Interviewers: Bill Qian, Andrew Rogozov and Sasha Plotvinov
Compiled by: Cypher Capital & ChainCatcher
About Cypher Talks:
Cypher Talks is a series of dialogues jointly launched by Cypher Capital and ChainCatcher.Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital and member of the board of directors of the TON Foundation, will serve as the core interlocutor to explore the Web3 methodology with the most popular projects and ecosystem builders in the industry.
Previously, we and Bill Qian have also invited Steve Yun, President of the TON Foundation. You can click here to read "Dialogue with the TON Foundation: The mindset of building a "Web3 super application ecosystem"". In this issue, we invited Andrew Rogozov, founder and CEO of The Open Platform, and Sasha Plotvinov, head of Open Builders, the team that created the most popular application Notcoin.
Notcoin has taken the crypto industry by storm at an astonishing rate. With 35 million total players and 6 million active users per day, Notcoin has become a "phenomenal" game in the community.
Andrew Rogozov is a founding member of the TON Foundation and the founder and CEO of The Open Platform (TOP). The TOP platform has built multiple projects and tools within the TON ecosystem, such as Wallet in Telegram, and wallets TonKeeper and Notcoin used on the PC. He previously served as CEO of VK.com, a major social media platform in Eastern Europe.
Sasha Plotvinov is the leader of Open Builders, the team responsible for creating Notcoin as well as the Telegram app and other popular products on the TON blockchain. Based in London, UK, Sasha's leadership and expertise have played a key role in driving innovation and success in the digital space.
Bill Qian is the chairman of Cypher Capital and the chief investment officer of Phoenix Group. Prior to joining Cypher Capital, Bill was the Head of Binance M&A and Binance Labs.
In this interview hosted by Bill, we join Andrew and Sasha, the founders of Notcoin, to explore Notcoin’s journey, including perspectives on the project’s rapid adoption, challenges, and future vision.
Bill: Can you both share your career background and how you got into the cryptocurrency industry?
Andrew:My curiosity about decentralized technology drove me to start my journey into the crypto industry. Before founding TOP, I was primarily in the tech space, specifically social media platforms. I was the CEO of VK, one of the largest social networks in Eastern Europe, where we experimented with various mechanisms for social engagement. These experiences laid the foundation for what we do today at Notcoin.
Sasha:My journey didn’t start in the crypto industry. I worked as a product manager at a startup in California, and I was a designer when I first joined in 2013.
Sasha:My journey didn’t start in the crypto industry. I worked as a product manager at a startup in California, and I was a designer when I first joined in 2013. As the company grew from 30 to 1,500 employees, I felt it was time for a new challenge. When Andrew and I discussed a possible partnership with VK.com, it sparked our interest in exploring new opportunities. After considering various product ideas, such as job boards and user-friendly systems, we ultimately shifted our focus to the TON ecosystem and built on it. This decision allowed us to create a launch platform during a challenging market period, which was driven by our belief in the growth potential of the industry. Over time, we expanded our platform to serve the broader Telegram community with a comprehensive set of marketing campaigns, NFT minting, token sales, and community engagement tools. This shift began a year ago and marked a major milestone in our journey.
Bill: Notcoin has achieved very significant growth by attracting more than 35 million Telegram users in just two months. What do you think has led to this rapid expansion?
Andrew:The rapid expansion can be attributed to several key factors. First, the simple onboarding process - users on Telegram can start using the application without any complex authentication process. Secondly, virality - 94% of users are invited by others, and there are incentives for inviting friends and participating in squads. Finally, leaderboards - because people love to compete with each other, we have created a highly competitive environment. Various leaderboards within the community, within squads, and between inviters attract users to participate in friendly competition, especially attractive to the most active participants.
Sasha: I agree. Simplicity and virality are game changers. Users can start earning rewards with just the click of a button, which makes it very easy to get started. In addition, the educational aspect, where users can learn more about cryptocurrency through various tasks and activities, adds significant value. The social graph integration with Telegram also allows users to easily share and invite friends, driving the growth flywheel.
Bill: How did you two decide on the name and logo of Notcoin? I noticed that the logo is similar to the logo of the Ton Foundation.
Andrew: The main concept of Notcoin is to create a more educational and easier way to get Ton tokens. By using a simple click mechanic and a play on words from "Ton" to "Not", the project aims to appeal to a wider community.
Bill: What was the biggest challenge you two faced when building Notcoin?
Andrew:I think the biggest challenge was the unexpectedly huge growth, which required us to scale our infrastructure quickly. Telegram encountered limitations due to its unprecedented growth, such as the limit on the number of users in a group chat. To address this, we created separate groups for different languages and utilized the topic feature within Telegram groups. This allowed for more organized communication and enhanced user interaction. While growth brought challenges, it also led to improvements to the Telegram platform. Scaling our infrastructure during this period of rapid expansion was the most difficult aspect. In addition, combating bot-like fraudulent activity required complex algorithms to ensure a fair and genuine user base.
Sasha:I will be honest and tell you that one of the biggest challenges was eight months of working without weekends, starting with the QR code pointing to the Notcoin beta version we presented at the November conference. The workload has skyrocketed, and a lot of affairs are coming at us. This process is more difficult and tiring. Of course, we now also realize that we need to change the rhythm, improve the organization within the team, and make the work more rhythmic.
On the technical side, handling a large number of user requests is also challenging. We have to optimize our database, spread the workload across various servers in different countries, and minimize peak times. Some days, we started at 8 am and worked hard until 11 pm to ensure the performance of the application. Although it was difficult, we learned a lot as a team, especially because we had never handled such high traffic before. Now, we are more capable and experienced to face new challenges confidently and calmly, which are just another feature to be solved.
Bill: Setting up TON-based cryptocurrency wallets for users is an important step. How does this integration benefit Notcoin and its users?
Andrew: When users first enter the crypto industry, a wallet is not the first need. Instead, they may be curious about cryptocurrency and start using it as a beginner. It is important to have friendly tools for beginners, such as using toolkits. People typically start using cryptocurrencies by participating in interactive crypto features, i.e., interacting with a specific crypto asset. Most people start installing a wallet after receiving tokens from others. As a result, our project Notcoin has become one of the fastest growing crypto applications in the world by distributing tokens to millions of users and encouraging them to create wallets to store their tokens.
Users can choose from five different cryptocurrency wallets, including custodial wallets within Telegram and self-custodial wallets within and outside of Telegram. This flexibility allows users to choose the wallet that best suits their preferences. It is clear that the partners who participated in the project have seen a huge increase in the number of users and discovered the educational value of our project. Emphasizing the concept of receiving the first token is a key factor in sparking curiosity and participation in the crypto space. Notcoin's unique distribution model, which involves a large ICO for a single token in a short period of time, has contributed to its success.
Bill: What part of the project surprised you? Were you surprised when it reached a million users right from the start?
Andrew: I expected this result because we launched a similar project before in 2019. However, we were unsure how it would perform on Telegram due to its unique platform and diverse user base in different countries. Each country has its own way of using Telegram, some for social interaction, some for channel chats, and some for group participation. This diversity of user behavior across markets is something we had to learn and adapt to as we scaled the project on Telegram, which was unexpected.
Sasha:Back in November, I had models and forecasts planned. While I had not yet achieved all of my goals, I was close. When we stopped the clicker part on April 1st, we had reached 35 million users. One surprise was when we invited users to donate to Telegram, we received donations from 500,000 people, of which 250,000 donated all of their tokens. This generosity inspires us to give back and promote positive wealth creation methods that benefit everyone. By fostering a thriving ecosystem, we aim to achieve shared success and avoid leaving users facing failure or working for nothing.
Bill: Notcoin is the first project to be listed on all major exchanges at the same time. How do you feel about this? What advice do you have for other projects going through the token listing process?
Andrew：This is an incredible milestone for us. Being listed on major exchanges such as OKX and Binance simultaneously provides us with tremendous exposure and credibility. My advice to other projects is to focus on user value rather than tokenization immediately. Take Telegram as an example. It did not monetize for the first seven years, allowing the community to grow in value. This strategy proved successful, and projects can only attract exchanges to participate if they have a strong and engaged community. I believe that founders should prioritize creating long-term, sustainable value for users, which will naturally attract exchanges to cooperate. It's all about building something meaningful, letting the value speak for itself, and ultimately leading to fruitful partnerships that benefit all parties involved.
Sasha：Building something viral on Telegram may not be difficult, but ensuring its sustainability, fairness, and transparency are the real challenges. In the long run, only projects that are sustainable and deliver on their promises will thrive. My advice is to focus not only on "virality" but also on the goals and long-term vision behind the effort. Project plans should prioritize sustainability. Test your ideas early and thoroughly, and address any concerns or uncertainties. Be proactive in solving problems and improving project adaptability from the beginning to avoid problems later.
Bill: In terms of community culture, how do users view Notcoin, especially new crypto users who may have different cultural backgrounds and perspectives on tokens? How do users view the value of Notcoin?
Andrew: I think Sasha has played an important role in shaping the values and community of the project. Notcoin prioritizes its users and community rather than conducting secret token sales or looking for investors. The project's unique approach involves a large token distribution, making participants feel valued and connected to the success of the community. By providing rewards and incentives, users are encouraged to hold their tokens rather than sell them immediately. This sense of solidarity and community ownership makes Notcoin unique and emphasizes the power of cryptocurrency and blockchain in empowering individuals and cultivating a sense of shared success and ownership within the community.
Bill: The crypto industry changes so quickly. What is your vision for Notcoin and the TON ecosystem in the next 12 to 24 months?
Andrew：I believe Notcoin has the potential to grow tenfold, including a thriving community, expanded token holders, and more. This growth may not necessarily lead to a tenfold increase in the number of users, but it could significantly impact the overall market cap. As more users participate in the platform, more games and experiences will be introduced, enriching the community.
I believe TON should actively attract and welcome developers to the system and provide them with comprehensive tool support. Developer tools not only provide additional incentives for developers, but also benefit users who participate in the ecosystem. The TON team is currently working on establishing an open alliance to assist all contributors and organizing events around the world to educate builders on how to collaborate to create the next Notcoin or DeFi protocol on TON, Telegram, Mini Apps, and the ecosystem. This is consistent with the focus of other blockchain ecosystems, but what is unique here is that it combines blockchains and platforms for shared resources built on top of them.
Sasha：The most valuable part of the ecosystem is people's attention and time. This tells me that the key to the growth of the system is educating users and encouraging them to bring value to the ecosystem. Over the next four years, my vision is to build a series of subsystems within the Notcoin ecosystem that are efficient and automated, including contests, influencer collaborations, and governance processes. The goal is to have these subsystems work together seamlessly to create and attract value within the ecosystem.
Another aspect to consider is that from the beginning, we recognized that the clicker feature would not sustain sustained growth and engagement in the long term. In order to prevent Notcoin's popularity from slowly declining, we decided to move away from the mining phase to a more building-focused phase, and therefore shut down the clicker on April 1st. Our current strategy is to launch new viral social games that foster community engagement, collaboration, and competition through leaderboards. Our first game is expected to be announced and launched in June, which will mark the beginning of this exciting new direction for Notcoin.
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