Exchange fuzziness: Why Nigerians are tapping 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 gain.

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 sudden popularity of the app has sparked a nationwide phenomenon, with many Nigerians eager to cash in on the trend

Viral videos have shown alarming instances of individuals, young and old, obsessively tapping their phones.

In one clip, a Keke driver was seen tapping his phone with one hand while driving his moving vehicle and transporting passengers.

Another viral video showed some traders in Northern Nigeria vigorously tapping on their screens.

Meanwhile, PUNCH Online observed youths and adults in Ogun State tapping their phones while multitasking and doing their jobs.

Why do they eavesdrop?

“One of the biggest challenges facing Web3 and crypto is getting new people into the Web3 space.

“Don’t forget Piggyvest. If I invite you to Piggyvest, I will get N1000. This tapping is basically how new people get into Web3,” Chi Ofoegbu, a freelance product marketing manager for crypto projects and Web3 enthusiast, told PUNCH Online on Wednesday.

Web3, also referred to 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 for GeorgeneKoko, an over-the-counter crypto firm based in Akure, Ondo State, said Web3 shared 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 called Web3. Many believe Web3 is the next big thing,” he said.

Ofoegbu explained the eavesdropping phenomenon, “Most eavesdropping involves inviting someone and tapping on your screen. It’s to get new users and see how much their system can take. It is rewarding for people 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 friend,” Ofoegbu said.

Many Nigerians took advantage of the Notcoin airdrop campaign by engaging in Telegram gaming activities, thereby increasing their crypto holdings.

As of May 20, 2024, Bitcoin.com reports that over 102 billion NOT tokens exist on the TON chain, worth $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 a venting thing. Most of the projects that are built in the crypto space, they 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 particular project is using.”

Airdrop is a marketing tactic used by cryptocurrency projects to distribute free tokens or coins to a large number of wallet addresses, often to drive 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 significant user base.

Crypto clicker apps such as Notcoin, TapSwap and others have recently gained immense popularity, with millions of users, Dailycoin reports.

These apps provide an accessible entry point to crypto for a wide audience. Notcoin, in particular, has achieved tremendous success, surpassing 35 million users just months after its official launch in January

Ajiboye said: “Notcoin used the same interception pattern. Notcoin was launched in January. They mined for five months. And when they launched last week, people made money. I know people who made up to six figures, people who were very serious about it.

“Tapswap is more than a month old, and they will stop mining on the 30th of this month, but it was the frenzy of people who made big money from Notcoin.

“The thing about TapSwap that makes it seem like it’s gone viral is that it seems to be one of the easiest ways to mine tokens.”

Why the sudden boom?

Dailycoin reports that Notcoin’s high user engagement drew attention to clicker apps in general and led Telegram founder Pavel Durov to hail it as a success story.

“The excitement that came with Notcoin led to it going viral. Most of them may have no idea about Web3 or crypto at all. They just know that somebody is telling them to keep touching this thing, collect points and you will get money from there,” Ajiboye said.

In a statement on its official X account, Tapswap revealed that it has amassed 17 million users.

“17 million players on TapSwap!

“It’s unbelievable! If before we asked you to invite friends, relatives and acquaintances, now we ask you to invite only your closest relatives”, the statement says.

Ajiboye attributed this success to Telegram: “The reason I will join is the platform they use. Telegram is like WhatsApp. If you can use WhatsApp or Facebook, then you should have no problem using Telegram. It’s different than saying you have to download another app.

“I believe people are interested in it because of the ease of use of Telegram. There have been many mining projects that have built their own special application that only have four, five million miners.

“There are apps that require 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 get points.

“They probably heard people who just tapped into Telegram and made money and asked what other platform is like that, and they turned to Tapcoin, and they expect it to pay very well like Notcoin. I believe it was the success of Noticoin that made Tapswap gain this great recognition. ”

Ofoegbu attributed Notcoin’s social proof to the behavior of late adopters.

“Early adopters are those who have been in crypto for a long time and are involved in buying and selling coins. Late adopters are those who joined based on social proof. Many people invited their friends to join Notcoin, but they said it was garbage. At the end of the day, they saw Notcoin paying their friends $200, about $300. Others nearly $1,000.

“So when a lot of people found out they could make money by tapping on their screen, so late adopters are jumping at anything to see if they can make money too.

Mining Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, was much more challenging, “You have to buy a military-grade hardware CPU to mine Bitcoin. Due to the complexity of Bitcoin, most blockchains have made all the work of crypto web3 much easier. It has come to the stage that people even project mines through their phones.

“It’s become so easy that they just do little social tasks, tap, follow on Twitter, retweet, leave comments, join the Telegram community and switch to their community.”

Opportunity to earn money?

“Yes, there are many opportunities to get money from it. However, some people may show that they have 10 million points or 15 million points. But this does not mean that when the project starts, they will have 10 million units of that token, which will be called Tap.

“They will do a conversion rate. The moment they want to launch, they can set the conversion rate to be 1000 points per tap. Or 2000 points for one tap. They will decide on the conversion rate before they launch, and that is what they will use to distribute the token to the people who participated.” said Ajiboye.

Ajiboye explained that after the mining stop on the 30th, it could take weeks for them to start.

“They will have to go through the verification steps. Maybe they plan to cancel people who have multiple accounts or those who use auto clicks. They will also work on their departure date and where they will be departing.”

Ofoegbu is less optimistic.

“People only tell you about the airlines that work. There are many that did not work. It can also work, they can also give rewards and the reward won’t be much and you might just feel like I wasted all my energy and got nothing.

“When there was less interest in crypto, you could have high hopes. You are not competing with many people. So the reward will be great.

“Now that we have many people to reward, how much will be divided among these people? Compared to the flights from late last year and early this year when there was less interest and people were getting as much as $2,000,” Ofoegbu said.

“Not from the trees”

Ofoegbu clarified that the money for the airdrops did not just come out of thin air.

“This is the cheapest way to get users. Air money does not come from trees. They take these users, show venture capital and say: ‘I want to launch a new blockchain, a new project, I was able to buy millions of users’.

“And these VCs support them and give them money. They then take a portion of this money and give it to the people who participated. Money is not created out of thin air. They use this money to reward those who helped them get new users,” Ofoegbu said

Crypto Education

For Ajiboye, he is more concerned about promoting crypto education. Despite the fact that most Nigerians are joining these communities just to make money, he is optimistic about the growing understanding of crypto.

Although 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 10 of them would be if I could get money just from tapping. Maybe I should learn more about it. People have been saying that crypto is a scam. But that way, the whole crypto education effort goes wider, and that way, you have more people learning about Web3 and crypto,” Ajiboye said.

For Ofoegbu, this is the easiest way to get people into crypto.

“A lot of people, because they made money from it. Imagine a new user receiving money from Notcoin for the first time. He will want to learn more.”

When PUNCH Online asked Ajiboye if he was “eavesdropping”, he said yes.

“I’m eavesdropping. Touch with my two phones,” answered here.