society, that enhance our connections and communication. These NFTs have the power to be seen by countless people and potentially go viral. In our view, these are the most impactful NFTs. Therefore, the next phase of our journey is to tokenize Telegram stickers.”
To strengthen his argument, Durov showed a smoking duck sticker, designed by an artist for Telegram several years ago. This simple image has since exploded in popularity, becoming a meme and cultural sensation far beyond Telegram, boasting at least hundreds of millions of views.
“Suppose someone had bought this as an NFT back when it was newly released a few years ago. I believe the subsequent price surge would astonish us with its magnitude.”
According to Durov’s explanation, stickers on Telegram are extensively used and shared an impressive number of over 700 billion times each month.
Telegram Emoji Meme Coins
Telegram aims to expand the concept of tokenization by assigning digital tokens to emojis. Remarkably, Durov has suggested that if this initiative takes off, Telegram might consider turning sticker sets and emoji collections into meme coins as well.
Durov’s speech placed a significant emphasis on blockchain technology, particularly The Open Network (TON), as he discussed various aspects of it. Notably, he announced that all tokenized features like stickers and emojis would operate within the TON blockchain due to its impressive scalability.
He expressed the need for a solution capable of handling between ten and two hundred million transactions at our large scale.
The CEO stated that for providing services with millions of tokenized stickers and emojis, the blockchain needs to have sufficient capacity to manage the volume.
Durov discussed how Telegram not only processes stickers and emojis as tokens, but also utilizes blockchain technology to enhance decentralization. He emphasized that users, channels, and content creators currently benefit from this decentralization. For example, Telegram introduced a revenue sharing program for channels, allowing them to earn 50% of the ad revenue, with transactions facilitated by TON. Furthermore, Durov announced plans to introduce a new Tips for Creators model, granting creators an 70% share of the revenue.
Read More
Sorry. No data so far.
2024-04-19 17:51