Telegram rolls out third-party account verification
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Raft of improvements in Telegram’s January 2025 update also includes message search filters… and NFTs. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Popular messaging platform Telegram has introduced a “decentralised” verification system, allowing large, already verified organizations to verify entities in their sector.
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In a blog post, the company noted while accounts verified under the original system will retain their standard blue checkmark, those that have secured third-party verification will have a unique logo that reflects their respective industries (a fast food chain gets a carrot, for example) alongside a note as to what organization verified the account and why.
The move, which Telegram says sets a “new safety standard”, does, on paper, seem like a safer way of outsourcing verification than, say, X Premium, the introduction of which on the platform formerly known as Twitter notoriously removed centralised verification ticks in favour of being able to pay for one outright.
The flipside of decentralization is that it’s the core concept of electricity-guzzling, climate-heating technologies like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which gifts received on Telegram can now be turned into - head off fraud on your platform by introducing a means by which you could, theoretically, launder money.
“Collectible gifts have special attributes and can be transferred to other users or auctioned on NFT marketplaces,” says the blog post. “Collectibles also receive a random set of secondary traits [...] every collectible gift is a unique work of art - and that some will be more rare than others.” Anyway, it’s not interesting.
