The fame that precedes airdrops
If you even hang out in the crypto world, just a casual glance, it would still be impossible to have never heard the word airdrop. Perhaps that’s because, between one thing and another, it’s always a good time for an airdrop: in essence, it rhymes with “free money” and, on the project side, is the easiest way to attract users and increase the size of one’s community.
But what is a cryptocurrency airdrop? In a nutshell, one could say that an airdrop is nothing more than the sending of free tokens to someone, usually the members of a community, by the related project, based of course on blockchain. An airdrop token is part of what is the marketing strategy of the reality in question.
In fact, the airdrop answers the question “how to earn crypto for free?”, a dream of so many people. An action at no cost, but one that still requires some knowledge to avoid running into unpleasant situations. Let’s find out what it is all about in this comprehensive and quick-reading article.
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Crypto airdrop: what it is?
How does an airdrop work? The idea is simple. A project, in order to look for people inclined to commit to supporting it, sends its tokens to a predefined number of wallets, hoping to find people interested and, in general, informing everyone about the existence of the project itself, promoting its furtherance.
A simple enough dynamic, if you think about it: a kind of coupon that one gets in one’s mailbox, but with cryptocurrencies.
And this is not a detail, because it leaves much more imagination for those who want to organize various side activities for which more participation will then be required.
For example, it is usual for users who receive a crypto airdrop to be asked to complete certain activities. These include following the project’s social accounts, retweeting a post, sending (or receiving) a transaction via a certain platform, or even registering an account. These are all actions that just happen to be used to promote the project externally or to verify certain features of the project.
"By completing tasks or meeting certain requirements, here you qualify for a crypto airdrop"
Airdrop crypto: marketing operation?
As we were saying, the main reason for organizing a crypto airdrop, if it was not already understood, remains that of promoting a project, be it in the form of a startup or blockchain service. The benefits are numerous, such as ensuring an equitable distribution of tokens among the community from day one, which in turn will be incentivized to increase its awareness; in addition, the project gains strength and is able to reach a wider audience once tokens start being traded. At that point, the greater the interest surrounding the cryptocurrency, the greater the likelihood that it will increase in price.
In more detail, how does a crypto airdrop work? Let’s find out some of the dynamics.
There are several ways to conduct an airdrop.
First, users can be asked to complete social activities to qualify for the transaction, or based on a particular asset or balance on the blockchain to determine who should receive the airdrop. Such a scenario could consist of (for example, as has already happened) sending tokens to those who own a wallet with 0.01 ETH, Ethereum coin , creating a target audience in zero time.
Regardless of the selection method, once qualified, here come the free cryptos. At that point, the airdrop is effectively concluded.
Usually, after the airdrop, the value of the coin or token experiences a major drop. This is because it is free money and the selling pressure will be high. However, those who think the project is worthwhile may hold the crypto in their portfolio, regardless of these dynamics.
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Scams in crypto airdrops
However, because recipients can receive “free money” in their wallets, there are airdrops that consist of nothing more than pump and dump schemes.
This is the case for which a developer issues a token and hopes that there will be enough hype surrounding it to see it listed on an exchange such as Binance or Bybit.
At that point, once the tokens begin to be traded, the developer sells its considerable share, causing the price to collapse.
Another potential vector for fraud of this kind is the so-called dust attack.
A fraudster sends a small amount of cryptocurrency to a user (hence the term “dust”), then tracks the transaction activity of the wallet tokens, which are distributed to anonymize the person or company managing it.
A true hacking attack, in which fraudsters try to break users’ privacy by sending minimal amounts of tokens to their personal wallets.
How to participate in crypto airdrops?
The crypto industry is constantly seeing new types of airdrop, tailored to the specific case. It can be the simple past use of a particular platform, or a predetermined amount of money spent on a service always related to the airdropped token’s area of operation. Or again, the corresponding reimbursement of an expense made in the past.
In general, because an airdrop is designed primarily for promotional and marketing activities, it can be complicated to ensure that you are eligible for participation. And each airdrop has individual requirements for assessing eligibility.
One that leverages a snapshot from blockchain, then, is in most cases disclosed after the fact, making qualification even more difficult.
At the very least, there is no shortage of tools to approach this small sector of the crypto market (see CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko).
In fact, there are dedicated websites, on which to register and update with the latest airdrops, or classic social browsing tools, such as hashtags, to be able to stay within the timeframes that the holdings require.
And still different news portals, including of course The Crypto Gateway, for mentions, suspicions or announcements of an upcoming airdrop.
