KNOWING ABOUT CRYPTO AIRDROPS

Airdrops are free coins, as simple as that. But a normal, reflex question will be ‘why would someone give tokens or coins for free?’ The answer is very easy – it’s for marketing purposes; it’s a great way to promote a new crypto project, and to increase its awareness on social networks. The free coins get the airdrop hunters to get out of their holes and join the project’s community. As you all probably know, a large, strong community is a must-have for successful projects.

Crypto Airdrops FAQ

Are airdrops really free coins?
As always, there is no free lunch. So what are the dangers of the airdrops?

Scammers are everywhere, and it is no wonder that they are also exploiting this area too. You may be thinking ‘But hey, how can they scam me if something is “free”?’ Unfortunately, there is the catch, because nothing is completely free. You need to spend some of your time applying for an airdrop.

There’s always the possibility that the airdrop was a scam and you won’t see any coins, and you’ve wasted your time. However, the real issue is that scammers can collect the personal information that you provide during your application for the airdrop and they can sell it or use it again in the future.

If you are already participating in the vast numbers of the airdrops, you now understand why it is very important to do them in a safe and secure way.

Safety First: Must-read tips for participating in airdrops

1. Never pay for an airdrop: If the “blockchain project” is asking you to pay in order to participate in the airdrop, get away very quickly.

2. Never share your private key: This rule applies for the everything in the crypto world, but it is good to mention it again. This is the most important rule. Never give your actual, real wallet to just anybody, right?

3. Create a new dedicated email address: I’d advise you to create a new email address that you only use for airdrops. It’s even better if you use different emails for each airdrop registration. This is possible if you have your own domain name, and you can create an email alias for every account.
   For example “[email protected]”. You won’t actually create an email, you will just forward all email coming into your one domain to an actual email address. But just creating a new email that you only use for the airdrops is the best and easiest option.

4. Never give your private email: Never give your primary email address. There are simply too many scams out there, and I’m not comfortable sharing my name with projects that aren’t yet known and established.

5. Never use the same passwords for the different websites: This rule applies for all your accounts, and especially for airdrops that require registration for their websites. Good practice is to use one of the password manager applications or an online password generator.

6. Avoid KYC airdrops if you are even a bit suspicious: KYC stands for Know Your Customer. In most cases, to participate in an ICO you will need to provide your personal data (or, to do a KYC process). But, personally if I ‘m not going to participate in the actual ICO I avoid those types of airdrops. The risk is too big, and I’m really not comfortable sharing my personal information with that kind of projects.

7. Create a new Ethereum address: Since most of the projects are built on Ethereum good practice is to create a new Ethereum address that you only use for airdrops.
   Even if there is no massive danger in sharing your public address, I feel safer when all those projects do not know how much Ethereum I have. More than that, data collectors like to sell this high-valued info.

How can I participate in an airdrop?
Simply pick your favorite airdrop, enter the dedicated page, and under the airdrop’s logo you will see “Join Airdrop” button. From there you will be guided.

I’ve applied and received my airdrop tokens. What now?

OK, so you have applied for some airdrops and what now? Well, in most cases you need to wait for the ICO to end for the token distribution. Then, if you do not want to HODL the tokens, wait for them to be listed on some crypto exchange.

I’ve heard there are more than one type of airdrop
Crypto airdrops can be divided into three types:

Holder airdrops
In most cases, airdrop projects are built on one of the bigger blockchains like Ethereum (more than 90% of all airdrops are built on Ethereum), and the rest are mostly on Stellar, NEXT or NEO.

To apply for this type of airdrop, all you need to do is to hold the air-drop-related crypto at a specific time (which is called a ‘snapshot’) and you will be dropped the new free coins. For example: Next and Ardor.

Forked airdrops
At some point in time, a blockchain may fork. When it does it splits into two separate chains. To apply for this kind of airdrop all you have to do is to hold the coins of the original chain, before the split, and you will be dropped with the new forked ones. The most famous fork was Bitcoin Cash on August 2017.

Bounty Airdrops
These types of airdrops are most common today. We are now experiencing a real hype with these kinds of airdrops. In most cases you will need to do some social tasks like following the project’s Twitter, join its Telegram group and/or like the Facebook page of the project.

Usually you also need to submit your personal details, like an email address, and of course – your wallet address, often an Ethereum based ERC-20 address for receiving the coins. You will rarely be asked to do a KYC process, but we will discuss that in detail later.