Since the money-making effect of airdrop interaction began in 2020, many people have begun to join the ranks of airdrop interaction. Some projects will also airdrop tokens to early participants before the project is officially launched due to "pattern" factors. This attracts everyone's attention. But as more and more people join the ranks of airdrops, the entire industry has now undergone tremendous changes.
Equality airdrop
To put it simply, equal airdrops are retroactive airdrop activities with simple rules, such as Uniswap, 1inch, ENS, etc. They already have a certain market popularity before the airdrop, and airdrops can increase everyone's attention to the project, thereby gaining a certain degree of popularity. exposure. Early projects often regard airdrops as an important means of project traffic, so they do not impose too many restrictions on the rules. Some people can get huge airdrop returns by using accounts in batches. This is also an extensive way of issuing airdrops.
Although this kind of extensive airdrop activity can trigger market topics, it also has shortcomings, the most important of which is the pressure on token prices. Because the airdropped tokens are a windfall, many people will Sell it directly, which will cause the token price to fall rapidly. Only the project side intends to protect the market can it withstand this round of pressure.
For this reason, equal airdrops usually take a snapshot first, then publish the airdrop rules, and select users and players who meet the requirements. This creates an expectation for people, allowing users to interact with the project from all aspects and angles. Finally, Because it has the power to formulate rules, the initiative is still in the hands of the project side. In short, with this airdrop method, project interaction will be very active before the airdrop, but the real pressure often comes after the airdrop.
Guided airdrop
When airdrop activities become a deliberate interaction among everyone, there will be many players who use airdrops. For the project side, it may be difficult to gain a real user group at this time. Everyone comes to interact in a swarm, and then sells the tokens in a swarm. After the airdrop, the token price fell, and the project's on-chain wallet interaction also declined, which ultimately had a negative impact. At this time, guided airdrops began to appear.
To put it simply, guided airdrops allow users to complete a certain task and then obtain airdrop tokens. Some projects here clearly inform users of the task content, which becomes an incentive. For example, the dydx airdrop stipulates that users who interacted before need to trade a certain amount. To obtain airdrop tokens.
The blur airdrop blind box is a public rule, allowing users to interact directly to create heat. In this case, even if the project token price drops after the airdrop, at least the project party will gain more trading users, and it will also increase real interactions on the chain. quantity. After people used blur, they found that it did have many advantages over Opensea, so they gradually started to place NFT transactions on blur, and blur opened up the market in this way.
Multiple rounds of airdrops
Optimism is a typical example of multi-round airdrops, because it is not one airdrop, but multiple airdrops. The advantage of this is to prevent the project from losing popularity after the airdrop. Many people choose to sell the tokens after completing the airdrop, and then switch to the next project, without really paying attention to the long-term development of the project. In the long run, this kind of airdrop is not good for the ecological development of the project, so a small amount is more. This time became the choice of the project party.
After the first airdrop, Optimism recently conducted a second round of airdrops. Many people who interacted only received a small number of tokens, but the official mainly incentivized governance voting users. The implication is that the Optimism project team wants to let people Users can deeply participate in Optimism's project governance, not for short-term interests.
Because governance involves voting, and the number of votes is determined by the number of tokens held, the incentive for voting users is to let everyone hold tokens to participate in the project and not to sell in a hurry, which can also reduce market selling. pressure.
At the same time, multiple votes will mean multiple market topics, which will arouse everyone's enthusiasm. In addition, it can also maintain the long-term popularity of the Optimism chain and avoid the deserted situation after the airdrop. In this regard, the current effect of Optimism is relatively ideal.
Brushing airdrops is an important part of the ecosystem
Many people sneer at trading airdrops. These people are generally divided into two categories. One type is those who say the grapes are sour. They don’t trade airdrops themselves, but they see the wealth-creating effect of others using airdrops. Naturally, there is an imbalance. , we can also understand this. After all, others have received huge returns. If they traveled back in time, they might earn more than anyone else.
The second category is some project parties. They believe that airdrops should be given to real users. If they are given to people who make transactions, it will be counterproductive. Although that is said, in fact, the project parties who hold this view do not have strong demand for real users. Their real purpose is that the project wants to gain a lot of discussion and attention from the cryptocurrency industry during the airdrop, that is, the project Attention, interactive users are only a manifestation of the project's attention.
But what we need to realize is that although user attention can trigger project enthusiasm, it is not the only way. In fact, many users' attention has been subtly guided by industry media. In other words, user attention is actually It is also "brushed" out.
When we realize this phenomenon, we can actually find that the project side’s airdrops and users’ airdrops essentially require the market to discuss the project, thereby attracting more users to understand and use the project. Airdrops are actually another form of advertising fee. Therefore, using airdrops is actually a way to cooperate with the project party to expand the project’s popularity. We can understand it as an attention economy behavior.
At the same time, projects should be tolerant of airdrops before they gain popularity, because in this way they can get more project publicity and let more people know about the project. At this time, the project also needs these "living advertisements" publicity, and It's not a deliberate ban.
After the project has gained a certain degree of popularity, it can do some things to prevent airdrops from being used, but it cannot ban all of them. If the ban is too strict, it will be considered as having no pattern. In this way, "living advertisements" may have negative news about some projects, which will make things worse. On the contrary, this is what we mean when we say that if the water is extremely clear, there will be no fish.
How to adapt to the new airdrop market
1. Don’t make the scale too big
Most of the anti-witches are generally caused by the project team wanting to exclude users who are swiping batches. In essence, they contribute little but get a lot. Therefore, controlling the scale to a small range is a good method. On the one hand, the probability of being detected is reduced. , on the other hand, it can also reduce your own risks.
2. Deep interaction
In-depth interaction is not only a process of understanding the project, but also a process of judgment of real users by the project side. The current airdrop interaction focuses on the essence rather than the quantity. Later, it may also involve factors such as the amount of funds, such as based on the number of votes you hold. The implication of issuing an airdrop is that if you hold fewer tokens, you will get less. One hundred ordinary users may not be worth one large user, so increasing depth is an important direction.
3. Pay attention to contribution
Behaviors such as voting and interaction themselves are contributions to the project. We should not regard it as a task. The essence of contribution is to participate in the project. Just like what we often say about decentralized governance, the project is like a company. , and users are like company employees. Contributing to the project can increase the visibility of the project, and they can also get corresponding rewards. We have seen some task platforms like galxe. The essence of their appearance is to hope that users will participate in the project ecology. And make a contribution so you can potentially be rewarded.
4. Pick a project
Project development prospects are closely related to the amount of airdrops. However, everyone’s time is limited, and it is impossible to do all possible airdrop projects. Therefore, project selection becomes an important factor. Generally, large projects with high financing amounts are selected. Such projects generally require It is not low, and it is relatively high-volume. Therefore, except for a few projects that everyone is unanimously optimistic about, most small projects can actually be selectively abandoned, unless there is a relatively clear prospect, or there is enough time to do it again.
Summarize
In fact, the threshold for airdrops is constantly rising. Most people realize that it will be increasingly difficult to participate in airdrops in the future. This in itself is a reflection of the mature development of the industry. Therefore, for friends who focus on airdrops, on the one hand, they must do a good job in airdrops. To adapt to the market, on the other hand, you should not be overly obsessed with airdrops and put all your energy into them. Any field may be subverted in the future, and new ways of playing will also appear. Over-reliance will become the biggest risk, so pay appropriate attention to the industry. In other directions, more opportunities are sometimes discovered.
