Airdrops: 5 projects not to be missed 🪂

It's not easy to invest in this period of decline... While bitcoin and other cryptos have fallen sharply, one of the tips for positioning yourself without losing too many feathers may still be to seek out "aidrops", these operations in which emerging projects give tokens away for free to users to support their development.

We have selected five projects that caught our eye and that could make use of them in the coming weeks or months. Here are the best ideas and practices for accessing them.

But before discovering our selection, we'd like to take a look back at the philosophy behind airdrops, how they work, as well as their benefits for projects and users.

Airdrops are widely used by crypto projects because they help attract their first users and federate a community around them. This is the lifeblood of crypto. Many projects have broken their teeth on this point. "A token is not always essential to make a protocol work, like Ethereum's Layer 2 (L2) for example, which could have kept the ether (ETH) as a token, but we've seen that it's difficult to build a community without a token," points out Jimmy Ragosa, advisor to the Sismo project. For example, L2 Optimism launched its OP token at the beginning of June.

For projects, using an airdrop is also a way of accelerating the decentralisation of their governance. Each token represents a right to vote on future decisions, giving the community the power to influence.

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One of the best-known airdrops is that of Uniswap. In September 2020, the decentralised exchange platform distributed 400 UNI tokens to anyone who had used its protocol at least once in the past. At the time of the operation, the airdrop was worth around $1,500. But a few months later, in April 2021, it peaked at more than $50,000.

Other projects also made news, such as dYdX. In August 2021, this decentralised derivatives platform sent 310.75 DYDX tokens to everyone who had used its services at least once. Between August and September, the value of the airdrop rose from around $1,000 to more than $8,000. And these cases are far from isolated.

But the “blessed” days of massive, easy-to-obtain airdrops are over. While these operations still exist, the eligibility conditions have been tightened considerably in response to certain abuses. Many projects have faced situations where users created multiple addresses to multiply rewards.

These practices threaten projects because opportunistic users often resell their tokens immediately, helping to drive down the token’s price as soon as it is launched. The Ribbon project was hit at the end of 2021 when Divergence Ventures created dozens of addresses meeting the minimum airdrop requirements. It received the equivalent of $2.5 million in RBN, which was quickly resold on the market.

To avoid these disappointments, projects have made minimum thresholds more complex to ensure tokens go to active users rather than “mercenaries.” Paraswap, for example, required users to interact several times across Ethereum, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain, and hold a minimum balance. Only 19,000 addresses (out of 1.8 million that had interacted with Paraswap) received the PSP token — worth between $5,000 and $10,000 for recipients.

Now that you know all about airdrops, you can check out our selection below. This list was created with Jean Brasse, a specialist in the subject, who offers recommendations to maximise your chances of being eligible.

1 — Arbitrum

Arbitrum is a layer 2 (L2) solution that enhances Ethereum's scalability using optimistic rollups technology.

To potentially benefit from a future airdrop:

• Use Arbitrum’s official bridge
• Use protocols deployed on Arbitrum (Curve, Uniswap, GMX, Dopex, Sushi, Aave)
• Participate in Arbitrum Odyssey

2 — StarkNet

StarkNet is another Ethereum scalability solution that uses ZK rollups technology. Many experts believe it could become one of Ethereum’s highest-performing layer 2 solutions.

Ways to potentially qualify:

• Use the official StarkGate bridge
• Try protocols deployed on the StarkNet testnet (StarkSwap, JediSwap, MySwap)
• Launch your own StarkNet node

3 — ZkSync

ZkSync is also an Ethereum scalability solution, based on ZK rollups.

Potential actions:

• Use bridges supporting ZkSync (ZigZag, LayerSwap, Orbiter)
• Perform swaps on ZigZag using the ZkSync network
• Use the ZkSync V2 testnet

4 — Lens Protocol

Lens is a protocol built on Polygon designed to develop decentralised social networks where users own their data.

To increase your chances:

• Use the private beta (if eligible)
• Use applications built on Lens (Lenster, LensTube, Phaver, Refract, Iris Social)
• Follow other Lens users
• Write posts
• Collect posts
• Mirror posts
• Comment on posts

5 — DeBank / Rabby

DeBank is a multichain wallet tracker integrating more than 1,000 protocols across 34 blockchains. Rabby is DeBank’s wallet.

Possible actions:

• Connect and verify your address on DeBank
• Follow other addresses
• Connect your Twitter account
• Connect your GitHub account
• Add your email address
• Mint your ID
• Vote on proposals
• Install and use the Rabby wallet

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