Airdrops: A Common Phenomenon in Cryptocurrency
Airdrops are a widespread practice of distributing a specified or unspecified amount of cryptocurrency. The conditions for such distributions can vary greatly depending on the intentions of the organizers. Sometimes, simply registering and providing the necessary information is enough to receive additional cryptocurrencies. In other cases, it might depend on your involvement in actions specified by the organizers, such as promoting the airdrop or the cryptocurrency itself. Unfortunately, practices reminiscent of pyramid schemes can also occurârewards are only available after inviting a certain number of people, which seems to be quite a common practice. This, however, can disqualify such airdrops in the eyes of potential participants. Other practices associated with the term "airdrop" involve performing specific market actions in line with the organizers' intentions, such as additional rewards for swaps or generally trading certain cryptocurrencies. Personally, I have the impression that this type of airdrop is common on various trading platforms, including popular exchanges.
Unfortunately, it can also happen that promised rewards may never materialize, sometimes due to the dishonesty of the organizer, but it can also occur for other reasons. Risks also include attempts to introduce counterfeit cryptocurrencies or phishing attacks that might, for example, suggest that they need your information to qualify you for the drop, while their real intent may be harmful to you. Therefore, as with all activities related to cryptocurrencies, caution is advised, and it's essential to remember the risks involved in our actions.
For some, it might be puzzling why anyone would distribute cryptocurrencies at all. Earlier, we mentioned creating market movement in line with the authors' intentions, but that's not their only function. Another function, which may also include the previous one, is promoting cryptocurrencies and their new projects to increase their capitalization through marketing and the identity of the coins. Airdrops are also part of "Tokenomics" to establish an initial order regarding the distribution of cryptocurrencies, laying the foundations for the market and the rules governing the system around a specific cryptocurrency.
Is it worth participating in airdrops?
I cannot definitively answer this question. Many of them may provide us with an additional income boost, but it might also be that the time and effort invested are disproportionate to the obtained rewards. At the end of this article, I intend to mention a few airdrops in which I also participated.
- One of the recent completed airdrops I participated in was the distribution of FreeMoon tokens, from which I received the equivalent of about 30 Polish zĆoty (less than 10 dollars) at the time of payout. The reward, given my living standards, is not particularly significant, but the airdrop did not require much effort from me, although it did force me to take the risk of paying a transaction fee to receive this cryptocurrency.
- The Superfans.tech airdrop is quite related to the above. In this case, performing tasks to earn points that ranked us (I suspect the number of points earned was related to the reward) required time and promoting by posting, sharing, and reacting to marketing materials on social media. For the purpose of this content, the exact value of the reward is not crucial, but it is important that the reward was granted in the form of cryptocurrencies frozen in staking, which is very significant for this matter. Namely, the airdrop site and the media and profiles supposedly went offline, which in my case meant losing control over the funds frozen in staking. Thus, at the moment, the reward is worth 0 dollars, although it is possible that access will be restored in the future. For now, however, the engagement was a waste of time considering the benefits available at the time of writing this article.
- Nyan Heroes is another airdrop where various tasks updated on the site had to be performed, mainly involving reacting to and sharing content on social media. The obtained cryptocurrencies were worth about 16 Polish zĆoty (less than 4 euros) at the time of payout, but with the caveat that I didn't complete all tasks, including those related to playing a computer game. Nevertheless, in my case, the gain again did not prove to be commensurate with the effort.
- The Energi $NRG airdrop occurred many years ago at the beginning of my cryptocurrency career. The requirements for participants mainly involved performing community tasks. I no longer remember the exact value at the time of payout, but I believe my gains were approximately 800-900 Polish zĆoty (around $200 today). The downside of this airdrop was that receiving the cryptocurrencies was significantly delayed. Nevertheless, in my personal opinion, the airdrop was satisfying given the sum obtained for the effort, even though it required accepting delays.
As we can see above, there is no definite rule determining whether it is worth participating in airdropsâthey are too diverse, and the amounts received depend on our personal life situation and geopolitical context, which can differentiate the standards and evaluation of received benefits from their perspective. Airdrops give you the opportunity to get often free cryptocurrencies anyway.