Telegram's CEO Plans To Build Its Own Crypto Wallet

JAKARTA - Telegram has sold 50 million US dollars (Rp781 billion) usernames in less than a month through its blockchain-based auction platform, Fragment.

This figure illustrates Telegram's success in doing its own crypto infrastructure bootstrap.

According to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, the bankruptcy of the largest crypto exchange, FTX caused many people to lose their money.

"The blockchain industry was built on a decentralized promise, but was eventually concentrated in the hands of a handful of people who started abusing their power," Durov said in a statement he made on his Telegram channel.

Durov said cryptocurrency players should switch to using their own-hosted digital wallets and not rely on third parties.

"Cryptocurrency users must switch to trustless transactions and self-hosted wallets that do not depend on any third party," he added.

As one of the successful companies in the sale of Fragment, Durov prepared Telegram on track for deeper crypto development.

He said the company would build decentralized exchanges and non-detentionful wallets that could reach millions of users to store their cryptocurrencies safely.

"In this way we can correct errors caused by excessive centralization, which disappoints hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users," he concluded.

This statement is confirmation of Telegram's direct involvement by integrating the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain into its messenger app.

TON, formerly known as Newton and Toncoin, is one of the projects developed by Telegram.