Use the least amount of time to get the most stable income! In this article, I will sort out the "minimum living allowance" standards of mainstream airdrops and summarize them to provide ideas for the "minimum living allowance" strategies of future projects!
The Scroll TGE just held in October basically marks the end of the L2 airdrop. After the announcement of the airdrop standard with points as the minimum threshold, my junior sister saw a little unlucky guy with 199.99 points on Twitter hhh.
Yes, the most eye-catching part of each project’s airdrop criteria is the most basic “qualification criteria”, because it means the difference between “0 and hundreds of dollars”. If you consider the case of multiple numbers, it means the difference between “0 and tens of thousands of dollars”.
1. Click to send
1.1 UNI
Airdrop time: 2020
Minimum guarantee standard: Anyone who has used Uniswap before September 1 can receive 400 UNI airdrops, with order number around 1000U.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
UNI has ushered in the era of airdrops, where you can truly receive gifts by clicking on them. As long as you have one TX, you can receive a minimum living allowance of thousands of dollars.
1.2 DYDX
Airdrop time: August 2021
Minimum guarantee standard: You can get 310 coins by depositing money on the main network, and the value of the order number is about 2,000 US dollars.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If UNI is the big moneymaker of DEX, then DYDX has opened the way to make money on the PERP track. You only need to make a deposit (no trading required) to get a minimum living allowance. If the trading volume is more than $1, you will get more airdrops.
However, it should be noted that there is a requirement to increase transaction volume before receiving the airdrop, which needs to be met before receiving the airdrop, and the cost of this part also needs to be taken into account.
1.3 OWN
Airdrop time: May 2024
Minimum living standard: You can get an additional 100 minimum living allowances by depositing money on the main network. LRT users before March 15th will also receive an additional 100 minimum living allowances, with an order number of about US$400.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When the rules were first announced, EIGEN did not provide a minimum living allowance, but instead distributed coins roughly based on points. Some accounts with less money in deposits did not receive airdrops, which drew a lot of criticism.
The team quickly adjusted and announced new rules, which are more favorable to retail investors. All users who deposited money on the main network before the announcement will receive 100 low-income guarantees in addition to the tokens they have earned through their own points.
In addition, earlier LRT users (before March 15), such as renzo, can also receive 100 low-income subsidies. We must admit that the EIGEN team has a big vision.
1.4 PIZZA
Airdrop time: June 2024
Minimum living standard: Users who used the unisat wallet to transfer money or used the unisat platform within the three months of the snapshot from February to May 2024, with an order number of $600-800.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pizza is another big hit in the BTC ecosystem. It is very simple and crude. You only need to use unisat to transfer money once to meet the requirements. However, the snapshot start date happened to be after the inscription craze subsided, and many players did not use BTC wallets during that period.
1.5 ZIRCUIT
Airdrop time: August 2024
Minimum living standard: Users who deposit ZIRCUIT on the main network can receive a minimum living standard of 115 tokens, with an order number of about $15.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️
The ZIRCUIT minimum living allowance is not actually worth much, but since ETH gas was quite low at the time, the cost was also very low. Some accounts can achieve a cost of less than $2, and if you buy in batches, there is still a good return ratio. It is said that Feng Wuxiang @0x0xFeng has bought 2,000 accounts.
2. Multiple Use
2.1 Optimism
Airdrop time: May 2022
Minimum guarantee standard: Use the official bridge to cross to the OP chain or use the OP network for at least two days (24 hours without interruption), the order number is about 800 dollars
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
OP is the originator of L2 airdrops. Due to the relatively low cost of L2, it is also the beginning of multi-account big hair. OP minimum guarantee is very simple, just need to use OP twice at least one day apart. Other qualification conditions are also very simple, such as using OP in 4 independent weeks, etc.
2.2 Arbitration
Airdrop time: March 2023
Minimum guarantee standard: Points system, at least three points, the three simplest items are: cross-chain to ARB, TX>4, used in two separate months, order number around $800.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ARB is an airdrop that goes beyond the circle. The cost of getting the minimum living allowance is quite low, and the whole process is quite simple. There are many players who have reached A7 in a single project. After the ARB airdrop, the era of studio hair-pulling officially began.
2.3 STRK
Airdrop time: February 2024
Minimum guarantee standard: TX>5, usage time>3 independent months, transaction volume>100 USD, on-chain balance>0.005 ETH. Each condition must be met to get the minimum guarantee, the order number is more than 1000 USD.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stark's minimum guarantee rule is a very standard "multiple use" rule, which has certain requirements for the number of tx, usage time and transaction amount, but it is not strict.
However, one of the controversial requirements is that the balance must be greater than 0.005 ETH. This "one-size-fits-all" standard makes many DeFi users who deposit funds in lending or liquidity pools ineligible for airdrops. And in the L2 network, not so much ETH is needed as gas, which also makes another group of users unable to meet the airdrop conditions.
3. Points system
3.1 Zksync
Airdrop time: June 2024
Minimum guarantee standard: All addresses that meet the requirements are granted $ZK, but tokens that do not meet the minimum guarantee threshold of 450 $ZK will be withdrawn, and the minimum order number is only $100. According to the actual situation, funds of more than $100 can be stored in the liquidity pool of the Defi protocol for a long time to meet the minimum guarantee standard.
Since 2022, L2 project airdrops have mostly adopted the "multiple use" standard to determine the minimum living allowance, which has also led to the influx of many studios.
The Zksync project team has taken a different approach and adopted a points system, while the standard for accumulating tokens is TWAB, which is the weighted time balance method. In layman's terms, the more money you deposit and the longer you deposit, the more airdrops you will get.
If you still interact with Zksync in the same way as OP, ARB or Starknet, putting in a lot of money, swapping, depositing and withdrawing, and then depositing the funds into the next account in a train-like manner, then you are likely to get nothing because your weighted time is too short.
3.2 Scroll
Airdrop time: October 2024
Minimum living standard: Only those with a score of 200 or above can get minimum living standard, and badges will add extra points (up to 60).
Scroll drops points in the open on L2, also using the TWAB mechanism. Most people have actually guessed the 200-point threshold for minimum living security.
According to the actual case of the junior sister, she deposited 0.16 ETH in exchange for Stone at the end of May, but did not deposit it in any Defi protocol. The final score was 190 points.
The points deposited in a lending protocol or liquidity pool will be higher, so it can be concluded that if you deposit 0.15ETH in a Defi protocol for more than 4 months, you can get a minimum living allowance.
3.3 Puffer
Airdrop time: October 2024
Minimum living standard: points of 1001 or above.
Puffer has an event in the early days, where you will be rewarded with 1,000 points upon registration, plus invitation rewards, so you can get a minimum living allowance without having to save any money.
4. Premium Account Rewards
4.1 LOVE
Airdrop time: October 2023
Minimum guarantee standard: Active addresses of early adopters of Ethereum rollups (users with mainnet, OP chain, Gitcoin donations, and ENS active behavior may be eligible). The order number opens at around $200, but the returns will be greater in the later stages.
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Compared with L2, modular projects such as Celestia are more infrastructure-oriented and have many partners. Therefore, you may have interacted with the project without knowing it. The TIA airdrop also reminds us of the importance of each account doing a good job of mainnet interaction, ENS, and Gitcoin.
4.2 AVAIL
Airdrop time: May 2024
Minimum guarantee standard: Active Rollup users (ARB, OP, Polygon zkEVM, Starknet, and Zksync)
Junior sister rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The project team did not clearly state the criteria for active Rollup users, but in reality, it is still quite high. Neither the younger sister nor the senior brother’s EVM addresses met the requirements, but the senior brother’s Starknet wallet with a large balance won several.
In addition, some group members said that addresses that have been flashed with zkEVM can easily meet the requirements, and wallets that have been inscribed with the zksync inscription have also received the minimum living allowance.
V. Conclusion
5.1 Difficulty Changes and User Challenges
From the perspective of the timeline, the development of airdrops has gone from “click-and-deliver” ➡️ “multiple use” ➡️ “points system”, and the difficulty is constantly increasing.
It is true that in 2024, there will be big “click-and-get-it” projects like Eigenlayer, but this is based on the strong strength and good pattern of the project party.
At the same time, it is also because the early Eigen pools were opened with a limited time each time, and the gas cost was relatively high.
Judging from the results, you can get a minimum living allowance even if you deposit 10u, but it takes a lot of courage to spend high gas to deposit multiple accounts in batches, because you will not get any rewards for doing so in most projects.
I think there may still be a chance for Babylon to become a “click-and-delivery” company for the following reasons:
The BTC ecosystem has fewer addresses by nature and has greater potential, with the previous precedents of Runestone and PIZZA.
Babylon also has an upper limit for each issue and a short time window.
However, this type of airdrops will definitely become less and less in the future, which is determined by the increasing competition.
In addition, there will be fewer and fewer open airdrops like ARB. Although they are not open, the returns after the token issuance will be higher. Because the competition for non-open airdrops is usually not so fierce, the imagination will be richer, and this kind of project will test the user's mining ability and strategy more.
5.2 Strategies for Points-Based Projects
Personally, I think the points-based projects should focus on low-security accounts, because projects such as Blast and Mode will lock the top-ranked wallets.
The best result for a premium account is that the rewards are released linearly according to the points, but this is not convenient for the project party to ambush "rat holes", so it is not recommended to only have a premium account. Instead, at least half of the funds should be in premium accounts and the other half in low-income accounts. This strategy may be more secure.
The minimum score of the low-income number must be in the top 30%. Based on existing experience, it is necessary to deposit 100U to 200U or more of equivalent tokens when the score is first launched, preferably in a DeFi protocol, such as lending or liquidity pool.
In addition, some projects can increase points through revolving loans (pay attention to risk control), such as BOB. However, Scroll clearly stated that the amount of revolving loans will not be taken into account.
