At Notcoin We Want To Reward Long-Term Belief In Ways That Blend Crypto And Everyday Life, Says Sergey

In the rapidly evolving world of digital currencies and blockchain innovation, few projects have managed to bridge mass appeal and Web3 utility quite like Notcoin. Launched as a simple Telegram-based clicker game, Notcoin quickly exploded into a viral movement, attracting more than 35 million users and turning casual players into blockchain participants — all with a tap.

At the heart of this phenomenon is Sergey, CTO and co-founder of Notcoin. With more than 15 years of experience in tech, Sergey plays a pivotal role in driving the platform's technical vision and strategic growth. From refining staking mechanics to crafting meaningful user journeys, he's focused on turning short-term hype into lasting adoption.

Benzinga's Bibhu Pattnaik sat down with Sergey to learn more about the mechanics behind Notcoin's success, its community-first approach, and what's next for the viral Web3 experiment.

As the co-founder of Notcoin, how did your 15 years in tech shape your approach to building Notcoin's infrastructure and user experience?

Over 15 years of building tech solutions, I've developed a broad skill set, and have learned how to swiftly navigate user interfaces, infrastructure, and business challenges. Our founding team at Open Builders, the team behind Notcoin, thrived on launching new projects rapidly, often in a hackathon-style sprint. This agility was key to surviving the demands caused by Notcoin's explosive growth, which saw us achieve 4M users in one week.

We have a very specific product design philosophy, which we hold very fast to when thinking about the form our projects take. We were tired of rigid enterprise solutions and wanted to create something simple yet meaningful, while keeping it fun.

Finally, even 15 years of experience across startups and enterprise companies can't prepare you for everything—especially a viral phenomenon like Notcoin. You have to learn quickly on the job and iterate new ideas rapidly. My experience gave me a strong foundation from which to grow, but I'm still learning more every day – it's the best part of working in crypto!

What inspired the creation of Notcoin, and how did you define its strategic vision from the outset?

We wanted to introduce people to web3 in a gentle, non-pushy way. A clicker game seemed perfect—fun, straightforward, and instantly rewarding. But we didn't stop there. We added onboarding tasks, friend systems to drive engagement, addictive game mechanics, and skins to personalize the experience. Above all, we infused it with the philosophy that underpins all Open Builders projects. The "Probably Nothing" concept was designed to defy the overwhelming expectations that often deter people from exploring crypto. We declared it "Nothing"—our white paper is blank, encouraging users to have fun with the clicker and the concept, free from pressure or speculation.

Since Notcoin launched a year and a half ago, this idea has evolved into something bigger. It continues to take inspiration with Buddhist principles and authentic crypto values, but we've grown it through new gigs, clothing, collaborations, and apps. We weave our core ideas into everything we create at Open Builders. The Notcoin project's clear expression of our values resonated more and more strongly with our community as it grew, and this resonance vindicated our philosophy, and demonstrated just how important it is to speak authentically to your core users. 

You emphasize fun in product development — how do you balance that with deep technical challenges?

Fun is just the tip of the iceberg – beneath the surface, there is a serious tech machine. When we started, we thought our systems were solid, but they ultimately weren't enough to cater to the demand for Notcoin. Ever since, we've been continuously refining our codebase and infrastructure. Comparing our technical expertise now to a year ago, the difference is striking—more sophisticated technology, a larger engineering team, and a transformed tech stack.

While user enjoyment is our core mission, we never compromise when it comes to protecting their assets and building resilient systems.

Can you walk us through some of the core event mechanics or staking designs you’re experimenting with to encourage real adoption?

We're currently designing our staking model and want to ensure the highest APR for our most dedicated holders. But that's not the main focus. We also plan to add real-world utility for those who lock up their Notcoin long-term. Imagine freezing your $NOT for a year and unlocking real-world perks: regular BTC rewards, discounted flights, a free coffee, or even surprise gifts like Amazon gift cards. We're still exploring ideas, but we want to reward long-term belief in ways that blend crypto and everyday life.

How are you leveraging data to differentiate between short-term traders and long-term holders in Notcoin's user base?

We track on-chain behavior and segment users into three groups. Holders are users who hold 80% of their portfolio for 12 months or more, cruisers are users who hold $NOT between one and 11 months, and traders are those who hold for under a month.

We're currently designing a dedicated dashboard where loyal holders can earn benefits across the Notcoin ecosystem. These include invites to our gigs (like the exclusive Not rave that we held during TOKEN2049 in Dubai), merch, higher APR for staking, and access to close groups.

What role does community-driven growth play in your roadmap, and how do you integrate community feedback into technical decisions?

Community is everything to us. While it might not always be visible, we're constantly listening, whether it's via our feedback hub (@not_support_chat) or through contributors gathering insights from alpha groups, Telegram channels, and various Twitter threads.

While our decisions align with our broader strategic vision, the community's voice is a key driver. To give you an idea, at least a third of our core team consists of community members who were so skilled and active that we had to bring them on board.

How do you define success for Notcoin beyond the hype of exchange listings and short-term trading?

I don't think I'm the right person to judge the success of what we build – it's up to our community to define what success for Notcoin would be. Having said that, I'm thrilled to see how much people love it and the dedicated community of millions that we've managed to grow.

What have been the most surprising insights you’ve uncovered about user behavior while scaling Notcoin? What surprised me most is how users have embraced the idea and philosophy of Notcoin—just check out this website from the recent research contest: https://notcoin.my/. How cool is that? Here you can find more highlights from community contests, where our users' creativity is on full display.