People usually talk about Hamster Kombat and Notcoin in two extremes: either "this is a scam" or "this is a chance to earn money." Both statements are wrong. These projects are not about investments or Web3 in the usual sense. They are mass attention funnels packaged in game mechanics and crypto terminology.
Their main feature is zero entry barrier. You don't need to understand blockchain, install wallets, or risk money. You simply enter Telegram, press a button, and instantly feel part of something big. This is crucial: the fear of loss is absent, meaning millions can be engaged.
Next comes a simple, almost primitive mechanic: tap, upgrade, return every day. Numbers grow, levels rise, creating the illusion of forward progress. But this movement is unanchored. There's no price, no market, no real economic connection to the outside world. All that grows is the project's internal metric.
Meanwhile, the most valuable thing happens: data collection. Projects observe how millions behave, how much time they're willing to spend, where they lose interest, and which promises trigger the strongest reactions. In essence, this is a large-scale socio-economic experiment that would normally cost enormous amounts of money.
When a drop or listing is announced, the moment of collision between expectations and reality arrives. The distribution turns out to be asymmetric: most receive symbolic amounts, some leave empty-handed, and only a small fraction achieve a meaningful result. This is not a flaw in the model—it's its final stage. That's exactly how it was designed.
It's important to understand: value is not created in the token. Value is the audience, attention, traffic, and proven ability to manage mass behavior. The token is secondary here—it serves as a tool to complete the cycle, not its purpose.
Therefore, comparing Hamster or Notcoin to the collapses of LUNA or FTX is inappropriate. There, systems failed and real money disappeared. Here, the most that most people lose is time and inflated expectations. These are entirely different phenomena.
Essentially, such projects serve as training grounds. They familiarize the masses with the ideas of tokens, drops, asymmetric outcomes, and the fact that not all participants win. Harsh but honest: this is not a path to wealth, but a mechanism for selection and engagement.
If a person played without illusions, they lost nothing. If, however, they perceived the game as a strategy for changing their life, that's a misinterpretation, not a scam by the model.
Hamster and Notcoin are neither the future of Web3 nor its tragedy. They are a mirror of how attention is monetized today, and a test of how well a person can distinguish between play and reality.
