Around half of the tap-to-earn gamers on Telegram are completely new to crypto, and the messaging app could open up the tech to mass adoption, according to a former Binance executive.
Gleb Kostarev, a former vice president and regional head at Binance, told Cointelegraph at Korea Blockchain Week that of the 50 million registered users of his new Telegram Mini App tap-to-earn game and exchange called Blum, half were crypto newcomers.
“Based on our data and our surveys in the community, 50% said that they hadn’t interacted with Web3 before,” he said.
“There were always some questions about whether this audience on Telegram can be converted to Web3,” Kostarev said. “Those users are real, and they can go to exchanges, they can register, they can become Web3 users.”
“We’ve been waiting for mass adoption for quite a long time, and we finally get this mass adoption through Telegram.”
Tap-to-earn games are the latest hot trend in the crypto space. These clicker games have players perform simple tasks like repeatedly tapping on their phone screen to earn an in-game token.
Some of the most popular games, such as Tapswap, Catizen and Hamster Kombat, are based on the Telegram-linked blockchain, The Open Network (TON), which — knowingly or unknowingly — exposes players to crypto.
Blum has users tap on falling stars or complete tasks like watching a video to earn an in-game token. Source: Blum
“I think the key challenge here is how we educate the audience,” said Kostarev. “Yeah, they come to crypto, but they don’t know anything about it.”
“Education is key here because it’s not enough just to bring a mass user base to crypto, it’s also about what they will do there and how to prevent them from being scammed,” he added.
Telegram to open DeFi amid Big Tech blocks
Kostarev believes Telegram can help to increase access to decentralized finance (DeFi) apps, which he says have been hamstrung by Apple and Google’s restrictive mobile app policies.
He said that as many as 80% of centralized exchange users access the platform via mobile phone, which is “the issue for DeFi adoption.”
“[DeFi projects] have websites, while the majority of users prefer mobile platforms,” Kostarev said.
He noted that Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store have “a lot of issues” with DeFi and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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In particular, Apple has long restricted its mobile apps to using only its in-app payments solution, which doesn’t support cryptocurrencies or NFTs and lumps on a 30% fee.
In March, the United States Justice Department filed a massive antitrust lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company illegally throttled competition and suffocated innovation in part due to its App Store’s “shapeshifting rules.”
“And that is why Telegram is amazing — because it can give access to DeFi through mobile,” Kostarev said.
However, Telegram is currently on authorities’ radar. In August, its founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested and charged in France for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the app.
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Additional reporting by Andrew Fenton.