Written by: 0xjs@Golden Finance
On June 1, 2024, the community-focused zk-rollup L2 zkSync finally announced the details of the ZK token airdrop.
ZK Token Distribution Details
The total supply of ZK tokens is 21 billion. The token contract is deployed on zkSync Era, and the contract address is 0x5A7d6b2F92C77FAD6CCaBd7EE0624E64907Eaf3E.
66.6% of the total supply of ZK is allocated to the community: 17.5% of the total supply of ZK (approximately 3.675 billion) will be allocated to the community in a one-time airdrop; the remainder (49.1%) will be distributed over time through the ecosystem program managed by the ZKsync Foundation and the ZK Nation governance process to support the growing ecosystem as new users come on-chain.
33.3% of the total supply is allocated to investors and the Matter Labs team: 17.2% to investors; 16.1% to the Matter Labs team. These ZK tokens are locked for one year and then unlocked within 3 years, from June 2025 to June 2028.
ZK Airdrop Details
According to official information from Matter Labs, 17.5% of the total supply of ZK will be airdropped to the community at one time, and the airdropped tokens will not have any vesting or lock-up period and will be fully circulated on the first day.
There are two ways for the crypto community to obtain this 17.5% airdrop of approximately 3.675 billion ZK.
89% airdropped to users: ZKsync users who conduct transactions on ZKsync and reach the activity threshold.
11% airdropped to contributors: individuals, developers, researchers, communities, and companies that contribute to the ZKsync ecosystem and protocol through development, advocacy, or education — regardless of their activity on ZKsync.
Airdrop eligibility and allocation are based on a snapshot of ZKsync Era and ZKsync Lite activity taken at 0:00 UTC on March 24, 2024, marking the first anniversary of the ZKsync Era mainnet launch.
According to official news, 695232 Brother Wallet meets the air investment qualifications.
Principles of ZK Airdrop
The official blog of zkSync also explained the principles of ZK airdrops. They believe that the community is everything, and that airdrops should be given to real users rather than witches, and how to treat whales, etc.
Community is everything Powering the community
17.5% of the total ZK supply was airdropped to 695,232 wallets, the largest distribution of tokens to users among all major rollups. The airdropped tokens have no vesting or lockup period and are fully circulated on day one. This amount is higher than the locked allocations of the Matter Labs team (16.1%) and its investors (17.2%).
The number of tokens awarded in the airdrop is larger than the Matter Labs team and investors have, making this more than just a symbolic decision for the community. When the ZKsync governance system launches in the coming weeks, the community will have the largest liquid token supply to guide protocol governance upgrades.
Rewarding real people
A well-designed airdrop rewards community members who actively participate in the network. With 6 million unique addresses on ZKsync Era, it is easy to eliminate bot swarms by applying strict sybil criteria. But sybil detection often uses arbitrary filters to exclude real users. This is an incomplete approach for ZK airdrops.
The ZK airdrop focuses on identifying real users using a human-centric approach. A wallet’s on-chain history can reveal a lot about its owner’s habits. Real people tend to be risk-takers, especially those who feel like part of a community. They spend time on-chain, impersonating, trading, trying new protocols, and holding speculative assets. Bots and opportunists are the opposite. Bots take fewer risks with minimal effort as they try to fit in and extract value from a community.
Whale addresses can airdrop up to 100,000 ZK
Real humans are involved. They bring assets together, which eventually flow into dApps and DeFi protocols, becoming the lifeblood of a high-liquidity ecosystem. Users should be rewarded accordingly for their contribution to ZKsync's success.
But there are limits. It is easy for a whale to get a large allocation without any limits and then run away. ZK allocation is a maximum of 100,000 tokens airdropped per address. By limiting the number of whales, the ZK token airdrop fairly rewards community members who contribute to ZKsync in a different way.
Steps to receive ZK airdrop
Step 1. Qualification
First, every address that has transacted on ZKsync Era and ZKsync Lite will be checked against eligibility criteria that identify people who have taken the time to carefully explore ZKsync. Every address must have at least one credit to be eligible for the airdrop.
Step 2. Assign
After a wallet is determined to qualify, its allocation is calculated based on the crypto assets transferred into ZKsync Era. The formula adjusts the address’ allocation based on how much assets it has in ZKsync Era (in wallets and DeFi) and how long those assets have been in ZKsync Era. Each address’ value-scaled allocation then increases with each additional point they earn. The more points earned, the larger the final allocation, up to a cap of 100,000 ZK.
Step 3. Multiplier
Each address can earn multipliers based on activity that indicates human behavior or a high likelihood of contribution to ZKsync. These multipliers apply to ZKsync Era and Lite eligibility and allocations.
Become part of ZKsync’s thriving culture by owning ZKsync native NFTs
Support the ZKsync ecosystem by holding the ZKsync native ERC20 token
Try ZKsync Era’s native account abstraction using a smart contract wallet
Receive and hold airdrops from other ETH communities to contribute to the long-term success of the network
Transact with popular ETH mainnet smart contracts and explore new use cases and dapps
After step 3, each address is allocated tokens. Addresses must meet a minimum requirement of 450 ZK and a maximum of 100,000 ZK. Tokens from addresses with less than 450 ZK are recycled back into the pool. Excess tokens from addresses with more than 100,000 ZK are also recycled back into the pool. These tokens are then redistributed to bring the minimum allocation to 917 ZK.
Step 4: Thoughtful Sybil Detection
At this point, the vast majority of witches have been naturally eliminated through qualification and allocation criteria. Industrial leechers play a destructive game. They give little and gain a lot, like parasites sucking the blood and sweat of the community. The human-centered approach subverts this asymmetry and benefits real people. It recognizes and rewards users who have done a lot for the community and added value.
At the end of the distribution process, each wallet goes through an additional sybil detection step, which eliminates the most obvious swarm attacks. It intentionally uses a very conservative heuristic framework to avoid accidentally penalizing real people. This approach can solve the problem of some complex bots getting through, but value scaling ensures that their token allocations remain small.
Step 5: Minting, Claiming, and Delegating
Community members can check eligibility at claim.zknation.io and will be able to claim their tokens starting next week until January 3, 2025.
Eligible GitHub developers and ZKsync GitHub discussion helpers must link their addresses to their accounts before 00:00 CEST on June 25 to claim.
External projects, protocol guilds, and ZKsync native project contributors will be able to claim starting June 24, 2024.
With ZKsync’s native account abstraction, claiming ZK does not require paying gas. Once claimed, token holders can participate in the governance of the ZKsync protocol and self-delegate or delegate their token voting power to representatives they believe will continue to promote individual freedom for all.
