Iceland's government imposed capital controls in 2008 after the financial crisis, limiting the circulation of currency.

In order to solve this dilemma, on March 25, 2014, Auroracoin airdropped 31.8 AUR to all registered Icelandic citizens, hoping to replace the Icelandic krona. This marked the beginning of the blockchain airdrop era.

From 2014 to 2016, most of the early airdrops were concentrated in the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities, attracting a large number of users and developers to participate.

At the same time, the way to participate is also very simple, you only need to provide a wallet address and some simple tasks

2017-2018, ICO boom A large number of projects raised funds through ICOs, accompanied by airdrops to expand the community and user base

At this stage, users are required to complete social media sharing, register accounts, etc. to obtain token airdrops.

The most prosperous stage in history, accompanied by the sharp fluctuations in the price of coins, has seen the emergence of a large number of A8 and A9. At the same time, the emergence of dapps has also successfully promoted the development of the entire ecosystem.

2019-2020, the airdrop professionalization stage. Project owners use more complex airdrop rules or target long-term users and supporters in the community as airdrop standards. A large number of scientists and regular soldiers join the battlefield, and the battle enters a white-hot stage.

On September 17, 2020, Uniswap airdropped 400 tokens to addresses that had interacted with its DAPP before September 1, 2020.

Since then, more and more project owners have begun to add the rule of interaction to the airdrop rules, and it has become a trend to spend gas at one’s own expense to interact.

From 2021 to now, some airdrops have evolved into NFT holding and DAO governance airdrops, which better screen supporters and contributors.

During this phase, various witchcraft tactics emerged (decentralized identity verification, Quadratic Funding, Proof of Humanity, social graph analysis, reputation systems, token staking requirements, CAPTCHA verification, etc.), and it became increasingly difficult to make money.

Throughout the history of airdrops, whether it is the simple token giveaways in the early days or the complex community and governance-driven airdrops nowadays, the token airdrop methods have been constantly evolving with market demand and technological progress. However, most project parties have always targeted real users and real supporters for airdrops.

Although recent projects such as ZK, IO, and linea are all anti-money laundering to a certain extent, in my opinion, money laundering is not dead and will not die in the future, but the income of scientists and professional money launderers will be affected to a certain extent.

1. The "Mao Party" can increase the activity and participation of early users

The project party uses airdrops and reward mechanisms, along with various Mao Mao KOLs releasing tutorials, and a large number of Mao Mao parties and users flock in, increasing the activity of the project. At the same time, the bugs of the project can be discovered in time, and then fed back to the project party to improve product quality.

2. The participation of the Mao Mao Party can verify the market demand to a certain extent. For projects on the chain, high-quality projects will attract more people to participate. A broader user base often means market recognition. And a strong consensus can pave the way for future price increases.

3. The coin flippers can promote liquidity and market depth for some liquidity mining and transaction reward projects. For example, aevo and backpack. The coin flippers get loan rewards by brushing transactions, providing liquidity to the platform, thereby increasing the platform's transaction volume and market depth. At the same time, it is conducive to stabilizing token prices and reducing market fluctuations.

4. The project owner can get more support through market data. The project owner can attract strategic partners through attractive user data and market verification, and obtain more resources and support. By cooperating with other projects and platforms, it can build barriers and enhance its own competitiveness.

In general, the "gold-pulling party" and the project party complement each other. The "gold-pulling party" obtains a certain number of token airdrops through early participation, and the project party attracts more investors through high-quality market data and provides more room for the subsequent token increase. Therefore, "gold-pulling" will never disappear, and it will definitely attract more players in the secondary market to participate in the on-chain ecology. Just like the megadrop that Binance is doing now, let the secondary users feel the charm of the chain and gradually participate in it.

Always be long, always believe in the on-chain ecosystem, and always have tears in your eyes.