Author: Guoguo
1. Project Overview
1. NOTCOIN
NOTCOIN is considered to be the first project in the Telegram ecosystem to “break out”. Since the beginning of this year, NOTCOIN has rapidly spread with its inherent meme attributes and brainless Tap-to-Earn gameplay, attracting 5 million users within a week and reaching a peak of over 6 million daily active users.
After the coin was launched, the market’s response to NOTCOIN exceeded most people’s expectations. NOTCOIN’s token $NOT was listed on multiple top-tier exchanges on May 16th and reached a new high of $0.021 on June 2nd. With a total supply of 102.7 billion $NOT tokens, all in circulation, the current fully diluted valuation (FDV) is approximately $1.99 billion, ranking it among the top 100 in terms of market capitalization.
2. UXLINK
Also built on Telegram, UXLINK is a social platform and infrastructure that focuses on socializing with acquaintances. Since its release in April 2023, UXLINK has become the traffic king of the new generation of social products with its unique Link-to-Earn gameplay. According to the official website, UXLINK has over 7 million registered users from 190 countries and regions, and over 800,000 users can be reached through 100,000 groups. Recently, UXLINK completed the distribution of the first phase of NFT, which serves as the basis for the upcoming large-scale $UXLINK token airdrop and future layered operations.
https://dapp.uxlink.io/
II. Mass Adoption Methodology
As a buzzword in the Web3 world, Mass Adoption is a problem that almost all application layer startup teams cannot avoid, and it is also the fundamental reason why gaming, social, and RWA tracks have attracted much attention.
The obstacles around Mass Adoption can usually be classified into the following categories:
Lack of compliant channels for institutional funds to enter and exit
High entry barriers and lack of trust for ordinary users
Incomplete developer ecosystem
Inability of infrastructure to support large-scale applications
Lack of investment targets that meet the taste of the general public
Regarding the first point, we have witnessed the approval of Bitcoin ETF and the imminent listing of Ethereum ETF in this cycle. The changes in the macro environment have made the call for “killer apps” in Web3 even stronger.
From a more intuitive perspective, the two core elements to achieve Mass Adoption are:
Lower entry and usage barriers, as well as smoother products,
Positive externalities of user proliferation efficiency and ecosystem expansion capability
The following will discuss and compare the methodologies of NOTCOIN and UXLINK in terms of Mass Adoption.
1. Narrative Approach
1. NOTCOIN: Game + Meme
The gaming attribute is reflected in its mechanism of playing and earning.
The meme attribute is reflected in the project name and the blank whitepaper.
It operates with a meme mindset, conducting business in the attention economy.
2. UXLINK: Social platform + Infrastructure
Based on the Telegram user pool and existing relationship chains, it builds a new on-chain trust-based social relationship.
Within the Telegram user pool, it constructs an incentive layer of on-chain trust relationships, instead of duplicating the wheel through external Dapps.
The stickiness and retention of social attributes are greater than that of gaming or play-to-earn platforms. UXLINK uses social as an entry point to expand the stickiness and distribution ability of other ecosystem collaborations.
2. User Onboarding
1. NOTCOIN: Tap-to-Earn
Integrates Telegram mini app for free and lightweight mining.
The core gameplay is simple and direct, click the screen to earn coins.
Other gameplay includes team cooperation, score leagues, energy management, and referral rewards.
2. UXLINK: Link-to-Earn
Guides users to share invitation links to “join UXLink’s Telegram community”, and users can earn UXUY points through referrals.
Users can quickly build real-world acquaintance social graphs on-chain through Link-to-Earn trust links.
Acquaintance social connections can easily spread from one-to-one and become the basis for group and network effects.
3. Developer Integration
1. NOTCOIN: No external developers
Game code is open-source, allowing developers to audit its operation mechanism.
No external developers have been introduced.
2. UXLINK: Actively introduces external developers
A large amount of social relationship data precipitated at the Dapp layer is provided to developers through the API of the protocol layer.
The AWC protocol can handle on-chain identity and asset relationships and assist AI models in behavior analysis and recommendations.
4. Infrastructure
1. NOTCOIN: Telegram Mini App
2. UXLINK: Self-built infrastructure
The RWS protocol mainly solves the problem of acquaintance social graph, helping developers achieve better recommendations and growth.
The AWC protocol mainly solves the relationship between on-chain identity and assets, helping developers better understand users and assist AI models in behavior analysis and recommendations.
5. Ecosystem Collaboration
1. NOTCOIN: Concentrated in the Telegram ecosystem
Received public support from TON Labs and TON Foundation, integrated into the Telegram wallet.
Collaborated with Catizen (casual games), TonGifts (red envelope application), and other projects.
2. UXLINK: Extensive collaboration with DeFi, AI, GameFi, etc.
Collaborated with Binance, OKX, and other Web3 wallets for UXUY points and NFT distribution.
Launched the “UXLINK Social Ecology Alliance” to further expand the developer community and cooperation with third-party projects. Recent revenues and profits have grown rapidly.
6. Incentive Mechanisms
1. NOTCOIN: Fair distribution + Fully diluted
Abandoned ownership, 0% transaction tax, increased decentralization and fairness.
Fully diluted upon launch.
2. UXLINK: Layered operations + Long-term incentives
Implemented layered operations through the issuance of four levels of community NFTs.
Reserved a large proportion (65%) of incentives for the community.
Active users can receive long-term incentives in UXLINK and other projects within the ecosystem.
7. Token Use Cases
1. NOTCOIN: Meme coin with no current utility
2. UXLINK: Clear token empowerment + Expected deflation
Developers use $UXLINK to pay for protocol, data, and Dapp usage fees, with 85-90% allocated to community users.
Users pay $UXLINK as transaction fees (1%-3%) to access airdrops/investment opportunities.
Partners pay $UXLINK for customer acquisition assistance.
With limited supply, $UXLINK has clear and distinct use cases, which can form a benign deflationary model.
III. On-chain Data Insights
Due to the uncertainty of off-chain data sources and standards, this section mainly compares the on-chain data of NOTCOIN and UXLINK, with NOTCOIN’s on-chain data on TON and UXLINK’s main data on Arbitrum/EVM.
1. Holders
Holders are a key indicator of measuring the level and potential of Mass Adoption, and a significant number of holders are the basis of consensus. Currently, cryptocurrencies with a significant number of holders rank high, and they have gained strong reputation within the community.
Pepe is currently ranked fourth in terms of the number of holders, second only to DOGE, SHIB, and MEME. Since May of this year, when the number of holders first exceeded 100,000, Pepe’s price has entered a good upward trend.
https://bitscreener.com/Top-Cryptos-With-Most-Holders?t=overview&p=1
https://dune.com/wuligy/pepe-metrics
According to TON’s on-chain data, NOTCOIN had about 220,000 $NOT holders before the TGE, steadily increasing after listing, and the total number of holders has now exceeded 1.6 million.
https://tonalytica.redoubt.online/public/dashboards/DdU5wpspip3RiIozMgVm2Tv8D9skZjSaNdMoumck?org_slug=default
Since UXLINK has not yet been launched, we estimate the future number of $UXLINK token holders based on on-chain points and NFT holdings. According to Dune data, UXLINK currently has over 4.4 million on-chain points and NFT holders, including over 1.5 million NFT holders. Only high-quality community users who meet certain point requirements can mint NFTs and become NFT holders, and NFT holders can receive a 100% airdrop. Therefore, it can be assumed that the number of holders of $UXLINK before listing is approximately 1.5 million, which is almost equivalent to the scale after $NOT is listed. With the passage of time, the number of holders before TGE is expected to be higher, becoming the largest airdrop in history in terms of coverage.
https://dune.com/uxlink/uxuy
https://x.com/UXLINKofficial
2. Active Users
We use the number of active holders of $NOT during the TGE and the following 5 days as an estimate of NOTCOIN’s daily active users, and the data shows a downward trend from 500,000 to 200,000.
https://tonalytica.redoubt.online/public/dashboards/DdU5wpspip3RiIozMgVm2Tv8D9skZjSaNdMoumck?org_slug=default
DappRadar data shows that UXLINK has over 500,000 daily active users, with 24-hour, 7-day, and 30-day active users reaching 574,000, 1 million, and 3.8 million respectively, which is consistent with the official data. As UXLINK has already established a strong Web3 social network among users and will continue to airdrop to active users after listing, there is reason to believe that UXLINK will maintain its user stickiness.
https://dappradar.com/rankings/social
https://dune.com/queries/3477817/5845084
3. Token Distribution
According to the official X account of NOTCOIN, the total supply of $NOT tokens is 102,719,221,714. Of these, 80,219,221,714 (78%) will be allocated to miners (Tap-to-Earn) and Voucher (NFT) holders, and the remaining 22,500,000,000 (22%) will be allocated to future ecosystem funds, development funds, etc.
According to the whitepaper, UXLINK will adopt a dual-token model, including a utility token ($UXUY points) and a governance token ($UXLINK).
$UXUY points are generated based on Proof of Link (POL) mechanism, with no pre-minting, and users earn tokens through referrals and contributions to the ecosystem. Rewards will gradually decrease based on time, network connections, and the total size of the network.
The total supply of $UXLINK tokens is 1,000,000,000. Of these, 65% will be allocated to community contributors and developers (POW, Link-to-Earn & Build-to-Earn), and the remaining 35% will be allocated to investors, the team, and project development.
IV. Conclusion
Whether it is STEPN as a Mass Adoption example in the previous cycle or NOTCOIN and UXLINK, which have attracted attention in this cycle, their impressive achievements in a short period of time are the result of designing products with Mass Adoption as the starting point rather than specific categories. Specifically, STEPN and NOTCOIN are not game projects in the standard sense, and UXLINK is far from being a Web3 version of a messaging product. Low barriers, fun, and proper incentives are their common points and the deep-rooted genes of Mass Adoption embedded in their product DNA. We look forward to excellent products like NOTCOIN and UXLINK shortening the distance between us and the Mass Adoption of Web3.
