Hamster Kombat, once a top Telegram game, is turning to blockchain development on TON after struggling with declining popularity.
Hamster Kombat, a tap-to-earn game built on Telegram, is showing signs to deepen its blockchain roots, this time launching a layer-2 network on top of The Open Network, or just TON
The decision comes after a community vote favouring the development of a dedicated network seemingly designed to enhance the Hamster Kombat token’s HMSTR.
Layer-2 networks are built on top of existing blockchains to improve transaction speeds and scalability. While Ethereum already hosts several well-known layer-2 networks, such as Coinbase’s Base or Blast, TON is still in the early stages of exploring similar technologies.
As of press time, there are no indications that TON hosts any operational layer-2 network. However, the TON ecosystem seems to be working on compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine protocols. The strategy may be aimed at attracting liquidity and dApp developers from Ethereum to integrate them into TON’s infrastructure.
For instance, in July, another project, dubbed TON Applications Chain, announced plans to develop a layer-2 network on TON. However, TAC aims to leverage Polygon’s layer-2 technology to achieve this goal.
The so-called “Hamster Blockchain” comes from a vote within the Hamster DAO. The proposal suggested building a network “where HMSTR token would be used for gas fees,” per the proposal’s description.
The vote met the required quorum of 1 billion HMSTR tokens on Friday, Dec. 27, with more than 1.18 billion HMSTR tokens in favor and just over 104,000 tokens against. However, it seems that over 60% of the total votes cast in favor of the initiative — amounting to approximately 737.3 million HMSTR tokens — were submitted by a single address, identified as UQDz…hUCu.
Launched in March, Hamster Kombat rapidly gained popularity, amassing millions of users within five months.
According to the Hamster Kombat team, a whopping 300 million people have signed up to play the game. Of these, a little under half of the players — 131 million in total — qualified to receive HMSTR tokens. Meanwhile, over 2.3 million players were flagged as cheaters and excluded from the token distribution.
The game’s integration with Telegram received a boost from the messaging app’s founder, Pavel Durov, who praised the game’s launch on TON as a way to bring blockchain benefits to millions.
Unclear roadmap
However, for Hamster Kombat, things went south pretty quickly following the airdrop of its token, as it failed to meet players’ financial expectations. By early November, the user base had plummeted by 86%, dropping from 300 million to approximately 41 million active monthly players, per data from IntoTheBlock.
Several factors may have contributed to this decline:
Token performance: The HMSTR token’s value decreased by over 50% shortly after its launch, which may have led to diminished player interest and confidence. As of press time, the HMSTR token is priced at $0.003006, marking a 70% decline from its all-time high, which was reached at the time of the airdrop in late September. The token’s market capitalization, which once exceeded $552 million, is now at $194.57 million, showing a large decline of around 65% in just three months since the airdrop.
Competition: New games like Catizen, TapSwap, Paws Mini App, and Blum have joined the tap-to-earn trend, drawing attention away from Hamster Kombat.
Community sentiment: As crypto.news reported earlier, the community expressed dissatisfaction with the game’s development and unmet expectations, potentially contributing to the decline in user engagement.
In trying to solve these issues, the Hamster Kombat development team appears to be shifting the community’s focus toward the creation of a layer-2 network on TON.
Nonetheless, several critical details remain unclear. For example, there’s no information thus far on who will develop the network, what technological stack will be used, or, most importantly, who’s gonna pay for the ambitious plan.
The missing details in the initiative’s description leave too many questions unanswered as well. On top of that, the proposed layer-2 network isn’t mentioned in Hamster Kombat’s roadmap at all, which appears to have not been updated since September.