‘Notcoin’ Telegram Game Will Return After Token Launch—With Big Changes

Telegram-based crypto game Notcoin says it racked up nearly 9 trillion taps over the course of its mining phase, but with gameplay currently paused ahead of the incoming token launch on The Open Network—set for April 20—the tapping has stopped for now.

Notcoin plans to relaunch its game after the token launch and airdrop but with a new rewards model. That’s because Notcoin will not mint any additional tokens, as all pre-launch mining is complete. The in-game coins will be swapped for NOT crypto tokens on The Open Network when the launch occurs.

“The final supply of Notcoin in-game will be the final number of tokens available,” a Notcoin representative confirmed to Decrypt’s GG this week, “adjusted to reduce some zeroes to make an easier trading experience.”

How will mining work, then, without new coins being generated? Open Builders founder Sasha Plotvinov told Decrypt’s GG that the game will aim to harness the immense attention it has generated—with some 35 million Telegram users ultimately playing the coin-tapping game—to help expose blockchain users to new projects while ultimately rewarding them in the process.

“We want to keep this game continuing,” Plotvinov said. “What we want to do is basically provide some pools for users so they can continue mining or farming from these pools in a similar model—they will just continue to click on a button and earn coins with more complexity and less rewards than they had in the mining phase.”

Where will those rewards come from then? Plotvinov told Decrypt’s GG in February that Notcoin will create a model in which projects can buy up Notcoins from the secondary market, and then use them to fuel gameplay rewards going forward.

It’s an extension of what Notcoin had already started by rewarding users for learning about and following other projects. A Notcoin representative confirmed this week that “the promotion of projects in exchange for NOT will be the main model for farming,” and that official details will be announced soon.

“Projects will actually buy Notcoins from the market, and send it to the smart contract that will divide it into the burn part and the pool part,” Plotvinov said in February. “This pool will be the resource of these coins that will be distributed across those who click on the button after we go on-chain.”

Recently, Notcoin also asked users to optionally give up a share of their in-game earnings to fuel an ecosystem fund. It’s unclear whether that will also play a role in the future gameplay rewards, but the messaging does suggest that aim.

"It would be helpful for the ecosystem growth to have a meaningful amount of Notcoins for the product development, upcoming listings, and for all the millions of people that will come next," they wrote last week. "If there are no good ideas for these tokens, they will be burned."

How else might Notcoin continue on after the airdrop? Plotvinov said that Open Builders is looking to add trading bot functionality to the app, letting Telegram users buy and sell tokens within the messaging platform. That’s taking a cue from other bots created for Telegram, particularly on Solana where BONKbot is the leading bot.

A Notcoin representative confirmed this week that this plan remains in the works. Plotvinov had said that they might develop a new kind of interface since he said they “understand that the text bot format is not for everyone.” The rep confirmed this week that “there will be a tool created for a new trading experience.”

They further added that Notcoin believes that the token could be a beneficial integration for other Web3 games in the short-term, and potentially traditional “Web2” games thereafter. Open Builders plans to develop an API that will let game creators plug functionality into their games, letting players earn and cash out NOT without directly integrating wallet support.

Ultimately, the goal for Notcoin’s post-airdrop evolution is to make the system as decentralized as they can, letting projects buy up NOT tokens and enter the ecosystem for players to earn rewards by engaging with their content. Even so, Plotvinov said they’re working out how to avoid scammy projects making the cut without needing extensive oversight.

“We’ll keep this as decentralized as possible,” he said. “We don’t really want to participate in all of these campaigns as reviewers or something. We will try to balance this thing [so that] any project can launch it themselves—but at the same time, we are quite responsible for the audience that came to Notcoin. We don’t want people to face [scams].”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.