Translation: Blockchain in Vernacular

In recent months, applications on the TON blockchain, such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, have quickly become popular. Hamster has 250 million users, more than the number of users of the Binance application (200 million). Telegram CEO Pavel Durov called TON mini-apps "an Internet phenomenon" and cited the success of Hamster Kombat as a top case study.

In this article, I will introduce the most popular Telegram applets, their user interface and marketing mechanisms.

1. The most popular mini-programs

In fact, Telegram mini-apps adopt a “play and earn” model that can be compared to the “clicker” type of games on Steam. The mechanics of such applications are very simple. Users need to perform specific actions in the application and are rewarded for doing so. The most common action is to click on the screen to earn the application’s native cryptocurrency. The main advantage of these crypto clickers compared to the previous generation of “play and earn” games is their simplicity.

Notcoin is the first application of its kind on Telegram. In addition to clicking, users are required to enter a specific password every day and perform other actions, such as subscribing to NOT partner channels. By the way, Notcoin does not have any game plot. Hamster Kombat is different. According to HK's story, users become the CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange and are rewarded with HMSTR for growing the company. They are also rewarded for entering secret codes in the form of Morse code (all of which can be found on Telegram).

2. Notcoin and Hamster Kombat are listed

Notcoin's currency NOT has been listed on Bybit, Binance and other top cryptocurrency exchanges. According to CoinMarketCap, its price has fluctuated greatly since May this year, falling to below $0.005 and reaching a high of $0.026. The current price of NOT is about $0.016. Notcoin's founder Alex has talked about the project's future development plans in the media, which is to build it into a promotion and startup project similar to a launch platform.

Due to the extremely high popularity of the Hamster Kombat token, its listing could become one of the major events in the cryptocurrency world in 2024. Most likely, this event will take place on the Bybit exchange. After all, Bybit already opened trading for HMSTR in the pre-market last week.

Among other popular Telegram mini-programs, we can also see Catizen, Tapswap, YesCoin and Blum. Catizen and YesCoin have become members of the TON Open League and ranked first and second, respectively, in the ratings for the fourth quarter. These projects are mentioned in popular channels of the TON ecosystem, showing some promise, although it is not yet confirmed.

3. Which applications have prospects and which do not?

The profitability of most apps depends not only on their listing and token sales (like the old play-and-earn games), but also on their marketing performance. Leveraging mini-programs for advertising and attracting real users through direct integration is a key strategy for promoting digital products.

The main marketing channel for promoting mini-programs is the Telegram Ads service, where users can pay for display ads with TON and TON Stars. Previously, promotion on Telegram required a considerable budget or direct access to the desired channel, but in recent months, the situation has changed and advertising campaigns can be set up under more flexible conditions. At least, this is the view of many channel owners and marketers.

4. About TON blockchain ecosystem

I want to talk about the TON blockchain ecosystem, which has rightfully become one of the top blockchain ecosystems in the world this year. The main advantage of this blockchain is its popularity on Telegram, while also offering fast transaction speeds. In a public performance test last year, its smart contract execution speed reached 104,715 transactions per second.

The TON ecosystem already has several convenient wallets and decentralized exchanges (DEX).

The important events that have driven the growth of the TON ecosystem this year are the cooperation with Tether and the emergence of native USDT on the TON blockchain. Currently, the amount of USDT on the blockchain has reached 572,000 million. Recently, TON also received a record investment from the well-known venture capital institution Pantera Capital. You can read the main TON news on the TON Community Channel and view the list of projects and tokens on the TON.app website.

5. Can I publish my application on Telegram?

As with any hot market in the cryptocurrency space, there are a lot of people keen to run their clicker apps, and some of them are actually successful. These days, with open source tools, you can create your own app pretty quickly, but attracting traffic is a little harder.

At the same time, competition for traffic and potential customers is intensifying. The biggest advertising channels for promoting clicker apps are Telegram ads and partnerships with existing mini-programs.

6 Conclusion

Telegram’s mini-app introduces a new mechanism to effectively promote cryptocurrencies - by giving away cryptocurrencies to users. This automates airdrops and greatly simplifies the process. Overall, this is a good thing for the popularity of cryptocurrencies. Users are having fun playing games and learning how to use cryptocurrencies.

As with the story of the play-and-earn games, there is a lot of anticipation here, but the question is whether these projects will last or are just a flash in the pan. If you compare the tokens of clicker apps to Memecoin, they are also very volatile and have no direct collateral. But at least mini-apps have a large number of supporters and millions of users who use them every day.