Author: Wu Tianyi, DeThings

On July 14, the Telegram game project Notcoin announced on Twitter that it would conduct a $7 million airdrop, of which $5 million would be allocated to stakers and holders of different levels, and $2 million would be distributed to participating users in the next three months. As a game based on TON, the core gameplay of the game is "Tap to earn", which has attracted the attention of millions of players in the past few months thanks to the advantages of the TON ecosystem.

This is just a microcosm of the current TON ecosystem. As a popular ecosystem in recent times, TON’s recent revenue has exceeded 10 million US dollars, the number of users on the chain has exceeded 1 million, the total user base has reached 17 million, and the number of daily active users has exceeded 3.5 million. TON ecosystem MEME project DOGS also stated that so far, the number of DOGS points purchased using Telegram Stars has exceeded 10 million.

TON has emerged as one of the best performing layer 1 blockchains for 2024, according to new analysis from CryptoQuant. Since the beginning of the year, TON has outperformed Bitcoin by 118%, in stark contrast to other popular layer 1 chains that have struggled to gain traction.

cmDeFi Founder Chen Mo told DeThings that TON fills the gap in the application level of this bull market, while leveraging the advantages of mobile phones to provide many possibilities for going beyond the circle.

Social media successfully tests the waters with Web3

In September 2023, Telegram endorsed TON, saying the blockchain and associated tokens would become its “official Web3 infrastructure.” Earlier this month, TON said Tether tokens could also be issued on its blockchain, allowing Telegram users to send stablecoins to each other within the app.

FastCompany said that the prospect of a "super app" or "universal app" that combines payment and shopping with social media or messaging services has long been a dream of investors, who have looked to China's WeChat for inspiration. IGD DAO Founder KVC told DeThings that Telegram, as a global application and international tool, is a historic opportunity with few similar TON ecosystems. It has already begun to resemble "web3 WeChat."

Efforts to bring crypto payments to social media have yet to succeed on a large scale. Facebook (now Meta) ended its “Libra” cryptocurrency project amid strong opposition from global regulators, who worried that the project could harm financial stability and weaken control over monetary policy.

“The recent foray into crypto payments via Telegram has introduced new use cases for the app, but its acceptance and adoption are still in their infancy,” said Robert Le, senior analyst at PitchBook, who said venture capital interest in SocialFi has increased.

“The main challenge is changing user perceptions in non-Asian markets, where messaging apps are primarily seen as pure communication tools rather than multi-functional platforms.”

Ram Gopal, a professor at Warwick Business School, said the integration brought with it “regulatory, technical and security challenges”.

“Tap to earn” has surpassed “Play to earn”?

CoinDesk said that while traditional P2E models often require complex gameplay and a significant time investment, so-called “click to earn” games offer a more accessible and engaging approach. By leveraging the social layer that exists in the hands of consumers such as Telegram and taking advantage (no pun intended) of where people already spend their time, whether intentionally or not, the window for mass adoption has opened.

The secret to viral Telegram games is that simple gameplay (e.g., tapping and completing simple tasks) and interesting game progression (e.g., finding a new daily card combination or secret code in Hamster Kombat) are the main reasons for Tap-to-Earn’s incredible growth in such a short period of time.

The promise of community airdrops is another winning point for this type of game. Unlike DeFi protocols or Ethereum L2, clicker apps do not require any complex on-chain operations, and Notcoin provides illustrative evidence of this. According to the Notcoin team, about 90% of the token supply went to the community, with average rewards reaching $200 per wallet. Catizen promises to airdrop 42% of future $CATI, while the other applications mentioned above have not yet revealed their token economics.

Another important factor for success is leveraging the social layer and encouraging players to invite friends and team up to compete for higher rewards. All of these viral applications chose TON’s blockchain, which can be explained by the ease of joining Telegram, its 950 million global user base, the chain’s technological advantages, and Notcoin’s recent success on top centralized exchanges.

Many people have raised reasonable questions about the sustainability of the Tap-to-Earn trend and the quality of traffic attracted. How the team manages to educate and retain users and provide long-term value remains an open question. And Sasha, the anonymous founder of Notcoin, once admitted in an interview with The Block: "I don't think Notcoin will last forever, and I don't think it will have any sustainability. From my point of view, only games with sustainable models can survive." Therefore, regarding Notcoin itself, Sasha said that he hopes to get rid of the Tap-to-Earn narrative and plans to make the project independent of the team by building sustainable and efficient subsystems in the next four years.

What other potential projects are there after Notcoin?

Steve, a researcher at E2M Research, told DeThings that TON's infrastructure is gradually improving and its ecosystem is complete. It has also experienced some independent market trends amid the volatility of mainstream assets.

In addition to Notcoin, Hamster Kombat is also worth paying attention to. As a hamster-themed Tap to earn game, it was launched on Telegram on March 25, 2024. Users can collect coins by simply tapping the screen. Each click can earn virtual coins, which can be claimed through the game's planned native token HMSTR. The development team expects the token release date to be sometime in June 2024. In addition, a Hamster Kombat airdrop is also planned on the open network (TON). Its current market value is $45.7 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.9 million.

The founders of Hamster Kombat are anonymous, but they claim to have over 200 million users; they have 11 million followers on Twitter/X and their YouTube account has 31 million subscribers. According to The Block, the anonymous founder of Hamster Kombat, a TON ecosystem game that claims to have over 250 million users, revealed that they are already planning a second airdrop following the first airdrop this month. He said: "The game will continue, and there will be a second season and a second airdrop in the next two years. We believe that these tokens will belong to millions of users around the world, which in itself has great value."

Another equally famous mini-game is tapswap, a popular Telegram mini-program that allows you to earn its native token TAPS by participating in various in-game activities. As of early July 2024, the game has over 60 million players and 4 million YouTube subscribers.

In addition, Catizen is worth paying attention to. Catizen is a cat-raising chain game on the TON ecosystem, created by the Pluto Studio team and the first game on its GameFi platform. At the intersection of casual games and breakthrough innovations, Catizen launched the "PLAY-TO-AIRDROP" mode. In just 2 months, the number of registrations has reached nearly 20 million, with 1.25 million active users.