Crypto Airdrop: Pros and Cons
What Is an Airdrop?
This is a free distribution of community campaign tokens on the Internet. The main airdrop boom was in 2017 at the time of the heyday of ICOs, when every second project launched free airdrops to create a crypto community around the project. The main purpose of the airdrops was and remains to attract attention to the project and launch a crypto marketing strategy by distributing project tokens.
What Are the Types of Airdrops?
From the very beginning of the launch of airdrops, this element of the crypto marketing strategy has evolved and gone through several stages.
Standard airdrop
An airdrop in which a small amount of campaign tokens is sent to the user’s wallet. Sometimes such airdrops are in exchange for a small action (for example, a retweet). Also, projects can request identification of airdrop participants in order to be sure of their token holders. We will talk about this point in more detail in the chapters on security.
Standard Airdrop
The most popular type of airdrop for ICO projects. This type is used to issue tokens in exchange for an active promotional company of a crypto project. For example, a crypto project is ready to send you tokens if you conduct a series of activities on your social networks and tell us more about the project or fulfill another mandatory requirement. Bounty Airdrop and Standard Airdrop differ only in the number of activities on the part of airdrop participants. That being said, they are both an essential step in a crypto marketing strategy.
Holder Airdrop
This type of airdrop is held between participants who already have certain coins in their hands. For example, if you have Ethereum on hand, you can take part in the airdrop of tokens that are developed on the Ethereum blockchain. Sometimes such an air drop can also refer to a bounty campaign, the purpose of which is to narrow the audience down to more targeted holders.
Hard Fork Airdrop
This is not a typical airdrop and its purpose is not crypto marketing. This type of airdrop is used when developers change a protocol that already has holders. The purpose of such an airdrop is to save and not deceive holders, taking into account the update or change in the coin protocol.
Types of Airdrop Fraud for Members
“Free cheese in a mousetrap” – don’t forget this saying when you see another juicy airdrop.
The most valuable thing that scammers can steal with an airdrop is secret phrases and access to personal data (documents, photos). Most often, scammers use fictitious currencies or all possible ways to get personal data.
Secret Phrases
Never, under any circumstances, give secret phrases to anyone. Any user who has taken possession of your secret phrases can steal your coins from the wallet. Therefore, keep them in a hard-to-reach place and take a break to double-check the project if you are asked to provide a secret phrase.
Personal Data
The user is offered to participate in the free distribution of digital assets, while at first glance everything looks plausible. However, when registering for the program, it asks for login credentials, bank account details, private keys to a cryptocurrency wallet, or any other personal data. Once a user provides this information, attackers immediately use it to steal funds or digital assets. In this case, we are dealing with a kind of phishing. This type of fraud involves the use of any pretexts and methods to obtain confidential information. If the project asks you to confirm your data (documents, passports), it is better to think three times whether you need it, since this data can then be used in any other systems. Read the privacy policy, and if it is not there, this is a great reason to think about the quality of the project.
Malware
The second type of scam is emails with requests to download “special” software or to click on links that also lead to the installation of malware. Such emails are received when trying to register on fake crypto platform sites that announce a free distribution of digital assets.
How to Avoid Fraud?
The best and most efficient way is to search Google and research some information about tokens before doing anything.
You will most likely find some reviews from other users. Always keep in mind that no one in their right mind will send you any free money.
Therefore, when you see something like this, always be on your guard and avoid any contact with unverified cryptocurrencies and sites.
Checklist: What should crypto projects pay attention to when launching an airdrop?
So, you’ve decided to make your first airdrop. The first step of the crypto marketing strategy is outlined. Below is a small checklist of what you need to pay attention to.
- Security and trust. As we wrote above, a huge number of scam projects want to steal personal data or funds on customer accounts. Create the safest possible conditions and bring them to the community. Make video reviews, arrange cooperation with ambassadors so that people trust your airdrop promotion.
- Bots and fake accounts. It’s no secret that twitter, facebook, reddit is full of fake accounts that create fake activity. Create such a registration in your airdrop that a person who has 50 other similar accounts cannot pass it. Create registration value.
- Don’t give away all the tokens. Yes, that could be a problem too. There are not isolated cases when projects distribute their tokens in full, then buy them back to maintain tokenomics. Clearly calculate how many tokens you can spend on airdrops.
- Target audience and ambassadors. Define your target audience and analyze where these people are and what they are doing. Select the ambassadors of your project who will honestly and openly broadcast to the world all the benefits that the participants of the airdrop will receive
How to Spend Your Airdrop?
It would seem that giving away tokens for free is very simple and there is no need to look for special ways. That’s right, the most difficult thing is to achieve the desired results, namely to attract not a fake audience, but real users interested in the project.
Finding and attracting an audience that will generate income after an airdrop is the key and most important task when launching airdrops.
We have conducted over 250 airdrops for our clients and we know how to find an audience that will bring a satisfactory ROI for your crypto project. Contact us and get a free crypto marketing consultation.