Notcoin: A Telegram Game Introducing Users to Web3 Through Tap-to-Earn Mechanism

What is Notcoin

Friend, imagine a fun little game on your phone that you can play for free, and as you play, you can "earn" a kind of digital currency. That’s exactly what Notcoin is! It started as a mini app inside the popular social platform Telegram, functioning as a highly interactive "clicker game."

The gameplay is super simple: just keep tapping an animated coin on your phone screen, and with each tap, you "mine" some virtual Notcoin (points in the game). It’s like playing a tapping game where every tap scores you more points. The coolest part is that the points you accumulate in the game can later be converted into real cryptocurrency—NOT tokens, which actually have market value!

Notcoin was designed to be easy for everyone to join, even if you know nothing about crypto or blockchain technology. Leveraging Telegram’s massive user base, it quickly attracted millions of players, transforming from a fun casual game into a force driving mass adoption of crypto in the Web3 (next-generation internet) space.

Project Vision and Value Proposition

The Notcoin team didn’t release a traditional, detailed whitepaper (usually a document explaining project philosophy and technical details). Its official "whitepaper" is intentionally left blank, as if to say: "We don’t need complex theory, just action!" This unconventional approach itself conveys a unique project philosophy: true value is driven by believers.

The core vision and value proposition of Notcoin can be summarized as:

• Web3 Onboarding Guide: It aims to make it easy for tens of millions of ordinary users to access and understand the Web3 world through fun, simple gamification, lowering the barrier to entry for crypto.
• The Power of Community Building: Notcoin believes in the power of community. It’s not just a game, but a vibrant ecosystem centered around NOT token holders. Token holders can join new games, earn rewards, participate in competitions, and even help shape the community’s future.
• Simplicity is Power: By ditching traditional complex whitepapers and roadmaps, Notcoin proves that simple game mechanics and strong community cohesion can have a huge impact.
• Deep Integration with Telegram and TON Ecosystem: Notcoin runs on the TON blockchain, allowing it to fully leverage Telegram’s 900 million+ user base for fast, low-cost transactions and a smooth user experience.

Although the team once positioned it as a "meme coin" (whose value is mainly driven by community culture and popularity rather than technical innovation), and claimed it has no specific goal beyond spreading among users, its value has already been demonstrated through its popularity and cultural impact.

Technical Features

Notcoin’s technical foundation is The Open Network (TON) blockchain. Imagine TON as a wide, fast "information highway" designed to handle massive transactions and provide a smooth user experience. Since Telegram was created by the developers (or original developers) of TON, Notcoin can integrate seamlessly with Telegram, like a tailor-made app.

TON blockchain is known for its high scalability (handling lots of transactions), security, and efficiency. This means Notcoin can support a huge user base for "tap-to-earn" token operations, with fast transaction speeds and low costs. This deep integration also ensures the stability of the Notcoin ecosystem.

It’s worth noting that Notcoin’s "whitepaper" is intentionally left blank. This doesn’t mean it lacks technology, but rather the team chose a non-traditional way to express its philosophy—the project itself is its best "manual," and its value lies in real action and community participation, not lengthy technical documents. This reflects its unique and sometimes anti-traditional project characteristics.

Tokenomics

The token symbol for Notcoin is NOT. Its tokenomics are uniquely designed to promote fair distribution and community participation. Think of it as a nationwide treasure hunt where everyone has a chance to win, not just a privileged few.

• Total Supply and Initial Distribution: The total supply of NOT tokens is set at about 103 billion. Most notably, 100% of the token supply was released on the first day of the project, unlike many projects that unlock tokens in phases. This eliminates complex vesting schedules and ensures transparent, fair distribution.
• Acquisition Method: Most NOT tokens were distributed via airdrop to early players. Players could convert the points they "mined" in the Notcoin game at a rate of 1 NOT token for every 1,000 game points. Over 96% of NOT tokens were distributed directly to community users, emphasizing its community-driven nature.
• Deflationary Mechanism: To manage supply and maintain value, Notcoin regularly burns tokens—permanently removing some from circulation. For example, in June 2024, the team burned $3 million worth of tokens, reducing total supply from 102.72 billion to about 102.49 billion.
• Token Utility: Holding NOT tokens isn’t just owning a digital asset—it gives you multiple uses in the ecosystem:
  • Play New Games: Participate in other games within the Notcoin ecosystem.
  • Stake to Earn Rewards: You can stake NOT tokens (like depositing money in a bank to earn interest) to get extra rewards.
  • Join Community Activities: Take part in community competitions and even have a voice in community governance.
  • Web3 Exploration Incentives: Notcoin launched the "Notcoin Explore" feature, rewarding users with NOT tokens for discovering new Web3 projects and products, promoting healthy growth of the TON ecosystem.

The "mining" game phase ended on April 1, 2024.

Team, Governance, and Funding

The team behind Notcoin is called Open Builders. Open Builders is an organization focused on funding and incubating projects on the TON blockchain. Think of them as an "incubator" providing support and resources for innovative projects in the TON ecosystem.

• Core Members: The founders of Notcoin and Open Builders are Alexander Plotvinov (also known as Sasha Plotvinov) and co-founder Sergey Chikirev.
• Team Size: The Notcoin team currently has over 20 members, including developers, marketing experts, and financial specialists. They actively engage with the community through interviews and other means.
• External Support: Notcoin is strongly supported by the TON Foundation. Even Telegram founder Pavel Durov publicly praised Notcoin’s success and was gifted 1 billion NOT tokens.
• Governance Model: Although there’s no explicit governance structure, since 96% of NOT tokens are allocated to community users, this suggests Notcoin is highly community-driven, and future development and major decisions may be heavily influenced by token holders.

There is currently no detailed public data on treasury size or funding cycles, but given TON Foundation’s support and the project’s early massive user growth, it can be inferred that it has a certain level of financial backing.

Roadmap

Notcoin is a non-traditional project, and as its "blank whitepaper" suggests, it doesn’t have a clear, phased "roadmap" like a conventional tech company. However, this doesn’t mean the project lacks direction or future plans—it’s just advancing in a more flexible, practice-oriented way.

Although there’s no formal roadmap document, the Notcoin team and media reports have revealed the following key historical milestones and future plans:

Key Historical Milestones:

• November 2023: Game project launches beta on The Open Network (TON) blockchain.
• January 1, 2024: Notcoin officially launches, attracting over 5 million users in its first week. By January 26, user count surged to 20 million, with nearly 37 trillion in-game tokens "mined."
• March 7, 2024: Option introduced to convert in-game Notcoin into NFT vouchers, which can be sold.
• April 1, 2024: "Mining" phase of the game ends.
• May 16, 2024: NOT token begins trading on major crypto exchanges (CEX and DEX), such as Binance, OKX, etc. This listing made Notcoin the first TON ecosystem token to be listed on major exchanges.
• June 2024: Team burns $3 million worth of NOT tokens to adjust supply.

Future Key Plans and Milestones:

• Ongoing "Mining" Forms: Although the original "tap mining" has ended, the team says "mining" will continue in a "modified form."
• Launch Staking Feature: Plans to introduce staking opportunities, allowing NOT holders to lock tokens and earn interest rewards.
• Build Social and Viral Gaming Platform: Notcoin aims to become a platform incubating more social and viral games, likened by founder Sasha Plotvinov to "Netflix for games." This will give developers a chance to launch new games to a huge user base and existing communities (squads).
• Expand Web3 Ecosystem: Plans to integrate more Web3 products and services into its ecosystem. For example, the "Notcoin Explore" feature rewards users for discovering new Web3 products, encouraging participation in various TON ecosystem projects.
• Integrate External Projects and Partnerships: Plans to integrate external projects and enable players to earn rewards through various collaborations within the TON ecosystem.

In summary, Notcoin’s roadmap is more like an evolving open plan rather than a predetermined path, with its core being ongoing innovation and expansion around the TON ecosystem and Telegram users.

Common Risk Reminders

Friend, every crypto project comes with risks, and Notcoin is no exception. Before participating in any project, it’s crucial to understand these potential risks. Remember, this is not investment advice—always DYOR (Do Your Own Research).

• Market and Economic Risks:

  • Price Volatility: Like most cryptocurrencies, NOT token prices can be highly volatile. Its value is affected by market supply and demand, community sentiment, macroeconomic conditions, and overall crypto market performance.
  • "Meme Coin" Characteristics: The Notcoin team has positioned it as a "meme coin," meaning its value may depend more on community hype, social media trends, and cultural influence than traditional technical innovation or real-world utility. This can lead to higher speculation and uncertainty.
  • Liquidity Risk: Especially in early stages, trading volume may be concentrated among a few large holders. This can make prices easier to manipulate, market liquidity relatively low, and large trades hard to execute quickly without affecting price.
  • No Guarantee of Investment Returns: Even tokens earned from playing the game may not reach expected value, and could even result in losses.

• Project and Operational Risks:

  • "Blank Whitepaper" and Non-Traditional Roadmap: The lack of a traditional detailed whitepaper and roadmap, while part of the project’s philosophy, also means future direction may be less clear, making it harder to assess long-term potential.
  • High Dependence on Telegram and TON Ecosystem: Notcoin’s success and popularity are closely tied to Telegram’s huge user base and the development of the TON blockchain ecosystem. Major policy changes, technical failures, or user loss in Telegram or TON could negatively impact Notcoin.
  • Competition Risk: With the rise of "tap-to-earn" and GameFi models, market competition is intensifying. Notcoin needs to keep innovating to maintain its position.

• Technical and Security Risks:

  • Smart Contract Risk: Although Notcoin runs on the mature TON blockchain, any smart contract may have vulnerabilities. Smart contracts are code running on the blockchain, and flaws could lead to asset loss.
  • Audit Status: Search results show Notcoin’s smart contract audit information is not fully clear. Some audit tools indicate "security analysis not applicable to current contract address," or reports are for other similar projects (like NOTCOIN INU). Users should be cautious and look for clear, complete third-party audit reports for the core NOT token contract.
  • Network Attacks: Blockchain projects may face various cyber attacks, such as DDoS, phishing scams, etc., which could affect user asset security or project operations.

When deciding whether to participate in Notcoin or any activity in its ecosystem, be sure to fully understand and assess these risks, and make decisions carefully. Remember, the crypto market is extremely risky.

Verification Checklist

To better understand the Notcoin project, here are some key pieces of information you can verify and research yourself to help you form a more independent judgment.

• Block Explorer Contract Address:

  While we don’t provide a specific contract address here, every token on the TON blockchain has a unique contract address. You can search for Notcoin (NOT) on TON block explorers (like Tonscan.org) to find the official contract address. By checking the contract address, you can see on-chain data like the token creator, total supply, holder distribution, and transaction history. Always get the correct contract address from official Notcoin channels (such as the official website or verified social media) to avoid scams.

• GitHub Activity:

  Given Notcoin’s "blank whitepaper" and "meme coin" nature, its activity on code hosting platforms like GitHub may differ from traditional open-source blockchain projects. You can try searching "Open Builders GitHub" or "Notcoin GitHub" to see if there are related code repositories. If so, pay attention to code update frequency, community contributions, and whether there are security vulnerability reports. If there are few or no public code repositories, this also reflects the team’s development model, which you’ll need to weigh yourself.

• Audit Reports:

  Security is the lifeline of blockchain projects. You can try searching for audit reports on Notcoin’s core smart contracts from well-known third-party blockchain security firms (like CertiK, PeckShield, SlowMist, etc.). Audit reports assess code security, potential vulnerabilities, and compliance. While search results show Cyberscope has some reports on Notcoin, they mention "security analysis not applicable to current contract address" or are for "NOTCOIN INU," indicating that a comprehensive, clear audit report for the core NOT token may not be easy to find and may require deeper investigation. If you can’t find a public, comprehensive audit report, this should be considered a major risk factor.

• Official Website and Community Activity:

  Visit Notcoin’s official website (if available—search results show there wasn’t one early on, but apparently there is now), and its official communities on Telegram, X (Twitter), Discord, etc. Observe community activity, quality of official updates, user feedback, and how quickly the team responds to issues. An active and transparent community is usually a positive sign for project health.

• Founding Team Background:

  Research founder Alexander Plotvinov and other core members of the Open Builders team—their backgrounds, experience, and past projects. Understanding their professional capabilities and industry reputation helps assess the team’s execution ability.

Project Summary

Notcoin is a distinctive crypto project that started as a "tap-to-earn" game on Telegram, successfully attracting tens of millions of ordinary users who knew little about crypto. Its core lies in combining simple game mechanics with the powerful TON blockchain, aiming to be the gateway for mass Web3 adoption and making digital assets accessible in a fun, easy way.

What makes this project unique is its intentionally "blank whitepaper" and lack of a traditional roadmap, conveying its "action over words" philosophy. Notcoin’s value is driven more by its massive community consensus and cultural influence than pure technical innovation. NOT tokens are fairly distributed to early players via large-scale airdrops and feature a regular token burn deflationary mechanism. In the future, Notcoin plans to become a platform integrating gaming, staking, and Web3 exploration.

However, this unconventional path also brings risks, such as sharp market price fluctuations, high dependence on Telegram and TON, and currently unclear smart contract audit information. Despite support from the team and TON Foundation, Notcoin’s "meme coin" positioning and opaque future plans mean its long-term development remains uncertain.

Overall, Notcoin is a bold experiment that challenges the definition of traditional crypto projects and has proven that simple, social approaches can rapidly scale the crypto user base. But remember, the crypto market is highly volatile—always do thorough personal research and understand all potential risks. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. For more details, please research independently.