Airdrop Guide

What is Airdrop?

Airdrop is the name given to some projects in the crypto ecosystem when issuing new coins or tokens and distributing them to their community for free. Yes, it is to make money out of thin air. Despite this, sometimes you may even have to spend money to make money out of thin air. Although the dictionary meaning is as above, Airdrop is to experience DeFi. Someone who actively uses Decentralized Finance on the blockchain, follows the ecosystem and community, and catches the trends, will already receive most airdrops without doing anything. Don't use DeFi to get airdrops, get airdropped for using DeFi!

What do I need to know?
You just need to know the basic use of Metamask and have basic crypto knowledge. If you don't know how to use Metamask, you can learn from the guide prepared by BiLira. There are a few things you should know before you get started.
Stay Away From Scam Airdrops!
All of you have been exposed to spam messages from platforms such as Discord, Telegram, Twitter, etc. These messages usually tell you that you are the lucky one and that you have been chosen out of thousands. Most of them have a link or ask you to send your wallet address, or there are various tasks that ask you to complete endless tasks. In fact, let's explain why these messages are sent to you.


Messages with links:
If these messages do not point to a correct and reliable address, if they are not for reference purposes, they are most likely sent to you for phishing purposes. It is aimed to connect your wallet or enter your login information through sites that are exactly the same as reliable platforms but fake. You should definitely stay away. If the messages are reliable, contain approved links to real projects, and are referenced, you are most likely to increase the referral income of the person who sent you the message. From this point on, you can choose to distribute referenced links in the same way, but you will most likely spend your time on a token/coin that will not be worth much when a worthless project comes out, and you will advertise it for free. Still, you have a chance to earn small incomes with this method. Messages asking you to send your wallet address: These are messages that you should definitely stay away from. You should not share your wallet address, passwords, secret words with anyone, including exchanges/administrators/developers. By looking at your assets and transactions, the attacker may have a general idea of you and use it to manipulate you. Messages asking you to complete various tasks: These messages are mostly seen on Telegram and Twitter. Sometimes projects that we call beautiful also try this method. Participation is usually very high and there is no tangible income. Projects apply this method to reach more people, build community and advertise. They also appear on Telegram through bots, and sometimes they may not send the tokens/coins they promised, even though you complete tasks. Again, you have the chance to earn small income with this method, but I don't know if it's worth the time. Messages sent for chat purposes: These are attacks using social engineering. The attacker first talks about himself, the platforms he uses, and how much he earns. It wants to attract your attention with its high-earning images. These conversations, which continue in a conversational atmosphere, can sometimes last for days or even months. Once he has enough confidence, he will start making requests of you when the appropriate time comes. This can sometimes be done for the purpose of attracting users to a platform. In this method, which is completely diversified by the imagination of the attacker, the aim is to gain your trust, they mostly communicate with the profile of the opposite sex. You should definitely be careful, stay away. So how do we get these airdrops, I seem to hear you say. So let's move on to the methods that can help you.

1-) Major DEX/Aggregator/Bridge/Wallet/NFTP etc. The purpose of this method is to take advantage of airdrops distributed to retro-active users by tokenless decentralized exchanges, price aggregation platforms, cross-chain bridge platforms, wallet apps, wallet tracking apps, and NFT marketplaces. When we say retro-active, we are talking about users who have used it in the past or are still using it. But remember, you should not use these platforms because they do not have tokens, and when you need to use such platforms, you should choose those that do not have tokens. And you shouldn't use unknown platforms just because they don't have tokens, you should choose pioneers who have proven themselves in their field, so that when it happens, you can get an airdrop that is worth using the platform. We have three main rules here. Major must be a platform How do I know if it's a Major? A few metrics come into play here. The fact that it is in the top 20-30 in terms of these metrics in its field may indicate that it is a major. The metrics I would recommend you look at are: TVL (Total Value Locked), Platform Revenue, Active Users/Wallet, Daily/Monthly Transactions, Daily/Monthly Trading Volume. Must not have a token CMC and you can control it from Gecko. You should take as an example airdrops that have occurred in a similar area. One of the good examples here can be the airdrop distributed to its users by Uniswap, one of the largest airdrops. The leading DEX, which distributed 400 UNI tokens to each user using Uniswap, started a chain reaction. Users who did not sell the reward they received had the chance to earn much more income as their tokens appreciated. In the previous version of the article, I mentioned dYdX, Opensea and Immutable X as examples. Afterwards, except for Opensea, the other two airdropped. I removed it from the article because I thought giving such examples led to laziness.


2-) Being a Node/Validator/Delagator to Major Chains. To give an example of one that has been implemented, the Avalaunch airdrop on the AVAX network can be a good example. The platform distributed a portion of the token supply free of charge to Validators and Delagators on the AVAX network. The aim of this method is to protect the chain ecosystem and reward the community that contributes. When choosing the network you want to join, you do not always need to choose major networks, but whether it is major or not, there is always an initial investment cost in this method, and you should take the risk by considering the future of the network you will join. It is possible to bring high returns with high risk. Please do your research thoroughly and do not rush when choosing the network you want to join.

3-) Joining Testnets Testnets can be one of the best ways for platforms to reward their early users. Any errors that may occur with these limited versions are tested by the real user, not by simulations. It is a very good step towards reaching the final version. Another good thing is that since testnets are generally on test networks, you do not have to pay transaction fees. You only need to spend your time to use it. It would be especially useful to look at L1 networks that have recently announced incentive programs. Many new project testnets are announced in these networks. If you are lucky, you can make good profits.


4-) Providing Liquidity to Critical Pairs in Critical DEXs Having liquidity in Major DEXs, especially Uniswap and Sushiswap, allows you to benefit from some airdrops in addition to fee income. In this method, when projects want to issue tokens, they target liquidity pools that cover their goals. For example, $LDO is given by Lido Finance to those who deposit the stETHs given in return for the service provided by Lido Finance to the Uniswap stETH:ETH pool. Another example is Badger DAO giving $BADGER to those who deposit funds into the Uniswap wBTC/ETH pool. As you know, Badger's aim is to bring Bitcoin to DeFi. Not only DEXs but also Lending/Borrowing platforms can be used for these methods. But since it is very difficult for us to use every pool, you must determine the risk here. Remember that platforms airdrop with similar methods, this can be a reference for you.

5-) Participating in DAO Management Decisions I know that it is very difficult for you to participate in the governance decisions of all DAOs in DeFi. But if you have governance tokens, it would be wise to vote with them and participate in the governance. Voting in rising star DAOs could be the new trend of possible airdrops. For example, there is a good example. $BADGER airdrop was made by Badger DAO to those who voted with $YFI in Yearn.Finance and joined the management. Afterwards, $ICE airdrop was made by PopsicleFinance to those who voted with bBadger in the Badger DAO. So DeFi is again supported by DeFi, try to be a part of it, join the management.

6-) Keeping NFTs in Your Wallet The best example of this may be the $PAINT reward given by MurAll to artists and those who keep NFTs in their wallets. Just like participating in DAO administrations, this method can also serve as an example for future airdrops. Therefore, it will be to your benefit to mint a work in NFT markets or keep NFT in your wallet. Of course, which NFT you keep in your wallet is just as important. For example, owners of the famous Loot NFT became new NFT owners by paying only gas fees in dozens of projects. Additionally, the $AGLD airdrop, which was worth up to 70 thousand dollars, was also sweet. If you want to win airdrops through NFTs, follow the projects owned by the community.

7-) Layer2 Solutions As you know, Layer2 solutions contribute greatly to the scaling of Ethereum. Since many of these projects are still in the development phase, they have not been able to make efforts to issue tokens. Some of them have their own tokens or are known to have plans to issue tokens. By using these projects early, you will have a chance for a possible airdrop. Some, such as Starkware, Optimism, Artbitrum, may not choose to issue tokens because they continue as service providers. But I recommend that you try these projects themselves and the projects they provide services for, just in case. So how can I find out which Layer2 project has a token or not? L2Beat should be the first place you should look. Here you can see projects, the value of assets locked on them, project risks, technologies and more. Check out CMC or Gecko to see if they have tokens. You cannot see projects such as bridge or wallet on L2Beat yet. You can look at the image above to see all L2 projects. This is an image showing the Ethereum L2 ecosystem prepared periodically by DeversiFi.


8-) Gitcoin Grants Gitcoin Grants is a project that aims to fund and support web3 projects together with sponsors and the ecosystem. As a donor to projects, you ensure that the projects receive a share from the sponsor pool, so every donation is very important. Becoming a Gitcoin donor may be one of the best methods for airdrops. By donating, you both contribute to the development of the ecosystem and have the chance to benefit from possible airdrops. Ethereum network fees may scare you here, but there is a solution for this too. By donating with very low transaction fees through Layer2 payment platforms such as ZkSync and Hermez, you have the chance to get airdrops from these platforms in addition to Gitcoin. I recommend that you choose the projects you donate to carefully. Most projects do not forget their donors when they issue a token. There are many examples of airdrops to donors so far. $COMBO, $BADGER, $HMZ, $SDT are airdrops distributed with this method. In fact, shortly after the article was first published, the airdrop news came from Gitcoin itself. Let's just say that this is a method you should never skip.

9-) Community Tracking In fact, one of the most important and critical methods may be community tracking. We can say that the social media generally used in crypto are Twitter, Telegram, Discord and Reddit. What you need to do is to regularly follow the social media accounts of the projects and listen to rumors about a new coin/token. For this, you can get an idea by searching for keywords such as “token launch” and “governance” in past conversations. Or you can ask clever questions to test the minds of community managers. I must point out that this is a method you should definitely not skip.