In the face of economic hardship and a desperate desire for financial success, some Nigerians have embraced a peculiar trend of constantly tapping their phone screens on Telegram, believing they’re mining cryptocurrency.
The phenomenon has swept across the nation, with people from all walks of life engaging in this activity on the streets, in motor parks, and even while driving.
The ‘madness’ as some have described it, centers around a cryptocurrency company called Tapswap which aims to raise awareness about its coin and attract more people to Web 3 – the ecosystem that powers cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Instead of traditional advertising, Tapswap has gamified the process, encouraging people to “tap” their phones as if they were mining currency.
THE WHISTLER learnt that Tapswap promises rewards in the form of airdrops to participants who complete certain tasks and refer others.
The strategy has turned phone tapping into a widespread activity, with users believing they’re engaging in crypto mining.
Trending Examples
A viral video circulating on X (formerly Twitter) shows a tricycle rider attempting to navigate traffic while simultaneously tapping his phone.
Another trending clip on Facebook features a young woman using both hands and feet to tap on three different phones simultaneously to meet her target. These have raised concerns about the safety of Tapswap and potential for addiction.
Insider Perspectives
Oluwafunmilayo Emmanuel, a journalist based in Abuja, shared her experience with Tapswap: “I tap intermittently. I tap at work, I tap when I get back home. Although I can’t tap as much when I’m at work, I tap more when I’m at home. I tap deep into the night.”
Emmanuel explained that the app is designed to continue “mining” even when users aren’t actively tapping. She views her involvement as a business venture, citing previous success with platforms like Notcoin, which paid her money.
The journalist has been a crypto trader for a long time and got introduced to Tapswap through her younger brother who regularly surfs the internet and brings to their notice any opportunity to make money.
Emmanuel said she first joined crypto currency trading for fun, but later took it seriously when crypto platforms like notcoin paid her.
“I’m into it now because it’s paying my bills. It’s like I’m doing a business now,” she said.
Speaking further on her experience with Tapswap, the journalist said: “The experience has been awesome, although many say that it’s for lazy people, but I doubt it because trading in crypto requires so much dedication and time. You know when you’re a crypto trader you always have to be online looking out for when the coins will drop so that you can quickly buy and lookout for when they’re going up so that you can quickly sell.
“So it is tasking, but totally an awesome experience. You do it from the convenience of your home. All you need is your mental capability and mental strength to do it.
“It’s something I’ll encourage young people to do as a side hustle. You can do it while you’re on your way to work. Even when you’re sleeping, you’re making money. All you need to do is go to your phone, open Tapswap, leave your phone on and it keeps tapping into millions.”
According to Emmanuel, she earned N70k from Notcoin and used money to sort her bills. She’s, however, yet to earn anything from Tapswap and prays that it pays soon.
Usman I. Zakkariya, a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member in Kaduna State, is another crypto enthusiast who dedicates 5-10 minutes daily to tapping, having purchased a bot to automate the process for him.
“For Tapswap, we created a group on Telegram so that when you click on a link, it takes you to the bot that keeps tapping for you. As you tap, your points increase. So, you’re expected to keep tapping for like 2 to 3 months. Anytime you click on that bot, your points continue to increase.”
Zakkariya said he has been into crypto trading for over 5 years, and has benefited from different mining platforms like Notcoin which gave him $200.
Like Emmanuel, Zakkariya noted that he’s yet to earn from Tapswap because it’s a new project.
“But they said the mining process will end by the end of this month and they’ll begin the process of converting the coins accumulated into Tapswap coins.
“Like what happened to us in Notcoin, every one million is equivalent to one thousand notes, so that if you have ten million coins, you have ten thousand notes.”
Asked if he suspects that Tapswap is a scam, the NYSC member said: “I cannot say it’s a scam or legit because if some projects want to scam people, they’ll ask them to deposit additional coins into the project. Like what’s happening to Tapswap now, they said for people to double the point accumulated, they have to deposit one ton coin.
“A coin makes one ton. And the price of each is almost $7.1. So they said for them to double their points in dollars, you have to deposit that one ton to them. So that’s why people think Tapswap is a scam.”
Zakkariya was introduced to Tapswap by a crypto influencer he met on Facebook, who told him about the new mining project powered by the Solana blockchain.
Expert’s Perspective
Adekunle Michael, a lead Web3 Engineer at Nahmii, shared his perspective with THE WHISTLER on Tapswap and similar products.
He categorizes them as “Memecoins” or “Shitcoins” – cryptocurrencies with no inherent value, deriving worth solely from community or celebrity endorsement.
Michael explains that while Tapswap may resemble mining, it’s actually a form of airdrop – a marketing strategy where new crypto projects reward early adopters.
According to him, users aren’t truly mining on the blockchain but rather accumulating points in a centralized database.
He said in the real sense, tapping phone screens may not be beneficial to Tapswap users, explaining that users could end up getting tokens (crypto currency) which may or may not hold any value to them at all.
“So when the crypto currency launches, these people who tap their screens are rewarded. So it’s a form of airdrop. Airdrops are currency projects rewarding their community or the work they’ve done.
“Airdrop has been in existence for a long time. If a new product is about to be launched, they create awareness for people to join their community. And while they are building the product, they engage their users in one thing or the other to keep them occupied until when they launch and reward these sets of users,” he said.
Michael added, “…in the case of Tapswap and Notcoin, thesel are not meaningful at all. That’s why I’m going to categorise them under Mincoin or Shitcoin. Why would anybody want to mine Mincoin? Is there any value attached to it?”
According to him, the only reason people would want to hold Notcoin for instance is for speculative purposes. “It’s a business for trading, they want to buy it when the value is low and then sell it when it’s high.
“Speaking of Tapswap, in a real sense, there’s no value to the user by tapping the screen. The only thing that’s useful to them is when they get to launch it, they’d be given some token which may or may not be worth some value.
“So they’re not really mining. The concept of mining is when you’re doing something directly on the blockchain. But in the case of Tapswap it’s not mining. Let me say it’s perceived mining or pseudo mining showing them as if they’re mining but they are not.
“When they tap, those numbers that add up are not in the blockchain, they’re basically something in the database. So it’s not real mining.”
The software engineer further declared that Tapswap is dubious by nature.
“I’ll say it’s dubious somehow. After Notcoin gave its user some amount of tokens which held some values, a lot of people both old, young, educated and non educated began to go on telegram. People that don’t even know how telegram works in the first place go there and start tapping.
“The larger percentage of people who do this don’t know what they’re doing. Tapping is not the way to the blockchain.
“Getting into blockchain involves learning. You have to sensitise users on how Web 3 is different from Web 2. Let them understand the concept, transactions, wallet, private key and stuff like that. So those are the process of getting into Web 3.
“So the Tapping syndrome is a way of syphoning investor’s money. Let’s say Tapswap is able to successfully on-boarded billion users and sell out to investors that were able to bring 2000 people from Web 2 to Web 3, this is a very big lie.
“First of all, these people don’t know what they’re doing. They know that by tapping they’ll be able to raise some money. They don’t know what they’re doing, they only know that once they tap and get the money they transfer it and save.
“Most of them are going to get scammed eventually of both their hard earned money and money they accumulated because they didn’t understand how it worked.”
Michael explained that the ethical concern about Tapswap is that it is dubious in the sense that projects like it can be used in a cheap way to get users into Web 3, while giving those records to investors to make them want to invest in the business.
However, at the end of it, such investment “will not yield any return to the investors because the people they add are not people that will use their brain there, they don’t understand how it works.”
Michael blamed hardship in the country for massive embrace of Tapswap, saying “The first thing to blame is the economy. Things aren’t really going well, so everybody wants to get every single dollar and naira they can get. So that is the number one problem. And I don’t think what they’re going to get is worth what they’re risking. It’s not worth it, but then, you cannot tell people not to hustle.
“So I really do not blame people doing that honestly, I only blame the blockchain project who are deceiving people into making them believe they’re into Web 3 for real.”
The engineer advised Nigerians to be very careful and examine investment platforms they want to venture into.
“They should make sure they understand what’s all about, and not risk their lives for what is not worth it,” he advised.
There is a tapping pandemic going on in Nigeria 😭😭😭
— $Hydra (@XBrianDennis) May 18, 2024
Better start tapping https://t.co/NMP9TxB2UP pic.twitter.com/vcKURFg3WJ