Many crypto games aim to "onboard the next 1 billion users," but is this feasible if users have to pay gas fees while playing and even pay to play? This alone deters new users from entering the crypto space. With over 100 million people playing tap-to-earn games currently, it appears that Telegram may have found a hack to onboard the next billion users into the crypto space effortlessly.
More non-crypto natives have joined Telegram, and even those who had abandoned their accounts have become interested in the app again after discovering they can earn money by playing a game. How fancy!
Some of the popular tap-to-earn games on Telegram have amassed millions of users by just conveying simplicity.
- Notcoin - 40 million players
- Tapswap - 48 million players
- Hamster Kombat - 100 million players
- Avacoin- 5 million players
- W-Coin- 10 million players
Ordinarily, it's quite rare for a new project to amass such traffic in barely 4-8 weeks. This is a jinx that Telegram mining games have broken.
Could Telegram Surpass Solana in Massive User Adoption With Toncoin?
The team behind Solana is making incredible efforts to drive massive adoption for the project. One notable example is the recent partnership with PayPal, which has made the PayPal stablecoin, PYUSD, available on the Solana blockchain. This enables PayPal users (only in the US for now) to leverage Solana's speed and low transaction fees. According to PayPal:
“Solana’s low cost, close to instant settlement, high throughput and advanced token extensions functionality makes it an ideal network for issuing PYUSD”.
While this may be clearly understood by crypto natives, those unfamiliar with the technology might not see any reason to adopt Solana for transactions or own a Solana-based wallet.
How do you advise a non-crypto native, who has many fears about crypto, to download a Phantom wallet? Yes, it's simple for those accustomed to storing keys in a non-custodial wallet. But how does that appeal to someone new to crypto?
Telegram may have unlocked a new stream of onboarding by using a familiar environment to attract the attention of crypto newbies. About 3 billion people globally use WhatsApp to send and receive messages instantly, and Telegram is similar, with almost 1 billion users.
This familiarity makes it easy for new crypto users to join Telegram and start playing crypto games without needing to learn how the platform works from scratch.
So the Funnel May Look Like This 👇🏽
- Create a Telegram bot crypto game.
- Make rewards enticing.
- Constantly update players to keep them interested.
- Educate players about the future of your game, so they are willing to stay long-term.
- Introduce them to a Telegram in-app wallet or Ton Keeper to secure their rewards.
- Introduce them to staking - investing their rewards for a period of time with an interest top-up.
Along the way, they may want to swap their tokens, earn through crypto, or purchase an NFT. Then they can find wallets that suit their needs.
This is a sketch of how simple onboarding for non-crypto natives should be: presenting what's familiar and introducing touchpoints into the decentralized space without overwhelming them with technical details. Many of them don't want technical jargon—it can be boring. Just like a person using an electric car doesn't care about the wiring that makes it work, as long as it works.
While using the car, the person may now get to learn a few things about its framework that will make them appreciate the car more.