Interview with Notcoin Founder Sasha: More Than Just a Game—It's About Community and Culture, and Most Attempted Copycats of the Tap-to-Earn Model Usually Fail

By Weilin, PANews

"Tap to earn" games have undoubtedly been one of the hottest trends in the crypto market this year, significantly boosting the popularity of Telegram and the TON blockchain network. For instance, Hamster Kombat claimed to have attracted over 300 million players before its airdrop in September. Tracing back to the origin of this trend, Notcoin—the tap-to-earn game launched on January 1—stands as the pioneer of such games on Telegram. Its token NOT, launched in May, briefly reached a market capitalization close to $3 billion by June.

On November 1, PANews interviewed Sasha Plotvinov, founder of Notcoin, during The Gateway—the TON ecosystem conference held in Dubai—discussing Notcoin’s founding vision, token price volatility, the current state of the TON ecosystem, and how Notcoin maintains sustained growth amid fierce competition.

Sasha said merely copying others’ gameplay rarely leads to success. Notcoin now also plays the role of a game publisher. He believes that by focusing on community, Notcoin has enough depth to evolve into a culture—an actual "cult." Key to achieving mass Web3 adoption, he says, is first eliminating all entry barriers, then implementing viral mechanisms, and finally maintaining an authentic and personalized user experience.

The Product Manager's Challenge: Unexpected Crash on Day Two After Launch

Sasha began his career as a product manager, where he gained many valuable lessons. He noted that one of his earliest challenges was realizing that not everything conceived would function as expected upon release. Many assumptions simply don’t hold up—and that’s okay. This “uncertainty” is an inevitable part of development.

He recalled that on January 2, the day after Notcoin’s launch, the app crashed almost entirely due to overwhelming traffic. The team worked from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. trying to fix it, but failed. The next day, the app still couldn't run properly. “We were thinking, ‘What should we do?’ But we learned a lot,” Sasha said. “Honestly, before Notcoin, we had no experience with high-traffic apps, so we had to learn and adapt while everything was falling apart.”

Notcoin first entered closed testing within Telegram in November 2023. Initially marketed as a meme coin without a clear purpose, it aimed only to become a temporary viral phenomenon. Within weeks, it attracted over 650,000 users. After its official launch on January 1, more than 5 million players joined in just the first week.

In Q1 this year, Notcoin fueled the surge in popularity for both Telegram and TON. Today, Telegram boasts hundreds of millions of monthly active users, while TON has reached tens of millions. When creating Notcoin, Sasha and his team spent considerable time considering how to build connections and guide some users to another platform.

They experimented with various methods until realizing the key was simply removing all entry barriers. For Telegram users, entering Web3 didn’t need to start with complex processes like setting up wallets or paying gas fees—users could begin playing immediately. Once they earned rewards, they’d be more motivated to explore the broader crypto and Web3 ecosystem. Sasha sees this as innovative, since most Web3 games at the time were overly complex for newcomers.

Sasha and his team decided to simplify the process as much as possible. “We understood people enjoy mining or earning tokens, so I don’t think the act of tapping is the key—it’s more about having a mechanism suitable for mining. Mining can take many forms. We realized people love seeing their balance grow, so why not let them see it? At some point, we’ll tell them: ‘If you want to mint your balance now, you can do it anytime.’ I think that was the turning point.”

Leveraging Telegram’s Strong Social Features, Seeing TON Ecosystem as Blue Ocean

Notcoin has emerged as a major Web3 use case on the TON network. Explaining why they chose to build on TON, Sasha cited Telegram’s powerful social nature and openness. Telegram offers a unique ecosystem allowing crypto apps and mini-games to be embedded directly within the platform.

“The opportunity was very clear. There wasn’t any kind of ‘secret sauce.’ We simply spent enough time studying the fundamentals and understanding the opportunity here.”

Three years ago, when TON had almost no projects, smart contracts, tokens, or NFTs, Sasha already saw potential. “Imagine it as a bare chain with no activity. Because we started early, of course we’ve built close relationships with the foundation and other projects. All teams building on TON are our friends—we all started small. We all began in an environment nobody believed in, until everyone started recognizing its potential.”

In his view, launching a new game today on platforms like App Store or Google Play means facing intense competition for user attention, making it extremely hard to stand out. On Telegram, however, it's currently easy to launch something that achieves product-market fit—users will love it, use it, and even pay for what they enjoy. “It’s truly a blue ocean with almost no competitors right now. Being among the first movers is highly advantageous,” he said.

About the NOT Token: Highly Distributed, Making It Hard for Whales to Manipulate

In May, NOT’s listing on Binance drew significant market attention and boosted trading volume. Recently, however, NOT’s price has pulled back. Regarding price fluctuations, are there known supporters or “whales” intervening to stabilize the price?

To this, Sasha responded that whales essentially cannot manipulate Notcoin’s price because its distribution is extremely broad and decentralized—with 11.5 million users claiming tokens. Most holders own only a tiny share, meaning manipulation would require a super whale—someone holding over $100 million—who is reckless enough to buy blindly without full understanding. “Whales usually prefer VC coins because there they can control allocations, understand vesting schedules, etc. Notcoin had no vesting; all tokens were distributed from day one.”

Sasha explained, “At peak volumes, we saw around $4.5 billion in 24-hour trading. How much capital would it take to manipulate such a high-volume asset? It’s nearly inconceivable.”

He added that during summer, market reaction to NOT was neither particularly active nor cold—many were hesitant. “Recently, France decided to arrest Pavel Durov for strange reasons. I think some investors viewed this as a risk. Once he’s released, the TON ecosystem is expected to grow further, as this reduces perceived risks for investors and businesses.”

Notcoin’s journey hasn’t always been smooth. Earlier reports indicated that Sasha’s team initially announced a 95% community allocation for NOT during an AMA, but later project announcements showed it as 78%. Sasha clarified this discrepancy. “First, when people played the game, they earned Notcoin. On TGE day one, we distributed 78% of tokens to these players. The remainder was allocated via Binance Launchpool, OKX Launchpool, Bybit Launchpool—approximately 4% to Binance, 1.5% to OKX, 1.5% to Bybit. Additionally, we ran campaigns through wallets like Telegram Wallet, accounting for roughly 1% to 2%. Combined with various incentive competitions, this formed part of the listing process.”

“You always need a way to help exchange traders discover your product. Launchpools are simply the most efficient method. That’s how we distributed most of our tokens. We also burned some, and ultimately retained about 5% for the project’s long-term development—enabling us to keep building, ensuring continued progress even if a bear market hits tomorrow.”

Sasha introducing Not Pixel at The Gateway 2024 TON Ecosystem Conference

Notcoin’s Future: Becoming a Culture

Declining interest and poor user retention in some tap-to-earn games have recently drawn market attention.

Sasha shared his perspective: “I think games that try to copy others usually fail because people are smart—they won’t play ‘yet another tap-to-earn’ game. People seek fun, emotional experiences, and authenticity. If you’re just copying something, people think: I’ve seen this, I don’t like it, I don’t want it.”

Specifically, Notcoin doesn’t follow a fixed roadmap. Currently, Notcoin has launched Phase 3, introducing more mini-games such as the pixel-based earning game Not Pixel, which attracted over 20 million users within weeks.

Sasha emphasized that Notcoin is no longer just a gaming app—it has evolved into a deep-rooted community. Through collaborations with multiple game projects, Notcoin returns greater value to its core members. “Now, we place Notcoin holders and the Notcoin community at the center. This means every game partnering with Notcoin today contributes directly to the core Notcoin community.”

For example, 20% of Not Pixel’s tokens will go to Notcoin holders and the Notcoin community. “From a product standpoint, we want to make it more engaging—something like a personal gaming profile, where you have your own avatar, custom backgrounds, and can play different games. Say you complete your first 100 pixel artworks in Not Pixel—we’ll give you achievement rewards, gradually integrating you deeper into the core community.”

Beyond community-building, Notcoin has gradually taken on the role of a game publisher. “We’re helping other games—right now two—we assist them in building the right content and launching smoothly. We introduce them to our community and provide support from a development perspective, whether in coding or other areas. In return, each game launch contributes back to the Notcoin community.”

Sasha believes Notcoin started as an app, but is now far more than that—it’s a community. “You can think of it like ‘Bored Ape.’ It could expand widely—even to restaurants, burgers, etc. Sometimes, entire ecosystems become vast. Notcoin has enough depth to become a culture, actually a ‘cult,’ in a good way—for those of us who feel its values resonate with us.”

Keys to Mass Adoption: Removing Barriers and Embracing Viral Mechanics

While Notcoin currently operates primarily within the TON ecosystem, Sasha said the team is open to expanding to other blockchains in the future. Reflecting on development within TON, he noted that users need time to adapt to and trust cryptocurrency—depositing funds, etc. “What we’re seeing now is just the beginning of real impact. These numbers are still just numbers. But in two or three years, we’ll see those who truly enter Web3—their journey will have started with Telegram and TON.”

Sasha outlined three keys to mass Web3 adoption: First, eliminate all barriers. Second, ensure the mechanism is viral. “I don’t believe you can build a big app by buying massive traffic. Truly large apps grow organically. You need to create something people genuinely want to use or play, something they’re motivated to share, invite others to—this creates network effects. So remove barriers and design internal mechanisms that foster such network effects.”

Third, maintain authenticity. “Many apps just try to copy others. That’s fine, but I think doing something truly unique works better. Also, people generally enjoy fun things—like memes. When users have emotional experiences, feeling belonging or connection to a specific meme, game, or thing—that’s powerful. If you can create a game that delivers personalized experiences, that’s a great path to growth. Real communities form when people share emotional experiences,” he said.

In closing, Sasha expressed strong optimism about the future of the TON ecosystem. “I expect TON to become the largest blockchain—this isn’t hard to imagine. I thought it might happen next year, maybe even this year. You know, TON already surpassed 100 million wallets. Growth here is extremely fast, and the curve remains exponential.”

“Let’s wait and see. I’m really excited to find out what happens next,” Sasha concluded.