The long-gestating interoperability protocol LayerZero’s token airdrop has opened for withdrawal today. However, 10 minutes before the opening of token claims, the LayerZero team suddenly announced a new claim mechanism called "Proof-of-Donation" and planned to donate to the Ethereum developer financing protocol ProtocolGuild through this mechanism. Approximately $18.5 million.
Specifically, when users claim ZRO tokens, they must also donate $0.1 USDC, USDT, or ETH for each ZRO token, which will be donated directly to ProtocolGuild.
This mechanism of LayerZero has caused strong dissatisfaction in the community. Many people believe that this forced donation is equivalent to a disguised tax.
While I get the intention, @LayerZero_Labs a forced donation is wrong.If you force a donation then it's called a tax. I supported PG willingly in the past.If you want to support PG you can donate directly or give an allocation to people who donated.(pic from @BlurCrypto) pic.twitter.com/Lpve5ZgyIl
— Lefteris Karapetsas | Hiring for @rotkiapp (@LefterisJP) June 20, 2024
In this regard, LayerZero Labs co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino said on X that users do not need to force donations. If you don’t want to donate, you can choose not to receive ZRO tokens:
"This is not something that originally belonged to you, but was given as a gift."
Due to too many negative comments, Bryan Pellegrino subsequently posted a tweet on X explaining LayerZero’s Proof of Donation mechanism and the logic behind it in detail.
Bryan Pellegrino said that the airdrop trend has completely failed. When she personally received an airdrop from Uniswap, it was completely unexpected and he only used the protocol because it worked. He also didn’t go back and use Uniswap 1,000 times afterwards to get airdrops, hoping that the protocol would give him more token airdrops.
Bryan Pellegrino further pointed out that LayerZero did not originally plan to conduct airdrops. Later, the market's expectations for airdrops were too strong and a large number of users interacted frantically in order to obtain airdrops. The team was forced to decide to conduct airdrops in the first half of 2024. But the trend of token airdrops has completely changed. Those who participate just because they expect to get more things are unlikely to be long-term stable users, and the tokens allocated to active users will eventually only flow to some people with financial interests.
"The purpose of the donation certificate is to get people to stop and think for two seconds. Each person donates a few pennies to an amazing group that really needs support, and we all benefit greatly from it. Stop, think, and commit to an amazing cause. Donate and hope for more consistency and the same shared values we have - immutable, permissionless, censorship-resistant infrastructure."
This article requires donations to receive airdrops! LayerZero’s token claiming mechanism has been questioned and is a disguised form of taxation; Founder: We didn’t originally plan to issue airdrops. First appeared on Zombit.
