"Airdrop hunting" has helped me to learn different projects and increased my base knowledge around how to navigate the crypto ecosystems. I don't go too crazy with the guides out there but I do dabble in a few. It can get super overwhelming if I don't take breaks lol
That's not the point of what he wanted to say, airdrops from the point of view of those who do them are very profitable and help in learning how to use the blockchain, but it's a bad thing overall for crypto because it's not sustainable in the long run.
0:00 - Intro & Crypto Airdrops Discussion 0:30 - Airdrops as Liquidity Incentives 1:02 - Airdrops: Free Money or Not? 1:32 - Airdrops for Early Users 2:16 - Airdrops vs. ICOs 2:44 - Airdrops' Impact on Protocol Use 3:38 - Building Community Wrong Way 4:31 - Airdrops Affecting Governance 6:05 - Governance and Voting Power 7:08 - Airdrops' Effect on Token Prices 9:00 - Airdrops and Market Competition 10:42 - L2s in Ethereum Space 13:17 - L1 Blockchains Focus for 2024 17:46 - Developer Experience on L1 Chains 21:20 - Luxo Standard Proposals
I don't really see a reason to use most of these new projects unless there is an airdrop. Why would I risk funds on a new, untested project when there is already an established protocol available. The airdrop makes the risk worth it and gives me a reason to risk a % of my funds to use a different protocol then I would use normally.
Fair. But what happens when every new project offers points or airdrops? We are back to square one, but this time you have token allocations floating around that don’t need to be there. Pressure will start to mount on projects to offer bigger and bigger airdrops to lure people, and that’ll make the issues I mentioned in this video more prevalent IMO
I've benefited from 2 airdrops so far and both have been the result on organic usage as opposed to airdrop farming. GTC and OP. Neither of these were Life Changing in any way, but both were precious to me. i had no idea that the interactions i had participated in would result in a financial gain. It seems this is what airdrops should be. The problem is how do you separate out those who come in to farm and those who use the service because they prefer the project over it's peers.
you ask a great question, "How do we separate out projects with great airdrops from the rip-off ones"? I can answer that for you..... look for this video and search "NextWeb3 Airdrops". I have been part of this project for over 2 years and they take all the guessing out of airdrops and do them for you. I am super excited.
These are exceptions not rules, IMO Many of those above airdropped after being long established or were early to the airdrop mechanism. The ubiquity of airdrops is a big part of why I feel it’s already outlived its usefulness
I agree with some points your making. But I also think airdrops will get a lot more people in to crypto and learn about ecosystems, wallets, dapps and some of these experiences will stick and people will continue to use these things because it made a good impression. Also i see there are a lot of ways to do these airdrops and i think the right way to do these depends from project to project. I think the ways of distributing and rewards criteria will evolve over the coming years. It seems this trend is here to stay.
I super appreciate the authenticity in this video. Tons of videos coming out pumping airdrops with unrealistic expectations. Your content is a relief. Thanks for sharing.
Great vid, and I think valid points. I also find the constant proclaiming of airdrops round the cryptosphere exhausting. I'm not degen enough to capture projects in their infancy and often find my self coming too late to the party... Also, I'm scared of my wallets getting fleeced by air-drop scams. I'm happy to focus on DYOR of decent projects and investing in those....
Wouldn't a simple solution to this issue be to implement a vesting schedule for the airdrops? If it's long enough then the protocol may shake out people who are looking to cash out immediately, and reduce the impact of whatever selling pressure there would be? (Full disclosure: I airdrop farm to accelerate my ability to build capital). Great channel!
I have never made money chasing airdrops. I have actually lost. I do way better buying low and hodling. Free lunches aren’t sustainable and tells me a project doesn’t have enough merit to stand on its own without the promos of free money. To those that have prospered, good for you. That has not been my experience.
Due to the predator sec and the realities of metcalfe’s Law, airdrops are not free money. They are earned. The dapps need these airdrops to get around security laws. Secondly, a networks value is directly connected to its users. Which means, users are the most valuable asset in crypto. The developers make more money airdropping token than with ICO’s. With ICO’s they have to sell at a low price. With Airdrops, the devs can keep a big bag. Airdrop a ton of users. Because it has a lot of users, the network then has value. Then the devs can sell at the full market price than hooking up the rich with bags that they buy for pennies on the dollar. Airdrops literally make more money. They are better. So, airdroper’s are freelancers getting gig work. Don’t hate the players exploiting what they have. Hate the game.
I joined several airdrops but Im feeling like a bubble is building. Maybe theres a lot to go for this bubble to pop but beginning to feel the over saturation.
Its like your company only wants to hire highly experienced employees , just because freshers may be unstable , and if all the companies start thinking like you then your industry maybe dead at max in 2 decades just because this industry never allowed new people into the ecosystem just because of few insecurities......😢😢
I think that it’s still a bit early to have such a negative perception of airdrops on the whole. As it stands, projects like Celestia, Injective and Arbitrum seem to be doing very well… and all of them were airdropped. We’ll see in a year or two where things lie for Pyth, SatoshiVM and Manta. I believe that it’s an effective way to onboard new years and draw attention to your project. There will always be people who will sell as soon as they can make a profit. In fact, I’d argue that 90%+ of us in the crypto space are here to do just that… make a profit. We’re not designers or engineers. Really no different from the stock market tbh.
Interesting view and for protocols I mostly agree since they continuously get dumped to zero but blockchains themselves are thriving due to the initial boost in TVL from airdrops. Arbitrum, Optimism, Aptos, Injective, Celestia and most recently Manta are just a handful of examples. I think crypto influencers are worse for the space than the airdrops themselves. They’re the ones pushing this “get rich from airdrops” narrative. That being said I like your viewpoints even though I don’t fully agree.
Great insights. QUESTION What do you think of airdrops like the upcoming Polkadot drop of the $Ded meme coin? How do you think that may affect the price of DOT? Thanks
you just need to understand simple things, projects now have a lot of money even without a token, drop goes not only to people but to the core team (they take money for themselves). Don't be naive, there will be drops because it's the team that benefits the most
I agree. To me an airdrop gives a project a bad smell. It turns me away. However, how do you grow users without one? In my experience, when the project/ Dapp is small, the quality of the tech barely matters. Perhaps some cheap methods like airdrops are nessecary then to draw attention.
It us not bad to reward genue users for testing their protocol, most especially those whose been from beginning. Yes there are bad players but don't discourage reward to really had consistent and long term users.
Great insight, but slightly disagree. I actually think airdrops are important for gaining new users. Most of the projects I'm still using were due to an airdrop. I think the bigger issue is a sloppy airdrop. Projects that airdrop dust or insane amounts just cause people to sell. The other issue is bad timing. Some projects do an airdrop before the project is ready or at least usable. Of course, people are going to sell if they can't even use your product. The projects also need to try to target the right groups of people who will use their product and not just whales. Maybe do an airdrop for people who use a competitor's project or something similar.
where are the data that support his theory that crypto farmers dump their airdrop bags immediately? From experience I can telll, that more often than not users hold a good portion of projects that they are bullish on and commited to, and rather wait for them to pump, what they certainly do under bull makret conditions
Why are you telling your audience why you don't like how developers are doing airdrops? Your viewers are the users, not the devs. Sounds like you have some preaching you want to give to the devs.
Couldn't agree more. I'm seeing people in chats saying they will leave the project, basically threatening unless they reveal what the aidrop will be. These airdrop hunters are very negative to the space.
I heard someone say gotta farm airdrops this weekend from someone and I knew all the good from airdrops was over a long time again. It needs to be organic but airdrops now are just Hussle culture which is BS and bad for the community
I got 2.1k from Dymension from staking 100 bucks of Celestia. Got Pyth for just using Optimism (1.5k). Got ZKfair, Jupiter, Manta, and Mantle as well. Almost 4k in basically free money. Most people are lazy and can’t press the buttons consistently. Yeah it’s not over
The problem is, there is no need for hundrets of dexes and tausends of staking oportunities. There is to much offer and less demand. So the people hop from one to another after recieving the airdrop.
I would argue more people don't stake AMS96X because you can do more with AMS96X , and staking is harder to do so users do nothing or use liquid staking
I’ve dabbled in Airdrops, and usually I end up being thoroughly disappointed with my returns on investment. I find that by the time you pay all these crazy gas fees, jump through all the hoops and do all the leg work it’s just not worth it tbh
You missing the bigger picture! If this airdrop wouod not be in the hand of the community it will be VCs that would probably bough them and dump on retail! And its not true Project need to test their apps and this cost is very expensive so they reward the community who help test its pretty healthy. Project are just very early them people will buy in the project if its good.
Thank you, Hatoshi.. I concur with your opinion on airdrops. On your second point, I think that the ICP project has implemented a secure, scalable and functional L1 blockchain and is focusing on the developer community and organic growth... albeit this sucks as an investor because the chains with the hyped up narratives and airdrops are the ones that attract more early adopters and therefore liquidity and therefore more hype.
Makes perfect sense. The big question is what percentage of users continue to be loyal (use and hold) after the airdrop bingo initially pulled them in(?)
Thanks for sharing such valuable information! Just a quick off-topic question: My OKX wallet holds some USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (behave today finger ski upon boy assault summer exhaust beauty stereo over). How can I transfer them to Binance?
Very sound & solid perspective on how to build “sound” for the future, unfortunately beside genuine devs, among the rest of crypto natives, a large percentage are degens who are more about daily/weekly/monthly gains. The crypto rainforest is quite a diverse ecosystem of thinkers, engineers, VCs, institutional investors, retail investors and degens….. oh & newbz 😂 Great video mate.
Hate to break it to ya but 99% of us are here for the money, not the tech. "Show me the incentive I'll show you the outcome" I agree this will get ran into the ground but until then I'll grind and try to maximize my returns
VC's do nothing for projects apart from providing capital for them to operate for a while, no marketing etc, VC's let them get on with it after, expecting a return in the future; without community using the protocol, they would have no product and they can leverage community to advertise for free effective in exchange for a percentage of the money they received from VC's instead of actually doing marketing capaigns where nobody would use them anyway. People love free money, it's no even free, the time and effort required to do the airdrops is like actually doing a regular Job. You must be a representative of a VC, only greed is what interests them.
I'm considering doing an airdrop for my project because vc's who have offered me money want too much equity imho. My need is basically crowdfunding to keep building, does it matter if people dump quickly? I don't know if it matters to me. I seek an alternative to vc funding, and plan to drive value after project launch, so speculators and degens can do what they wish, more power to them. Community of true believers can come later, and my thanks to everyone who aped in early, you guys deserve whatever gains you get bc you provided my team with meaningful runway. Seems like a good use of an airdrop to me. I'd love for you to tell me why this is wrong.
I can see both sides of this but lean more towards continuing with airdrops in many situations. It’s an attention economy and for success they need a good splash. It brings people why try their stuff and ultimately can lead to long term use IF they like the dapp. It helps bootstrap liquidity by attracting users. An L1 rewarding stakers with ecosystem tokens is a really great thing that works for everyone when done right. Ultimately the good L1’s and protocols will survive. What I hate about airdrops is people who say stake the bare minimum among 10-20 wallets just to dump. But hell if I lived in poverty or something I’d do it and be damn thankful for them.
YT Shillers always say look money coming in but the MC doesnt increase. By making the time period much longer for use and staking etc then we limit the impact of dumpers. Yes stake for year and we will treat you good.
You sound a bit salty brev ? Did you not catch $UNI $OP or $ARB airdrops ? just to name a few early ones also $INJ $TIA have made life changing gains, most airdrops are doing well so your thesis is all wrong on airdrops. You talk about cardano alot i suggest you get into some airdrops you we make more than you could ever make on cardarno.
It's like if your work hard for hunting airdrops it will rewards you without any capital expose like me I've been in airdrops for 4 years I remember 2021 is my breakthrough I've earn almost 40k dollars for all the airdrops that I've entered that's the time I never had problems for kapital anymore I still hunt airdrops this day but the legit alpha only
I will be forever grateful to you, you changed my whole life and I will continue to preach on your behalf for the whole world to hear you saved me from huge financial debt with just a small investment, thank you Deborah Davis.
Reasonable analysis. It seems that many many projects in crypto are in fact quite useless and the only way to draw users is through the process of airdrops. The simple reality is most people buying crypto are in it for financial gain/speculation. Interesting space, let's see where all this goes. Solana, one of the hottest chains is not even decentralized, I thought that was the promise of crypto. Very interesting tech, lots of scams and risk.
Airdrops are type of promotion which are usually done in wrong way, its not easy to balance things today when you have army of angry and greedy people everywhere. I think every type of promotion is good if done in proper and smart way ,but many projects doing it wrong.
Preach my brotha. The free money has to come from somewhere almost 💯 it isn’t coming from insiders and VC’s. Wake up sheep be patient and let your gains come organically.
Of course it’s good and bad. Remember if it wasn’t for airdrop there will be more than 90% of people know or will use those new projects. Uniswap , Arbitrum OP Aptos etc.. will only get bigger
It depends heavily on the overall situation and goal of the project. A DEX will handle this differently than an L1. One good option IMO is to Set the tokens aside for treasury use or protocol emissions
Sorry this isn’t true. I’ve only started doing airdrops and had I not I never would have found great projects and platform which I use now! Like jup and some gamble fi projects. Which is exactly what the objective of a airdrop is
See on airdrops as corporate dividends rewarding its investors for their trust and loyalty and it’s not *free money* . Stop confusing people, as Einstein said if you cannot explain it simple don’t explain it.
Can make more money getting merchandise and selling it…. I’ve tried staking with a pretty good apy, and I’m not doing it again while I’m on the wealth building phase.
In this video i saw that you dont understand crypto... Sry but airdrops are the best way for a project to be decentral.... Its anti whale thing i dont think you have understand this!!
You have done nothing in this comment to substantiate your position If airdrops are anti-whale, why is it that whales who have tons of onchain resources can farm the living hell out of airdrops… such as Jupiter as a recent example
Air drops = ill buy your attention and liquidity for a short moment. It's short sighted, instead spend that money building real value and organic grassroots marketing.
