|
|
Most of us are familiar with airdrops, which is the process of sending free tokens to selected wallet addresses or users who meet specific criteria (such as completing certain activities within a specified time frame). But how did it all start?
The first cryptocurrency airdrop occurred in March 2014 when Iceland launched Auroracoin. Every citizen received free tokens, which initially amounted to 31.8 AUR but increased to 636. The purpose of these airdrops was to create a market for the tokens and raise awareness. However, it's worth noting that sending tokens required paying gas fees, which became costly as gas prices and ETH prices rose.
Airdrops then evolved into free token claims, where recipients could claim tokens for free but had to pay transaction gas fees. Compared to the value of the tokens, gas costs were usually negligible, so it wasn't typically a problem. However, as projects progressed, they realized that distributing tokens to random users who might sell them off was detrimental. Initially, launching tokens early allowed projects to gauge potential user interest and secure funding. But later, after significant investments, it became apparent that distributing tokens to random users served no purpose and might even harm the project.
In September 2020, Uniswap made a significant impact by airdropping UNI tokens to over 250,000 addresses. These addresses were eligible because they had interacted with the platform before September 1, 2020, and received at least $400 worth of UNI tokens. The UNI tokens from the airdrop provided voting rights (which remain their primary use), allowing users to vote on protocol changes and proposals.
This led to the emergence of a new user group called airdrop farmers. They would engage in trades that didn't significantly contribute to the protocol's value but allowed them to rank higher in airdrop rewards. For example, if the airdrop rules were based on the number of transactions from a wallet, they would create numerous transactions by repeatedly trading the same amount, even if it incurred costs.
To counter airdrop mining, projects implemented more advanced strategies and mechanisms. The Optimism L2 platform introduced dual airdrops, where users had to actively participate in protocol governance to qualify for the second round of airdrops, which opened nine months later. The Blur NFT market adopted a multi-layered airdrop mechanism, seizing market share from OpenSea. They required users listing NFTs on other platforms to list them on Blur at a lower or equal price and utilized certain protocol features like NFT series bidding. In the latest round of airdrops, users were even required to delist their NFTs from other markets to receive the most BLUR tokens. |
|
Post time 10-4-2024 07:41:02