Little known to the general public, airdrops are an excellent way to obtain starting capital in crypto. You’ve probably heard about them with Arbitrum or, more recently, Optimism.
First, you need to understand the principle, as it might seem a bit strange to be given money for free.
In reality, it’s not “free.” Often, it’s protocols or even chains themselves that reward you for testing their product in beta and putting it to the test, which is why you can receive money.
You provide a service that is valuable to them, your on-chain activity is recorded (it’s a snapshot), measured, and you are compensated proportionally.
It is also an excellent way to establish an ecosystem with a more equitable tokenToken A digital asset issued on a blockchain, representing various utilities, rights, or value. distribution compared to a model with multiple presales and seeds.
Depending on marketMarket A place where assets are bought and sold. conditions, the airdropAirdrop The free distribution of cryptocurrencies to existing holders or community members to promote a project. It's an excellent way to distribute tokens among different users and launch a project. can be massively dumped by participants or sent into price discovery, but considering the risk and almost zero initial investment, it attracts a lot of people.
Now that it’s clearer, let’s differentiate the types of airdrops, as many sites offer to help you farm them, but what’s the reality?
Many sites will receive significant sums to talk about certain projects, and some become true airdrop marketplaces to the point where almost none of their recommendations will be valuable in terms of time invested versus return.
You may end up with $10 and 9 out of 10 airdrops that don’t pay because they are just projects that wanted to boost their stats to raise funds.
If you know what you’re doing, it’s by far the best way to obtain starting capital in crypto.
To do this, research the protocols that are coming out, the potential release of a token for each project, be curious, test protocols, go through testnets, study the eligibility criteria of previous major airdrops. This can involve a lot of effort, fortunately, W3F has already done it for you and provides its best tips.
What are the main eligibility criteria generally used?
- Interact with the product!
This is fundamental; it’s what every project is looking for. Connect a walletWallet A tool used to store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies. (specifically for this purpose, not your usual wallet) and interact with the features, even if you don’t need them. Make some swaps, a buy/sell, a pool, etc. The best approach is to always do a bit of volume and multiple transactions over several days/weeks to simulate normal user behavior, not a farmer or bot. - BridgeBridge A protocol allowing the transfer of assets from one blockchain to another. Funds:
Do it according to your means, but a minimum of $500 would be interesting as you will often need to do volume on each wallet. - Bridge Multiple Times:
Don’t hesitate to bridge in and out to simulate a less robotic behavior. - Transaction Volume:
This varies greatly by protocol, but aiming for a volume around $10k is interesting. - Number of Transactions:
It’s beneficial to exceed a hundred transactions (at least 10, always), interact with multiple smart contracts, perform diverse actions, and be consistent (without being robotic; avoid transactions always at the same time, etc.). - Transaction Dates:
Timeliness is also important; it’s about simulating a normal user.
Regularly return to the wallet to make transactions. If you farm with multiple wallets, create an Excel sheet and keep everything organized.
For securitySecurity The measures and technologies used to protect blockchain networks and assets from theft, fraud, and attacks. reasons, it is not advisable to note the seeds in a file, but if you prefer to do so for a significant number of wallets, opt for a local file on a PC only you have access to, and definitely not on the cloud like Google Sheets.
To avoid this, you can use Rabby to manage multiple wallets.
How to Know if a Project Will Have an Airdrop?
First, valuable airdrops are not announced on the protocol’s or chain’s networks; if they are, it’s generally too late to be eligible. Why? Because the goal is to attract and reward genuine users who can test the product, not airdrop farmers.
Therefore, you need to keep a constant watch on protocol announcements, testnets, functionalities, and test them with wallets specifically for that purpose. If you don’t want to get involved that much, there are services that do this for a percentage of the airdrop or other fees. With the existence of sybil services, the simplest approach is to see what these services offer and for which protocols/chains. You will quickly get an idea of potentially significant airdrops and can then set up your path to farm them if you wish to do it yourself.
Study Sybilling and Start with Multiple Wallets
When you are more comfortable, you can start farming with multiple wallets.
What is sybilling and why do some users do it?
It involves farming airdrops on a massive scale using numerous different wallets that are not linked together to collect the maximum rewards. Of course, on your scale, this might involve at most twenty wallets, but it remains significant if you achieve it and have targeted well.
If you do this, it is important to fund the wallets from a CEXCEX A centralized exchange platform controlled by a single entity. or a well-known on-chain casino to avoid any linkage.
You will repeat the same interactions as before on each wallet.
It might seem trivial, but do it once you are familiar with the mechanisms and know what you are doing. Do not underestimate it. I don’t think there will be many more opportunities to get free money like this for long; there are already groups working to maximize sybil airdrops, and it’s becoming more professional.
Disclaimer : As Gary Gensler wants to protect you, US Residents Do Not Have Access to Airdrops.
Would be a shame if you could receive money almost for free and be compensated for your time and efforts!
