The Truth on Hamster Kombat: Revolution or Scam?

Tapping on a hamster with the hope of making money out of thin air. That's how millions of people around the.

World are spending their time. If you're one of them, this video is definitely for you. And if not, maybe you want to know what on earth is going on.

I'm talking about Hamster Combat, a Telegram clicker game that has become Viral, allegedly reaching 300 million users in less than five months. That's bigger than the population of Indonesia, Pakistan or Nigeria.

The game has by now the world's largest Telegram channel, and these numbers are only growing.

What's behind this explosive growth? Why are people talking about crypto's next killer app? And can you actually earn money from this, or is it just a big scam?

To uncover the truth, we've interviewed leaders in the gaming industry and an investigator specialized in crypto scams.

Before we begin, consider liking this video and subscribing to our channel how it.

All Started to understand the phenomenon of hamster combat, we need to take a step back. Everything started with natcoin, a mini game that launched last January on Telegram by a group of developers called Open Builders. The game consisted in tapping on a golden coin icon to earn rewards. Initially, the rewards were tokens with no real value. However, developers behind the game hinted that.

They might be converted into real value.

Crypto at some point in the future. Since launch, the game has experienced astonishing growth, drawing about 35 million users in just five months. In comparison, Axie Infinity, one of the most popular crypto Games, had just 2.7.

Million monthly active users at its peak in 2022.

Finally, on May 16, the Natcoin cryptocurrency was launched on the Open Network Blockchain and listed on major exchanges including OKEx, BYBIT and Binance. After the launch, each player in the NTCoin game received free cryptocurrency. Depending on their performance in the game, this could have been worth up to several hundred dollars.

But that's not all.

KNOT surged significantly after its launch and even briefly entered the top 10 cryptos for trading volume and ton became the fastest growing layer 1 blockchain on of 2024.

Remarkably, in June, the network even surpassed Ethereum for the number of active wallets.

After such a success, it is not surprising that similar games have been popping up on Telegram trying to replicate the most popular of them is Hamster Combat.

It almost becomes like a gateway drug, you know where hey, you know what? I click a couple buttons, I actually get to make a couple dollars, and then now I'm actually going to look into other projects, look into other things that are going on in the space, and now, suddenly, you've created an ecosystem.

In Hamster Combat, players take on the role of a cryptocurrency exchange CEO. They earn coins by tapping on the hamster, similar to the mechanics in notcoin. Additionally, players can use their earned currency to purchase special cards and boosters that enhance the profitability of their exchange and upgrade their character. But that's not all. Players can even engage in staking, which allows them to earn income even when they're not actively playing. They can also earn extra rewards by inviting new users through the game's referral program.

Since its launch, Hamster Combat has grown exponentially, allegedly reaching 300 million users in July. The game now has the world's largest telegram channel, with over 52 million subscribers. It also recently surpassed 35 million followers on YouTube.

So what's behind all this excitement? Well, everybody is waiting for the game's token that is expected to launch on the ton blockchain via AirDrop on September 26th.

Given the game's huge user base, this is likely going to be the largest airdrop in crypto history. Now, most of the tokenomics are still unknown, but according to a recent announcement, 60% of the airdrop will go directly to the community of players. Also, there's allegedly no venture capital or early investment involved, which means the token's value will be entirely driven by community interest, demand, and supply.

What are the reasons behind the game's success?

So what's behind the astonishing growth of these clicker games?

The gameplay mechanics aren't new. They're reminiscent of idle games from the early 2010s, where you do simple actions to earn resources and unlock upgrades to progress faster. What makes the difference is, of course, the speculative element. Players are playing these games with the hope of eventually earning free crypto.

Moreover, unlike crypto games we've seen before, these tap to earn games don't require an initial investment. Another groundbreaking feature is the convenience. I mean, you can just start playing these games directly through the telegram messaging app.

Mini apps on Telegram, they're really easy to use. You just click one button, the mini app opens and it works. So you should not download anything. You do not go to, I don't know, app store, Google play, wherever. You do not set up the wallet in, like, 20 steps, writing down your seed phrase, et cetera, et cetera. You have a wallet right on Telegram, which is also a mini app.

And precisely because of this simple onboarding process, advocates of these tap to Earn games think that Telegram could open up.

Crypto games to the masses. These games can now access Telegram's vast audience of around 900 million users worldwide.

Distribution vectors for playing these games have now expanded. Apple, Google, Facebook, Steam, they wouldn't let us publish these games. And now with platforms like Telegram and Ton, you actually have the ability to boost that because they don't have those restrictions. Those clicker games are the demonstration of the first generations of games that will bring us mass adoption into Web3.

Let's take for example NotCoin. They have 40 million overall users and about more than 11 million users withdrew their tokens, basically drawn their tokens. So it means that more than 11 million people interacted with Web3 product. This is like really huge number Hamster, which is like almost six times bigger than not coin in terms of like overall number of users. Obviously they will onboard not less people to web3 in general and particular to Ton.

It might launch a new trend around play to earn and the way like people can like simply invite their friend to discover to earn token for the first time and maybe get to discover about the potential of owning your own cryptocurrency and your own assets.

But it's not just Telegram making Hamster Combat popular. It also works the other way around.

As reported by Russian Independent Media, the Bell Telegram is using these games to drive traffic and boost the app's popularity.

The apparent goal is to promote Telegram.

As a Super app like WeChat, which combines messaging, payment methods and games long term predictions and concerns but despite their.

Increasing popularity, there are still some concerns about whether these games can be sustainable in the long term.

And authorities around the world have issued warnings against Hamster Combat.

So let's see how grounded these concerns actually are.

First, many of these Telegram mini games haven't launched their tokens on exchanges yet. And they might not ever do so.

Hamster Combat's previous delays in launching its airdrop have raised concern that the game might lose its community support.

Another risk is that players might quickly sell their tokens after they launch, especially if there aren't enough reasons to keep them. Finally, the token's value could end up being very low. For example, if Hamster Combat gave the equivalent of $5 to all 300 million players, the total amount would be mass. This is why some observers doubt whether all players will actually get rewarded in the end.

How exactly tokens will perform at the launch moment, nobody knows. When you have such a huge traffic, you have so many ways to monetize it and to make it sustainable. Not Only by directly selling traffic, but, I don't know, launching future products, you're.

Going to go from having say, 10 million people doing the game and getting their proportion of the airdrop to having 100 million people doing the game and getting their proportion of the airdrop. So everyone's proportion goes down. But the reality is there's not really 100 million people. There might be a few million people and there's tens of millions of bots and those are, you know, they go back to one owner and so everyone gets screwed in that case.

So is there a chance that the Hamster game is actually just one big scam?

Well, it's kind of unlikely.

Again, there's no initial investment that you have to pay and that reduces a.

Lot of the risk for direct fraud.

That being said, experts have warned about the manipulative nature of these types of games. They're designed to retain people's time and attention.

This is how Hamster Combat generates revenue, by selling traffic to advertisers. As the saying goes, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.

Money is not necessarily the most valuable thing in our lives. Our time is. And this is a huge amount of effort that people have to go through for what they know. Yeah, they're not explicitly saying like, yeah, you're going to make money on this, yada yada, but let's, I mean that's, it's disingenuous to imply that that's not actually what people are going to believe.

While the game itself is unlikely to.

Be fraudulent, it's worth noting that in the crypto world, every innovative project tends to attract less trustworthy copycats.

Experts also warn that scammers are already.

Targeting the ton blockchain to exploit the excitement around these games.

There's going to be scams come up. 100% chance there's going to be scams come up because people are going to start making fake games that look the same. And then when you go to get your airdrop, you'll connect your wallet. And when you connect your wallet and sign a do a signature, it'll drain your wallet.

Okay, let's draw a few conclusions. The rise of Telegram tap to earn games like natcoin and Hamster Combat is definitely something to keep an eye on. The allure of these potential profits without an initial investment is appealing, though it may not ensure the long term success of these games. Much will depend on how these mini apps continue to provide value and incentives to players after their token launches.

Therefore, it's probably wise to approach these with cautious optimism. That wraps up today's video. If you found it helpful, please consider liking and subscribing to the channel.

I'm Max, and I'll see you next time.