News
Why Nigerians Are Touching Their Phone Screens
A new trend has swept Nigeria in recent days, with people of all ages tapping their phone screens in search of financial gains.
Tapswap, a popular clicker app, has taken the country by storm as users repeatedly tap the icon in the center of the Telegram Tapswap bot screen to mine coins.
The app’s sudden popularity has sparked a national phenomenon, with many Nigerians eager to cash in on the trend.
Viral videos have shown alarming instances of individuals, young and old, obsessively playing on their phones.
In one clip, a Keke driver was seen typing on his phone with one hand while simultaneously steering his moving vehicle and carrying passengers.
Another viral video showed several traders in northern Nigeria vigorously tapping their screens.
Meanwhile, PUNCH Online observed youths and adults in Ogun State typing on their phones while multitasking and doing their work.
Why are they playing?
“One of the biggest challenges with Web3 and crypto is onboarding new people into the Web3 space.
“Remember Piggyvest. If I invite you to Piggyvest, I get N1000. This leverage is basically how new people are onboarded into Web3,” Chi Ofoegbu, freelance product marketing manager for crypto projects and Web3 enthusiast, told PUNCH Online on Wednesday.
Web3, also known as Web 3.0, represents a new generation of the World Wide Web, characterized by decentralization, blockchain technology and a token-based economy.
Stephen Ajiboye, a Web3 educator and digital marketer at GeorgeneKoko, an over-the-counter crypto company based in Akure, Ondo State, said Web3 shares similarities with the dot-com bubble in its potential for transformative impact.
The dot-com boom, or Internet bubble, was a period of rapid expansion in the late 1990s and early 2000s, marked by intense interest from venture capitalists and traditional investors in Internet-related technology companies.
“The normal Internet we use now is called Web2. For blockchain-based technology, it is known as Web3. Many believe Web3 is the next big thing,” he said.
Ofoegbu explained the phenomenon of eavesdropping: “Most eavesdropping involves inviting someone and touching the screen. It’s to get new users and see how much your system can handle. It’s rewarding to invite other people.
“These platforms have realized that it is the cheapest way to get new users and get them to invite their friends and also reward them for participating and inviting their friends,” Ofoegbu said.
Many Nigerians profited from the Notcoin airdrop campaign by participating in gaming activities on Telegram, thus increasing their cryptocurrency holdings.
On May 20, 2024, Bitcoin.com reported that there were over 102 billion NOT tokens on the TON chain, valued at $0.00568 per unit, resulting in a market capitalization of $574 million. According to Bitcoin.com. miners received 78% of the total supply.
Ajiboye said: “It is an airdrop. Most projects developed in the crypto space build a community to amplify your project as a kind of free marketing for you. The reward they give back to the community is something called an airdrop. The reward comes in the form of the token that the specific project is using.”
An airdrop is a marketing tactic used by cryptocurrency projects to distribute free tokens or coins to a large number of wallet addresses, usually to promote awareness, drive adoption, and build a community.
According to Daily Coin, a website that focuses on cryptocurrency and blockchain related news, after the introduction of Telegram Mini Apps, simple crypto apps have attracted a substantial user base.
Crypto apps such as Notcoin, TapSwap and others have recently gained immense popularity, with millions of users, reports Dailycoin.
These apps provide an accessible entry point into crypto for a vast audience. Notcoin, in particular, has achieved remarkable success, surpassing 35 million users just a few months after its official launch in January.
Ajiboye said: “Notcoin used the same listening model. Notcoin started in January. They mined for five months. And when they came out last week, people made money. I know people who have made up to six figures, people who took it very seriously.
“Tapswap has been live for over a month and they will stop mining on the 30th of this month, but it was the frenzy of people who made a lot of money with Notcoin.
“What makes it seem like TapSwap has gone viral is that it appears to be one of the easiest ways to mine tokens.”
Why the sudden boom?
Dailycoin reports that Notcoin’s high user engagement has drawn attention to clicker apps in general and led even Telegram founder Pavel Durov to praise it as a success story.
“The frenzy that came with Notcoin made it go viral. Most of them might not have the slightest idea about Web3 or encryption. They just know that someone is telling them to keep touching this thing, keep collecting points and you will get money from it,” Ajiboye said.
In a statement on its official X account, Tapswap revealed that it has accumulated 17 million users.
“17 million players on TapSwap!
“It’s unbelievable! If before we asked you to invite your friends, relatives and acquaintances, now we ask you to invite only those closest to you,” the statement said.
Ajiboye attributed this success to Telegram: “The reason I will stick with it is the platform they are using. Telegram is like WhatsApp. If you can use WhatsApp or Facebook, you should have no problems using Telegram. It’s different from saying you should download another app.
“I believe that people are interested in Telegram’s ease of use. There have been many mining projects that have created their own separate application with only four, five million miners.
“There are apps that need you to log in every day, answering quiz questions every day to accumulate points. Compared to when all you have to do is tap to earn points.
“They probably heard people just playing on Telegram and making money and asked what other platform works like that, and were directed to Tapcoin, and expect it to pay as well as Notcoin. I believe it was the success of Noticoin that made Tapswap gain this great recognition. ”
Ofoegbu attributed the influx of late adopters to the social proof generated by Notcoin.
“Early adopters are those who have been in crypto for a long time and have been involved in buying and selling currencies. Late adopters are those who joined based on social proof. Many people invited their friends to join Notcoin, but they said it was bullshit. At the end of the day, they saw that Notcoin paid his friends 200 dollars, about 300 dollars. Another almost 1000 dollars.
“So a lot of people have discovered that they can make money by tapping the screen. Late adopters are adopting anything to see if they can make money too,” Ofoegbu said.
Mining Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, was much more challenging. “You have to buy some hardware, military grade CPU to mine Bitcoin. Due to the complexity of Bitcoin, most blockchains have made all web3 cryptography much easier. It’s gotten to the point where people even undermine projects through their phones.
“It has become so easy that they just do small social tasks, tap, follow on Twitter, retweet, leave comments, join the Telegram community and airdrop to their community,” Ajiboye explained.
Chance to make money?
“Yes, there is a great possibility that they will make money from this. However, some people may show that they have 10 million points or 15 million points. But this does not mean that when the project launches, they will have 10 million units of this token, which will be called Tap.
“They will make a conversion rate. By the time they want to launch, they might decide the conversion rate will be 1,000 points per touch. Or 2,000 points for one tap. They will decide the conversion rate before launch, and that is what they will use to allocate the token to the people who participated.” Ajiboye said.
Ajiboye explained that after the mining halt on the 30th, the launch could take weeks.
“They will have to go through verification steps. Maybe they plan to cancel people who have multiple accounts or who use automatic clicks. They will also work on the release date and where it will be released,”
Ofoegbu is less optimistic.
“People only talk about airdrops that work. There are a lot of things that didn’t work. It can also work, they can also give rewards and the reward will not be much and you may feel like I spent all my energy and got nothing.
“When there was less interest in crypto, you could have high hopes. You’re not competing with many people. Then the reward will be great.
“Now that we have a lot of people to reward, how much will be divided between these people? Compared to the airdrops at the end of last year and the beginning of this year when there was less interest and people received up to $2,000,” Ofoegbu said.
‘Not of trees’
Ofoegbu clarified that the money for airdrops did not just come out of thin air.
“This is the cheapest way to acquire users. Airdrop money doesn’t come from trees. They take these users, show them Venture Capitals and say: ‘I want to launch a new blockchain, a new project, I managed to acquire millions of users’.
“And these VCs support them and give them money. They then take a portion of that money and give it to the people who participated. Money was not made out of thin air. They use this money to reward those who helped them get new users,” Ofoegbu said.
Cryptographic Education
While many Nigerians are motivated by financial gain when joining these communities, Ajiboye remains optimistic about the growing understanding and adoption of cryptocurrency.
“I’m sure five out of ten of them would be like I could make money just by playing. Maybe I should learn more about this. People have been saying that encryption is a scam. But this way, the entire educational effort on cryptography will be broader and this way you will have more people learning about Web3 and cryptography,” said Ajiboye.
For Ofoegbu, this is the easiest way to onboard people into crypto.
“A lot of people, after making money from it… imagine a new user getting money from Notcoin for the first time. He will want to learn more.”
When PUNCH Online asked Ajiboye if he was “tapping”, he said yes.
“I’m playing. I bang both my phones,” he replied.