What is a cryptocurrency airdrop?

There’s two main types of cryptocurrency airdrops: automatic, and incentivized.

Automatic Airdrops (e.g. Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Bitcoin Gold, etc.)

Airdrops can be a result of forking chains. An example of an automatic fork would be Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which was a fork of Bitcoin (BTC). In that case, anyone who holds the pre-existing coin (BTC) is automatically entitled to a corresponding value of tokens on the new network (BCH). For the end user, collecting the new coin is fairly automatic, assuming that their wallet supports the new coin. Of course, in a forking chain, the end user will likely only receive an amount of the token proportional to his or her previous holdings, which means that this process tends to operate as a “rich get richer” function.

For the protocol developers, airdropping a new token after a chain forks is the this is the easiest way to get the coins in to the hands of all users of the previous network. But doing so does not allow them to actively collect any information about users, nor does it ensure that people will actually use or see the coin in their wallets. Essentially, someone who plans to hold on to the existing coin for the long term may not be checking their wallet at all, and may not see that they have been granted access to this coin. Thus, airdops after a fork this route may fall short in promoting the coin’s usage.

Incentivized Airdrops

Airdrops can also be used as an incentive for people performing certain actions to help with the adoption of a blockchain project, such as referring friends to check out the project, posting content about the project, or joining and contributing the community. Incentivized airdrops allow individuals who may not necessarily have the most experience or investment with cryptocurrency to participate without having to pay to acquire tokens. Bonus coins incentivize people to learn about the new token, so that they can explain it to their friends and networks. The token startup gets the rewards of promotion and marketing, and it doesn’t have to go through a central advertising platform like Facebook or Google.

This is what we’re trying to do with , which help facilitate the incentivized airdrop process for developers and blockchain startups. In particular, allows blockchain teams to target initial influencers who can expedite the spread and adoption of their project. Very quickly, a new token can build up a following that soon becomes a powerful network.

In addition to wider adoption, incentivized airdrops also allow teams to collect information about the network’s potential users, whether it’s their ethereum addresses, social media accounts, or other contact information. That informations helps the team further build a community and a following for the project.

In short, airdrops can be a very cost effective way to build brand awareness and continued relationships with future users. We make it easy for blockchain projects to bootstrap their communities with hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency early adopters.