What Are Crypto Airdrops? - Free Cryptocurrency For Hodlers + Invite To Airdrop Discord Channel
While on the radio at MSP Waves today for @ScaredyCatGuide's show (you missed a 3 hour marathon, see http://mspwaves.com/ ), a question came in about what air drops were. I realized some readers might not be aware and a quick explanation could be in order.
Air-drops are a means for distributing cryptocurrency tokens to end users. An aid drop is a totally free giveaway - all you need to do to receive tokens is fulfill the criteria of the airdrop. The basic type of airdrop is stake-based, however some tokens have more restrictions.
Most of the airdrops you may have heard about were probably stake based airdrops - these distribute tokens in a proportionate amount to users on the network on question. In fact, we've already had an airdrop started on the Steem blockchain for the Vice token (see my previous article on same for more). This creates an additional incentive for holding any particular blockchain project, as you are getting what are in effect dividends from your coin - providing you a passive income in addition to your usual price appreciation.
A stake-based airdrop takes a snapshot of the blockchain in question, in the case of Vice it was Steem, at a particular block (date) and then assigns tokens based on the stake at that time. If you held 1% of the Steem at that moment, you will receive 1% of the Vice tokens allotted for the airdrop. (In case you are curious, the actual token airdrop will not happen for some time.)
Other stake-based airdrops simply hand out tokens for having stake on the parent blockchain. For example, many ICOs use the Ethereum platform for transactions, and some of these airdrop their tokens based on how much Ethereum you hold in your wallet (as long as it has a distinct Ethereum address). I have a mess of random tokens from keeping an Eth in my wallet for some time previously (though it is now gone.) It doesn't count Ethereum held in exchange accounts, and in such cases you are reliant upon your exchange holding the coin in the proper place, claiming any airdrops, and remitting them to you.
Finally, some projects hand out tokens simply for signing up for newsletters, referring other users, joining Discord/Slack/Telegram communities, and other similar activities. These are technically airdrops, but are not usually what people are initially referring to when they are talking about airdrops.
There are many resources online for locating airdrops. Stay on top of news for your selected cryptocurrencies, and as always, it's best not to hold them on exchanges. Here is a link to a Discord channel that attempts to collect all available airdrop information in one location:
(This is merely a Discord channel link, and is safe)
We also have a Radio Station! (click me)
...and a 5000+ active user Discord Chat Server! (click me)
Sources: Google, Steemit
Copyright: Vice, Family Guy, Steemit
Most btc airdrops I have seen require you to prove you control the btc address by inputting your private key. You really don’t want to be doing that with funds on the address, so you would need to move them. However, with fees and transactions fees as they are at present and the fact that most new issues are pretty worthless at point of issue, it’s usually not worth it.
Agreed. I have never dealt with any airdrops requiring me to provide more than an address.
Which ones are they? A public address proves nothing as it is by its nature public. Providing the private key does prove you own the address but it also means someone else could control that address.
Would you consider a hard fork to be an airdrop too ? Resteemed.
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Look at you being proactive with a topic that popped up on the show! You my friend are welcome to co-host sometime again.
Perhaps we should do one of those wacky, morning-drive style talk shows more regularly.
Thank you for explaining this more in depth. Thank you both.
I got my first bitcoin when they were worth nothing for signing up to an email list. Well worth doing and hodlling. Very useful information @lexiconical
There's nothing better than free and certainly nothing better than free blockchain coins that have massive upside.
That's a great success story!
Thx for this discussion, I have so many followup questions. I've just started to take notice to some of the free airdrops for new tokens. It's generally quick and simple but I wonder if it's ever paid off for anyone, I'm really trying to decide if it's a good use of my time.
As for airdrops for holding coins, I'm wondering if there is a "best" coin to hold for most airdrops, I'm really thinking of the airdrop SMTs steem could be an even stronger coin.
Steem, EOS, and Eth are the big ones you probably want to hold for airdrops. There are other options that would require research.
As for whether it's paid off for anyone, someone above mentioned getting their first BTC free in an airdrop. I'd say it worked for them!
Air drops vs forks. I think most people confuse the 2. forks you get a certain amount on forked tokens depending on how many you had of the original one. Usually you have to claim the "new" tokens. Think BTC and BTG as of late.
I see Air drops for ERC20 tokens all the time. Small amounts of a new tokens get distributed before the ICO to get people interested. It's marketing strategy to acquire users/coin owners.
Good points. They are often quite similar since in both cases, the amount of coin you are already holding can determine your proportion of reward.
If it has a blockchain split, it's a fork.
Yes, like KuCoin and Upcoin. I think I missed out on those airdrops. I didn't have any idea what it meant at the time. There was another one just a couple of weeks ago, but I forget now. I missed that one, too. Crypto still really confuses me, though. I'm in no hurry to make some kind of mistake, if that makes sense.
Thanks for doing this for the steemit community. Also, to all the airdrop hunters I'd recommend Crypto Airdrops to look for updated list of airdrops https://airdrops.me/all
Plus I follow popular airdrop channels on telegram such as https://t.me/bigairdrops
Happy hunting!
Thanks for the extra sources!
That cleared up a little bit of my confusion, but what I don't understand is why people do air drops? why not just pay per coin? Isn't there some sort of devaluing happening when a coin forks and you get an equal amount of the other coin? Also, what is this about only being able to get coins while on a hard wallet, but not on binace? I mean, if you own a coin and you get an air drop for it, shouldn't it not matter where you keep it? Please explain.
Join a Discord channel about airdrops? Don't mind if I do!
Nothing to lose! They seem pretty thorough.