偉大的倉鼠格鬥遊戲：一款病毒式電報遊戲如何欺騙了數千名埃塞俄比亞人

一波社群媒體「影響者」推動了這一趨勢，他們將自己定位為新興、默默無聞的領域的自封專家。

The sight of city dwellers tapping away at their smartphones is hardly noteworthy in a metropolis like Addis Ababa. However, over the past few months, an unusually high level of attention has been directed towards these screens. Whether in taxis, service lines, or family gatherings, it's become common to spot several individuals engaged in relentless tapping on images displayed on their devices.

在亞的斯亞貝巴這樣的大都市，城市居民敲擊智慧型手機的景象幾乎不引人注目。然而，在過去的幾個月裡，這些螢幕受到了異常高的關注。無論是在計程車、服務熱線還是家庭聚會中，經常會發現幾個人不斷點擊設備上顯示的圖像。

At first glance, one might assume they're rapidly liking social media posts or playing an addictive game. But a closer examination reveals something quite peculiar: these people are busy at 'work.'

乍一看，人們可能會認為他們正在快速喜歡社交媒體貼文或玩令人上癮的遊戲。但仔細觀察就會發現一些很奇怪的事情：這些人都在忙著「工作」。

Hamster Kombat, a viral Telegram sensation, promised lucrative payouts at some future date, leading many to enthusiastically recruit family and friends via links while playing the role of a 'CEO' on the Mini app. Users are labeled as CEOs as they perform various tasks (mostly tapping) to earn tokens on the platform. Hamster is easily the most popular among the hundreds of Play-to-Earn (P2E) games that have swept the globe over the past year.

風靡 Telegram 的《Hamster Kombat》承諾在未來某個日期提供豐厚的報酬，導致許多人熱情地透過連結招募家人和朋友，同時在 Mini 應用程式上扮演「執行長」的角色。當用戶執行各種任務（主要是點擊）以在平台上賺取代幣時，他們被標記為執行長。在過去一年風靡全球的數百款 Play-to-Earn (P2E) 遊戲中，《Hamster》無疑是最受歡迎的。

The galloping hype came to a screeching halt a few weeks back as memes of disappointment replaced earlier pronouncements of financial wizardry.

幾週前，隨著失望的表情包取代了先前關於金融魔法的言論，狂熱的炒作戛然而止。

Nahom Mekib, 30, flung his phone in a fit of rage on the late September afternoon that was set to be a joyous occasion. Over the past five months, the IT technician spent hours daily tapping on a chubby Hamster’s image as he awaited the pending payout. He was far from alone in his newfound obsession, as people from every social status, creed, and age group devoted hours to the plump pet.

9 月下旬的下午，30 歲的納霍姆·梅基布 (Nahom Mekib) 憤怒地扔掉了手機，這本來是一個歡樂的時刻。在過去的五個月裡，這位 IT 技術人員每天都會花幾個小時點擊一隻胖胖的倉鼠的圖像，等待待付款。他並不是唯一一個沉迷於這種新發現的人，來自各個社會地位、信仰和年齡的人們都為這隻胖乎乎的寵物投入了很多時間。

After hearing from a distant friend that sizable payouts were given out on a similar click-to-earn Telegram game (Notcoin), Nahom was expecting a few hundred dollars’ worth of tokens to flow into his crypto wallet.

在從一位遠方朋友那裡聽說類似的點擊賺取 Telegram 遊戲（Notcoin）獲得了巨額獎金後，Nahom 預計價值數百美元的代幣將流入他的加密錢包。

“I feel duped,” he told Shega after receiving HMSTR tokens worth less than 1000 birr.

「我感覺自己被騙了，」他在收到價值不到 1000 比爾的 HMSTR 代幣後告訴 Shega。

Thousands of Ethiopians echoed the sentiment as long hours of ‘work’ flushed down the drain for what was touted as a historic digital currency milestone.

數千名埃塞俄比亞人也表達了同樣的觀點，因為長時間的「工作」被吹進了下水道，被譽為歷史性的數位貨幣里程碑。

A wave of social media 'influencers' contributed to this trend, positioning themselves as self-appointed experts in a nascent, obscure space. Content creators like Jason Peters, founder of Ethio Tech with JP, were among the online personalities who acquired significant engagement and authority on the topic from on apps like TikTok. Several others have also cultivated their respective followings with Amharic tutorial-like YouTube videos.

一波社群媒體「影響者」推動了這一趨勢，他們將自己定位為新興、默默無聞的領域的自封專家。 Ethio Tech with JP 的創始人 Jason Peters 等內容創作者是透過 TikTok 等應用程式獲得對該主題的大量參與和權威的網路名人之一。其他幾個人也透過類似阿姆哈拉語教學的 YouTube 影片培養了各自的追隨者。

Unfortunately, most of these online personalities have chosen silence in recent weeks with the players having only themselves to blame.

不幸的是，最近幾週，大多數網路名人都選擇了沉默，玩家只能怪自己。

What fuels a global tapping craze?

是什麼助長了全球竊聽熱潮？

In mid-2018, Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the co-founding brothers of Telegram, introduced The Open Network (TON), a unique blockchain architecture enabling cryptocurrency functionality on the social media platform.

2018 年中，Telegram 聯合創始人 Nikolai 和 Pavel Durov 推出了開放網路 (TON)，這是一種獨特的區塊鏈架構，可在社群媒體平台上實現加密貨幣功能。

As the easily accessible infrastructure caught some wind and issued tokens (digital keys), the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a restraining order. It forced later development responsibilities to be passed onto the NewTon foundation and an online open-source community. The SEC argued that tokens functioned like typical securities in capital markets, requiring a full disclosure process informing investors of the exact nature of the items being purchased. A dispute that presages subsequent developments in an emerging space significantly removed from traditional legal frameworks.

隨著易於訪問的基礎設施受到關注並發行了代幣（數位密鑰），美國證券交易委員會（SEC）提出了限制令。它迫使後來的開發責任轉移到 NewTon 基金會和線上開源社群。美國證券交易委員會認為，代幣的功能類似資本市場中的典型證券，需要完整的揭露流程，告知投資人所購買物品的確切性質。一場爭議預示著新興領域的後續發展，明顯脫離了傳統的法律框架。

TON relaunched in 2021 to become a highly valued digital asset currently being traded at a little over five dollars. Driving the value of this digital asset is a comprehensive suite of tools that allow developers to create decentralized apps on Telegram. TON fuels transactions, enable governance, and establishes a stable infrastructure where a social gaming frenzy can blossom.

TON 於 2021 年重新推出，成為高價值的數位資產，目前交易價格略高於 5 美元。推動這種數位資產價值的是一套全面的工具，它允許開發人員在 Telegram 上創建去中心化應用程式。 TON 促進交易、實現治理並建立穩定​​的基礎設施，讓社交遊戲狂潮得以蓬勃發展。

In 2023, Telegram launched the Mini Apps feature, which allows developers to create lightweight applications for gaming, shopping and the like that operate within the platform. By January it allowed the Mini Apps to integrate with the TON blockchain infrastructure unlocking new capabilities for the developers. More than half of Telegram's 950 million users are estimated to be interacting with at least one mini-app every month.

2023 年，Telegram 推出了 Mini Apps 功能，讓開發者可以創建在平台內運行的遊戲、購物等輕量級應用程式。到一月份，它允許迷你應用程式與 TON 區塊鏈基礎設施集成，為開發人員解鎖新功能。據估計，Telegram 的 9.5 億用戶中有一半以上每月至少與一款迷你應用程式互動。

Some of the mini apps on the platform became niche services in a short with a few like Hamster and Notcoin garnering worldwide appeal.

該平台上的一些迷你應用程式很快就成為了小眾服務，其中一些應用程式（例如 Hamster 和 Notcoin）贏得了全球的吸引力。

The Hamster craze reached a global fever pitch in mid-June, prompting allegations by Iran’s military that it was part of the West’s “soft war” amid the country’s elections. The anonymous developers denied the election tampering claim via email in response to media inquiries.

六月中旬，倉鼠熱潮在全球掀起熱潮，伊朗軍方指責這是西方國家選舉期間「軟戰爭」的一部分。匿名開發商在回應媒體詢問時透過電子郵件否認了選舉篡改的指控。

What does TON have to do with Hamster?

TON 和倉鼠有什麼關係？

As with most successful ideas, Hamster Kombat modified the tap-to-earn model from a viral sensation just a few months back. In an all-too-similar format, millions were tapping on a giant image of a coin with a triangle on it in hopes of reaping some final reward. Unlike Hamster, its predecessor NotCoin retained public confidence (a valuable asset in the speculative currency market) as it delivered on most of its initial value proposition.

與大多數成功的想法一樣，Hamster Kombat 對幾個月前風靡一時的點擊賺錢模式進行了修改。在一種非常相似的形式中，數百萬人點擊了一枚帶有三角形的巨大硬幣圖像，希望獲得一些最終的獎勵。與 Hamster 不同，其前身 NotCoin 實現了大部分最初的價值主張，保留了公眾的信心（投機貨幣市場上的寶貴資產）。

Notcoin garnered nearly

Notcoin獲得近