So far, the cryptocurrency and blockchain space has seen a number of interesting concepts emerge, such as Walk to Earn, Play to Earn, Learn to Earn, etc. To some extent, these concepts have helped onboard new users into the virtual asset industry. However, a new genre – Tap to Earn – is taking the cryptocurrency market and the world by storm, offering users an attractive way to participate in the digital asset space.
Mostly rooted in Telegram, Tap to Earn projects are a new niche of games that work on a simple system of tapping coins to earn points and then exchanging them for cryptocurrency. Some games also feature a system that rewards players directly with free tokens. Most of these games have different variations, but still, the core concept is the same.
How tap-to-earn games started to attract attention
It is worth noting that this new genre gained a lot of attention when NotCoin ran an airdrop campaign for players of the tap-to-earn game. The project distributed more than 80 billion NOT tokens to its users. By distributing such a large amount of tokens at launch, many players earned free cryptocurrency through NotCoin.
The success of NotCoin led to a surge in games with the tap-to-earn concept, ultimately starting a trend. Meanwhile, the sensation of the project led to more people playing these games with the goal of earning free tokens. NotCoin gained global acceptance and grew into a project worth over $1.4 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.
Following NotCoin’s success, projects such as Hamster Kombat, TapSwap, PixelVerse, Catizen, and YesCoin have launched one after another and garnered significant support. Recently, PixelVerse secured $5.5 million in funding from top venture capital firms including Delphi Ventures, Bitscale Labs, and Mechanism Capital.
Undoubtedly, the funding reflects growing investor confidence in the project and the tap-to-earn genre. The rapid growth of the user base and increased investor attention to the concept raises the question: why are tap-to-earn games so trendy?
Why tap-to-earn games are so popular
One of the main reasons for the explosive popularity of these projects is their simple gaming model. These games employ a simple gaming style rather than elaborate gameplay. Tap-to-earn games work on a simple model where players need to send a message to a Telegram bot to start the game.
As a result, the bot responds by loading a game within the Telegram app, where the player must tap a coin or similar symbol to earn points or in-game tokens. As a result of the straightforward gameplay, players often enjoy a superior user experience, as the game does not require expertise, skill, or a rigorous setup process.
Remember, most of these games won’t execute the token distribution process until later stages in their roadmap, so at launch, players won’t even need to set up a cryptocurrency wallet to play the games and will be able to earn game points almost instantly.
Tap-to-earn games are positioned as one of the easiest entry routes into the cryptocurrency industry, with most games not requiring players to make a financial commitment, instead the game concept rewards players for their commitment based on the number of taps they make.
Likewise, these games are supported by The Open Network (TON), one of the fastest growing networks integrated with Telegram. Being based on Telegram also allows some of these games and their in-game tokens to enjoy TON support. As such, these projects are primarily dependent on the virality of Telegram, which has over 900 million users, and the growing adoption of TON.
Most tap-to-earn games have as one of their core fundamental principles frequent airdrop campaigns, a means by which players can earn cryptocurrency for free. Therefore, as a result of people’s desire for airdrops, players often jump on most tap-to-earn games in order to earn free tokens.
Conclusion
Boasting a combined total of over 140 million users, projects like Hamster Kombat and NotCoin show signs that tap-to-earn is here to stay. With their incentive-based models, smooth user experience, simple gameplay, and support for Telegram, these projects continue to onboard new users every day.
There’s no doubt that tap-to-earn games are quickly establishing themselves as the next big thing in the crypto industry. This new niche is a testament to how cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology in particular, can help developers combine revenue and entertainment for their target audience. Finally, these games highlight that blockchain’s capabilities go beyond finance.
