Notcoin, a game on messaging app Telegram that will reward players with crypto tokens, has quickly grown into a viral sensation with over 26 million players to date. But the amount of “mined” Notcoins that turn into real, airdropped NOT tokens could fall substantially if users aren’t still playing.
On Friday, the project announced on Twitter and via the official Telegram community that it will begin purging mined coins from accounts that have been inactive for 30 days, suggesting that the policy is about to get underway following the short 29-day month of February.
“We start burning Notcoins of inactive accounts (the last 30 days). Daily,” the announcement reads. “So for those who didn’t open Notcoin in February… tick-tap tick-tap.”
A Notcoin representative confirmed the announcement, and said that balances from inactive accounts will be “slowly burned” in the next few weeks. The change will be rolled out in the coming days, potentially as soon as Saturday.
“We don’t want to mint Notcoins to people who are not contributing their time to it. Especially those fake referrals accounts, who received the bonus but never actually played the game,” Notcoin co-creator Sasha Plotvinov told Decrypt’s GG via email. “Burning of unused accounts is specifically to encourage greater engagement with Notcoin. You snooze, you lose. It’s a living community, and it isn’t a space for hoarders.”
Notcoin is a simple “clicker” game that’s played entirely within the Telegram app, tasking users with clicking or tapping a gleaming coin on the screen. As you click, you’ll earn more and more Notcoins, which currently are purely a virtual, in-game currency. Various boosts and incentives are available to supercharge players’ mining efforts.
According to in-game data, nearly 34 trillion Notcoins have already been mined through clicking and tapping. That tally is likely to fall as inactive players lose their progress before Notcoin goes on-chain and active users receive their token allotments.
Representatives for Notcoin told Decrypt’s GG last week that Notcoin plans to mint its tokens on The Open Network (TON) in late March or early April. Plotvinov apparently confirmed that plan in a comment today.
“Token launch will happen in the next few weeks,” he told Decrypt’s GG. “The final will be epic.”
TON was originally spearheaded by Telegram itself before the community took over the project in 2020—though Telegram itself uses it, revealing this week that it will pay out a share of ad revenue in Toncoin to channel owners.
Notcoin also teased Friday via Telegram that the end of the mining phase is near and that the project will ultimately yield various products and services ahead.
“You’ve mined most of the Notcoins, frens. All for free, up to the very last one,” the project said. “Once you claim your $NOT, no more will be minted. Then the next phase will begin. New products will be introduced—for you and millions of other people, all on TON blockchain and Telegram.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include comments and additional detail from Notcoin.