How To Get Free Crypto: Airdrops

If you would like to read original article with clickable links, read here at https://seekingalpha.com/instablog/49024966-migueue/5095544-get-free-crypto-airdrops.

Summary:
-Introduces the concept of "Airdrops," a form of promoting certain projects.

-Gives the reader an understanding and how to receive free crypto via airdrops.

-Allow's those new to crypto to be able to dive into crypto without ever having to actually purchase crypto in come cases.

This article is for those of you who are interested in cryptocurrencies and current events going on in the space. It’s one I dedicate to those who are new to crypto and wanting to learn more about the growing craze that is going on behind blockchain and other smart tech. This article in particular explains how to start getting more involved in crypto; even getting you some free tokens to help start your journey and ease your transition into this revolution. .

So what’s an Airdrop?

An airdrop is a distribution of free tokens conducted by a particular business/project ICO for a verity of different reasons that I will explain later in this article. The company basically take's a percentage of their total market supply to give away for free to people who sign up and show enthusiasm for their project. It’s pretty awesome honestly if you’re someone starting off in the crypto space and want to dabble in some free tokens. I mean FREE is FREE, right? Airdrops are only opened for a limited amount of time, and must usually want to sign up or complete some sort of survey in order to be eligible for the token's. The Airdrops are usually pre announced while the ICO is ongoing, and aren’t rewarded until its’ conclusion. Unless it specifies otherwise; not all of them are alike, so your best bet is to just check them out yourself and see which one(S) you like. I’ll post some helpful links at the bottom on how to stay in the loop of the different projects that are going on.

What do you do to receive an Airdrop?

In essence these are the basic rule’s applying to most airdrops; they usually happen after an ICO or token sale has concluded and are finally being traded against in the open market. For a person to “qualify” for airdrops they must: (1) must hold coins from the relevant parent blockchain in your personal wallet (you control your private keys) –or- sign up for their “platform” (again, this just depends on the project and what they choose to do), and (2) they usually ask you to do some brief interactions with them to receive the free tokens. Usually that can be signing up for email, telegram, or even becoming a member to promote token.

Well, depending on the particular business/project there is a variety of way’s that they may execute them. For example, some of the newer tokens developed by some tech companies that are building their tokens on certain blockchain platforms (Bitcoin, Ethereum, E.O.S, Waves, etc.) will reward the owners who signed up for the airdrop for simply holding the “parent” chain currency that they forked from, in their wallets. Some others in particular, the new decentralized social media companies aiming to be promoted through the adoption of blockchain, like Sola and Viuly, simply ask you to just sign up and check out their product. In return they reward you with their token used in their platform for whatever designated transactions within. One really popular one on the rise (blockchain social media site, not airdrop), is Steemit; which actually pays you, the content creator in Steem (their cryptocurrency) which can always be converted back into bitcoin and others.

On a different note, anyone seen the latest news about Zuckerberg using 2018 to learn about cryptocurrencies? Hmm. There is a couple that I’m looking at that I see as big winners farther down the road. They’ll function as the currency within an app (some that are well established cough) that I’ll tell you about in my next article: My top five picks of 2018 that will guarantee you some nice gains. Stay tuned, cause you don’t want to miss out on that info, completely free.

A lot of well known current crypto’s have had airdrops.

You might recognize some of these, but Bitcoin Cash (BCC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Tronix (TRX), and countless others now in the top 30 by market cap once had airdrops. Meaning, if you were lucky enough to just grab some of these for free, you’re probably riding on a pretty penny if you didn’t sell to early. Personally as an investor, I love airdrops because I get to diversify my portfolio ever more with new token’s. I like to read into the project’s and figure out which ones are really worth my time. Honestly, I just hold them and wait. There’s nothing much you can really do with them but do that and hope that the vision comes to life.

For some, I’ve been lucky too. Recently, Tronix (TRX) is up and I’m really glad I got to catch some of those before it blew up so damn quickly. The founder is the protégé of Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, and there’s been rumores TRX could possibly be in the works somehow with Alibaba. Now wouldn’t that be huge. Right now, I’m just riding the wave to a dollar. Free money, you can’t beat it and you honestly never know what can happen.

One popular crypto that was airdropped was OmiseGo (OMG), which currently sits at #27 in market at nearly 2 billion dollars. When they conducted their airdrop, they gave away 5% of their total token supply distributed equally to over 450,000 addresses. Those who had signed up and held more that 0.1 Ether in their wallet were rewarded with a balance that was equal to their stake in Ether. I think airdrops are getting more popular now more than ever in 2018 as more people begin to flux into the new space. There’s a couple of reasons why which I’ll explain further below.

How does it “work?”

For a number of airdrops, you’re rewarded with free tokens by holding the parent chain they were derived from. What they do is called a “snapshot” which is like a picture taken of the token blockchain. Usually, you’re rewarded already if you own the particular parental blockchain coin; this is called a “fork” and all users now have the new token (if you own your private keys). Sometimes depending on the exchange, they may also decide to give you your rightful tokens. Binance always does this; another reason I really like to use them. If you use it already and you noticed a new “coin” somehow suddenly owned but don’t remember buying it nor how it got there; that was a forked coin and they give you access to the new token for owning the parental.

The difference between an airdrop and a fork though, is that instead there is a snapshot of the already newly forked token chain instead of the parental blockchain. That’s it. Airdrop’s are done by ICO’s while "forking" is done by actual developers trying to lead the particular parental chain in a different direction (think BTC vs BCH). This is why airdrops are always a type of ICO project and how they want to operate. In the ICO case, this allows for those didn’t have the opportunity to own the parental chain token, to be able to have a chance at claiming some of the coin. That’s the particular reason that they usually ask that those who sign up already have a certain amount of the parental blockchain token. The snapshot takes place by taking a “picture” at the exact moment in time after the new token chain has been forked, thus rewarding those new investors (who signed up) with active stake in the parental to receive some for free.

But why do they do this?

Well, I think mainly to give people a reason to want the product. It incentivizes people who receive the free tokens to take up interest in their project making them already feel like welcomed investors. Thus, it promotes the overall growth of the token to appreciate in value. The more people know about it, the better. It helps them learn more about the company project and what they’re doing. They already feel like investors and want the company to succeed giving them a reason to spread it’s awareness. It also help’s to overall promote cryptocurrencies for those who are new and raise awareness. It’s a means of increasing adoption and helping new people join in on the action; giving others a chance, as well as distribute it more fairly than just those veterans that have been in the space longer.

So in essence, it (1) help’s the companies also get their product out by getting it promoted by you (the new token holder), (2) allows for more people to want to get their token, (3) total price appreciation, and (4) overall adoption. It makes those who receive the airdrop learn more and therefore hopefully investing more and buying the tokens on the exchange; getting to fully understand the product and create a belief towards it. In a way, psychologically, after receiving free tokens you’re eager to find out more about what you got for free and in learning more about it, you want more, and hopefully (from a company perspective) you increase you portfolio with their token instead of other tokens you may consider higher risk because you haven’t looked sufficiently into them.

Investor Perspective: Current Airdrops that I personally really like.

As an Investor, I like to increase all sorts of positions in my portfolio, especially if I can do it by getting them for free in the first place. And even if you don’t like them you can always sell them back for (technically) free bitcoin. So here is one way to increase your portfolio to all my new venturing crypto friends reading this. Just be weary, and know never to give out you private keys or any personal info. The ones that ask for this type of information are scams and should be avoided. Now, to the good stuff.

One of the current airdrop ICO’s that I’m really eyeing right now is conducting their ICO right now till the end of mid-January, called Polymath. Polymath is rewarding people who own a certain amount of ethereum, as well as sign up for their telegram group, email, and answer a short survey. The reason I really dig them though is that they’re a Securites Token Platform to integrate those securities currently valued so much in the financial world, to the blockchain, by “creating a system to issue and secondary trading of blockchain securities token.” If successful, it will allow for the integration of persay wall street into the blockchain and explain “The primary securities market allows for companies, governments, and public sector institutions to raise capital directly from investors by offering registered securities in the context of a public offering, or by offering securities under an exemption in the context of an unregistered offering. In order to sell to the public, regulators have required companies to register securities in order to (I) protect investors by ensuring public dissemination of information, and (ii) prohibit misrepresentation or other fraud in the sale of securities [9],” under section 2 in their whitepaper which can be read here.

Polymath is trying to do some really neat things and I think it has a potential as an investment. All you have to do is sign up and take their survey. It literally took me five minutes to do so. Might as well, right? It’s free, right. You can check out that airdrop right here.

If you’re a trader like me, check out this new Asian exchange that really reminds me of what Binance did six months ago when it launched (and is one the biggest now in all Asia in volume and transactions). They promote their own coin just like binance for exclusive use on their exchange. They’re based in Hong Kong and called WCX Exchange. Their whitepaper look's pretty solid and can be read here. They’re giving away 50 of their WCX Tokens for free just for signing up before they start trading in less than two months. Here is my referral link for those interested. Check them out, they’re claiming to be up to 20x faster than normal exchanges. WCX

TL;DR

An airdrop is basically what it sounds like. It’s like free money that just appears in your digital wallet out of thin air that was birthed by the snapshotting of its’ parent blockchain with some other tid bits. Airdrops happen after a particular new ICO has launched and (1) happens after the ICO has concluded, and (2) the token is tradable on the market.

To close, if you are interested in learning more and wanting to understand crypto please stay tuned as I begin to publish a lot of what I know in this space regarding investing and trading. I'll be attending some upcoming events and conferences regarding fintech, blockchain, their uses, and will be actively writing about my opinions and reviews of blockchain technology and its future. As well as cryptocurrencies. I am a full time crypto trader and investor. Also, please know that I would never write about something that I myself either do not hold or have not invested in. Thank you.

Some more airdrop’s coming up:

If you’re interested in staying in the loop with all the latest airdrop news, check out airdropalert.com; they’re constantly updating the newest ones.

Airdropalert.com | Never miss a cryptocurrency airdrop again!

List of trusted airdrops:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2164165.0

Some Airdrops I've done (Referal Links):

Sola => https://sola.ai/miguel_b966c

Viuly => https://viuly.io/r/K2064905a4f0d5fa

Disclosure: I am/we are long TRX.

Additional disclosure: Link's of airdrops are a few of which I have already done.