​Crypto wallets and DEX will appear on Telegram

What’s new? Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that the messenger’s team is working on creating a set of decentralized tools, including non-custodial crypto wallets and decentralized exchanges (DEXs). According to Durov, DeFi tools will help millions of people securely trade and store digital assets. In this way, the Telegram team intends to correct the mistakes caused by excessive centralization, which has failed hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users, Durov stressed.

Durov’s post

What else did Durov write? Speaking about the events surrounding the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, the founder of Telegram said that the blockchain industry is now concentrated in the hands of a few people “who began to abuse their power.” According to Durov, projects based on distributed ledger technology should return to their roots — decentralization. Users should switch to trustless transactions and independent storage of assets, independent of any third party.

Durov also spoke about the work of the Fragment marketplace for buying usernames on Telegram, launched in late October. The platform was developed in five weeks by a team of five people, including himself. Durov believes that Fragment has been an amazing success. For example, it sold $50 million worth of usernames in less than a month. On November 9, the username @doge was sold for more than $550 000. “This week, Fragments will expand beyond usernames,” Durov noted.

He added that Fragment is launched on the TON blockchain, which allows applications to be hosted quickly and efficiently, unlike Ethereum, which remains expensive and obsolete despite a recent upgrade.

On November 30, it became known that the stewards of the TON network created a “rescue fund” with a $126 million commitment to support projects experiencing liquidity problems as a result of the FTX collapse. In addition, the TON Foundation also aims to attract projects to switch to TON. DWF Labs, Darley Technologies, Hexa Capital, and TONcoin Fund Ecosystem Partners backed the fund.

Nan Wang, TON Foundation investment associate, said that the fund will not necessarily buy out distressed assets, noting that the team is willing to support the best projects that have been weakly affected by recent events.

On June 28, the last TON was mined before the blockchain switched to the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. The issuance of tokens via PoS validation led to a decrease in the number of new coins coming into circulation by about 75%. As of December 1, 08:20 UTC, TON is trading at $1,775 (+2,46% in 24 hours), according to Binance.

In November, DWF Labs entered into a partnership with the TON Foundation. As part of the partnership, the fund will receive $10 million for the development of the blockchain.