Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance
A former Binance executive said about half of players of the click-to-earn game on Telegram are new to cryptocurrency — and the addition of the messaging app could lead to mass adoption of the technology.
Gleb Kostarev, former vice president and regional head of Binance, noted that half of the 50 million registered users of his new Telegram Mini App Click to Earn Game and exchange Blum are new to crypto.
“According to our data and our surveys in the community, 50% of people said they had no prior exposure to Web3,” he said.
“People always question whether this audience on Telegram can be converted to Web3,” Kostarev said. “These users are real, they can go to exchanges, they can sign up, they can become Web3 users.”
“We’ve been waiting for mass adoption for a long time, and now we’re finally achieving it with Telegram.”
Click-to-earn games are the latest hot trend in the cryptocurrency space, where players can earn in-game tokens by performing simple tasks such as repeatedly tapping their phone screen.
Some of the most popular games, including Tapswap, Catizen, and Hamster Kombat, are based on a Telegram-linked blockchain, The Open Network (TON), which intentionally or unintentionally exposes players of these games to cryptocurrency.
Blum lets users earn game tokens by clicking on shooting stars or completing tasks like watching videos. Source: Blum
“I think the key challenge here is how we educate the audience,” Kostarev said. “Yes, they are exposed to cryptocurrencies, but they don’t know anything about it.”
“Education is key because it’s not enough to just bring a large number of users into the cryptocurrency space, it’s also about what they will do there and how to prevent them from being scammed,” he added.
Telegram opens up DeFi amid big tech lockdown
Kostarev believes Telegram can help increase access to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, which he says are hampered by Apple and Google’s strict mobile app policies.
He said that 80% of centralized exchange users access the platform through their mobile phones, which is a “problem for DeFi adoption.”
“[DeFi projects] have websites, while most users prefer mobile platforms,” Kostarev said.
He noted that Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store have “a lot of problems” when it comes to DeFi and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Specifically, Apple has long restricted its mobile apps to its in-app payment solution — which doesn’t support cryptocurrencies or NFTs and charges a 30% fee.
In March, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a massive antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of illegally restricting competition and stifling innovation, in part because of the "deformed rules" of its App Store.
“That’s the magic of Telegram, because it makes DeFi accessible through mobile devices,” Kostarev said.
However, Telegram has now attracted the attention of authorities, with its founder Pavel Durov being arrested in France last month and charged with allegedly allowing criminal activity on the app.
