Is the TON ecosystem the next gaming trend?

*Author: Wu Tianyi, *DeThings**

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

This is just a snapshot of the current TON ecosystem. As a recently popular ecosystem, TON's revenue has recently surpassed $10 million, with on-chain users exceeding 1 million and a total user base reaching 17 million, while daily active users have surpassed 3.5 million. The TON ecosystem MEME project DOGS also stated that, so far, the number of DOGS points purchased using Telegram Stars has exceeded 10 million.

According to the latest analysis from CryptoQuant, TON has become one of the best-performing Layer 1 blockchains in 2024. Since the beginning of this year, TON's performance has outpaced Bitcoin by 118%, contrasting sharply with other popular Layer 1 chains that have struggled to gain momentum.

cmDeFi Founder Chen Mo told DeThings that TON fills the gap in the application layer of this bull market while leveraging mobile advantages to provide many opportunities for breakout.

Social Media Successfully Tests Web3

In September 2023, Telegram recognized TON, stating that the blockchain and related tokens would become its "official Web3 infrastructure." Earlier this month, TON announced that Tether tokens could also be issued on its blockchain, allowing Telegram users to send stablecoins to each other within the app.

Fast Company noted that the long-held dream of investors has been to combine payments and shopping with social media or messaging services into a "super app" or "universal app," drawing inspiration from China's WeChat. IGD DAO Founder KVC told DeThings that as a global application and international tool, there are not many similar to the TON ecosystem, presenting a historic opportunity, and it has already begun to resemble a "Web3 WeChat."

Efforts to introduce crypto payments into social media have yet to achieve large-scale success. Facebook (now Meta) ended its "Libra" cryptocurrency project amid strong opposition from global regulators, who were concerned that the project could undermine financial stability and weaken control over monetary policy.

PitchBook senior analyst Robert Le stated, "The recent foray into crypto payments through Telegram has introduced new use cases for the app, but its acceptance and adoption are still in the early stages." He noted that 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 multifunctional platforms."

Warwick Business School professor Ram Gopal stated that this integration brings "regulatory, technical, and security challenges."

"Tap to earn" Has Surpassed "Play to earn"?

CoinDesk reported that while traditional P2E models often require complex gameplay and significant time investment, so-called "tap to earn" games offer a more accessible and appealing approach. By leveraging the social layer present in consumer platforms like Telegram and utilizing places where people have already spent time, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the window for mass adoption has opened.

The secret to the viral success of Telegram games lies in their simple gameplay (e.g., clicking and completing simple tasks) and engaging game progression (e.g., finding new daily card combinations or passwords in Hamster Kombat), which are the main reasons for the astonishing growth of Tap-to-Earn in such a short time.

The promise of community airdrops is another success factor for these types of games. Unlike DeFi protocols or Ethereum L2, clicker apps do not require any complex on-chain operations, and Notcoin provides illustrative evidence in this regard. According to the Notcoin team, about 90% of the token supply flows to the community, with an average reward of $200 per wallet. Catizen has promised to airdrop 42% of future $CATI, while the aforementioned other applications have yet to disclose their token economics.

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

Many have raised reasonable doubts about the sustainability of the Tap-to-Earn trend and the quality of the traffic it attracts. How the team manages to educate and retain users while providing long-term value remains an open question. Notcoin's anonymous founder Sasha admitted in an interview with The Block, "I don't think Notcoin will last forever; I don't think it will have any sustainability. From my perspective, only games with sustainable models can survive." Therefore, regarding Notcoin itself, Sasha stated that he hopes to move away from the Tap-to-Earn narrative and plans to build a sustainable and efficient subsystem over the next four years to make the project independent of the team.

What Potential Projects Are There After Notcoin?

E2M Research analyst Steve told DeThings that the TON infrastructure is gradually improving, and the ecosystem has been completed. Moreover, it has experienced some independent market movements amid fluctuations in mainstream assets.

In addition to Notcoin, Hamster Kombat is also worth paying attention to. As a hamster-themed Tap-to-Earn game, it will launch on Telegram on March 25, 2024, where users can collect coins by simply tapping the screen. Each tap earns virtual coins, which can be redeemed with the game's native token HMSTR. The development team expects the token release date to be sometime in June 2024. Additionally, there are plans for an airdrop on the TON network for Hamster Kombat. Currently, it has a market cap of $45,700, 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 31 million subscribers on their YouTube account. According to The Block, the anonymous founders of the TON ecosystem game Hamster Kombat, which claims to have over 250 million users, revealed that after the first airdrop this month, they are already planning a second airdrop. They stated, "The game will continue, and there will be a second season and a second airdrop within the next two years. We believe these tokens will belong to millions of users worldwide, which in itself holds immense value."

Another mini-game of similar stature is tapswap, a popular Telegram mini-program where you can 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.

Additionally, Catizen is worth noting. Catizen is a cat-raising idle game on the TON ecosystem, developed by the Pluto Studio team, and is the first game on its GameFi platform. At the intersection of casual gaming and breakthrough innovation, Catizen has launched a "PLAY-TO-AIRDROP" model. In just two months, registrations have approached 20 million, with 1.25 million active users.