- Notcoin is a Telegram-based game where players tap a coin to earn an in-game currency, with over 35 million total players
- The Notcoin team is launching a real cryptocurrency token called NOT on The Open Network (TON) on April 20th, which players can earn based on their in-game mining
- After the NOT token launch, the Notcoin game will return with a new reward model funded by companies wanting to reach its large audience
Notcoin is a Telegram-based game that has captured the attention of millions of players over the past few months. The game has racked up 35 million total players and hit a peak of six million daily active users. That’s vastly larger than most crypto games. The game, created by Open Builders, is based within the Telegram messaging app and will launch a token on The Open Network (TON) this month. Its founder previously told Decrypt that the team sees it as a unique way to distribute tokens to community members in a fair manner.
What is Notcoin?
Notcoin, simply put, is a social clicker game. Players who want to earn in-game coins can open up the Telegram app, tap the Notcoin bot, invite friends to the game, and dive in. Once you’re in the game, a gold coin is displayed on your screen, and you tap the coin to earn an in-game currency called Notcoin. You’re given limited energy that depletes and then refills slowly over time, so you can’t click endlessly without barriers.
As you earn more and more Notcoin, you climb up a global leaderboard that’s broken into different tiers – from Silver league to Diamond league. Players can earn extra tokens by completing quests that usually involve actions such as following a Twitter account or joining a Telegram community.
Players can also use boosts or power-ups in the game that increase their earning potential. There are two categories of free boosts that refresh daily, the Full Energy and Turbo boosts, as well as additional permanent boosts that players can buy with their Notcoin. Such perks let players increase how many coins they earn per tap and how much energy they can spend at once, plus there’s an Auto-Tap bot that keeps collecting coins while you’re away.
Players can use the Notcoin they’ve earned to purchase cosmetic upgrades to change the background of the game or what the coin they’re tapping looks like.
Note that the game ended its mining phase on April 1, which means that when you open the Notcoin app in Telegram you cannot currently play the game. It’s expected to return after the token launches later this month.
The NOT Token
After all that you might still be wondering – why did 35 million people tapping a coin to earn an in-game currency? The Notcoin team announced an airdrop for a real token that will be awarded to players after being cagey about the possibility at first.
The token called NOT will go live on The Open Network (TON) – the network that Telegram itself originally founded – and be exchangeable for the in-game Notcoin that players have been earning.
On March 30, the Notcoin team shared a look at the tokenomics, saying that 100% of the NOT tokens will by default be provided to the more than 35 million players who mined them by tapping the coin. There won’t be Bitcoin-style early whales, they wrote in a tweet thread and via the official Telegram community. However, some tokens could be useful for boosting the ecosystem.
As a result, Notcoin is asking players whether they want to contribute a share of their mined tokens to an ecosystem fund. In the Notcoin app on Telegram, a message now appears asking whether players want to donate 10%, 20%, 30%, or 50% of their coins, or they can choose “Keep for yourself.” And there’s no obligation or incentive here – “There will be no bonuses for participation, only respect,” the message reads.
Pre-Market Vouchers
Leading up to the airdrop, the Notcoin team launched an NFT voucher program. Any player with over 10 million Notcoin earned can convert their Notcoin in 10 million increments into NFT vouchers.
The vouchers can be bought, sold, or traded before the actual launch of NOT, allowing players to speculate on the eventual price of the real token. At the moment, Notcoin vouchers are trading for around 14 TON per voucher, or just shy of $100.
Token Launch Date
The Notcoin team has been particularly mysterious about when the token will launch. Recently they deployed a glitch-like graphic that briefly appeared on players’ screens saying “7 Days.” They followed up the glitch with a post in the community channel letting players know that the mining phase would end on April 1st, and then a new phase of the game would begin.
But now we know the answer – Notcoin says the token will launch on April 20, the same day as the Bitcoin halving. Notcoin announced this on April 2 via Twitter after teasing something aligned with the Bitcoin network event.
The Future
Notcoin’s gameplay is currently on pause until the token launches, but worry not – it’s coming back, albeit with some changes. The coin-tapping game will be revived, but since no new tokens will be minted after the launch, it will be funded by companies that want to gain exposure to the sizable audience that Notcoin built.
There are other potential additions and changes ahead. For example, the team plans to build trading bot functionality into Notcoin to let people buy and sell crypto tokens via Telegram. Open Builders aims to build a more visual interface than the text-based approach of some other trading bots.
At the Hashkey Web3 Festival in Hong Kong on April 11, Notcoin apparently revealed some of this functionality as shown in photos shared by the project. One shows the ability to send crypto like Toncoin (TON) to users on Telegram, handle crypto assets within a Telegram wallet, and connect to TON-based apps.
Conclusion
Notcoin captured the attention of millions by gamifying crypto rewards within the Telegram app. Now players await the launch and distribution of the NOT token, which aims to be one of the most widely distributed crypto tokens right from the start. The viral game plans to relaunch after that token drop with a new rewards model, as it looks to build an ecosystem on TON.
