The Final Hours of the Linea Testnet

Some of the big crypto news over the last week was the news that the Linea alpha mainnet launched for partners building on the platform this past week, with the mainnet launching for the public this week - as early as tomorrow (July 18th), in fact. A lot of the release celebration seems to be centered around the events of the ETHCC conference, with both Linea and many of the projects building on Linea announcing exciting new updates to their platforms. With all of that going on, is it worth sneaking in a few more testnet activities to qualify for a potential airdrop or two?

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. It's your responsibility to do extensive research and consult a professional before investing. 

Potential Linea Airdrop?

As announced last week, there is to be no Linea token - Linea is using ETH as their native token, so it would appear any crypto or token airdrops directly from the project are out of the question. BUT, it seems that some folks who have interacted with the platform - specifically, the Linea Voyage quest on Galxe - may qualify for an NFT drop, to be livestreamed from ETHCC on July 18th. Based on everything we know at this point, expecting any other asset airdrop from Linea directly seems unlikely, IMO.

Potential Airdrops from Projects Building on Linea?

However, it looks like some projects building on Linea have announced that token airdrops for their specific projects are on the way, so if you have interacted with these platforms, it's worth keeping an eye on their announcements over the next week or so to see if you qualify. Below is a list of some of the projects building on Linea that I've been interacting with; some have already announced that snapshots have been taken - but others? It might still be worth doing some last minute grinding over the next day/week to squeeze in to a potential drop.

Symbiosis

Symbiosis currently lets you swap among Goerli, Linea, and Mantle testnets. (ZetaChain will be back out of maintenance mode shortly.) I don't have any reason to believe that Symbiosis will be doing a project-based airdrop for Linea at the moment, but if you're hoping for a Mantle airdrop down the line, then you can double the value of a single swap/transaction by swapping between Linea & Mantle.

Cashmere

Cashmere also offers a wide variety of testnets available for swapping. In addition to Linea, I've also been focusing on Base and Polygon zkEVM. Again, it's a nice platform to try to interact with a handful of testnets at once, though I don't have any reason at this time to think a project-based airdrop is in the works.

Mendi Finance

Mendi Finance is a decentralized lending protocol building on Linea, and based on the testnet interface, they do have their own token, $MENDI, incorporated into their platform. You can hop on their site to test out their supply and borrowing options. Leave some of your assets in your Mendi portfolio in order to earn (test) $MENDI rewards, and claim them from your Portfolio tab every few days. But more than that, keep an eye on the Claim tab AND on Mendi Finanace's Twitter account - they specifically mention that an airdrop announcement is coming.

In fact, Mendi is currently hosting a Galxe campaign that will walk you through many of the above tasks, and it looks like those activities will directly correspond to a $MENDI airdrop, according to a recent tweet.

Surfi

Surfi offers a swap page to swap out your Linea ETH with other assets on Linea. They also have a SBT (soul bound token) page that's not active yet, so it's possible that will go live when the platform opens up on the mainnet. (If you look carefully, even though the page is listed as 'Coming Soon,' there's stat info at the bottom right that will let you know how many points you have, and how much eligible volume and eligible assets you've collected.)
Surfi has both a Galxe OAT available to claim for some simple social media tasks as well as a few swaps on their site, as well as Zealy tasks to complete.

Hop Exchange

Hop Exchange is also a swapping platform for a handful of various testnets, and like Cashmere, I've been focusing on swapping among Linea, Base, and Polygon zkEVM. Recently, however, the platform has been having various issues, so I haven't been able to perform as many swaps as I would like. You can also access Pools on Hop Exchange for various testnets, and use their Convert page to wrap or unwrap ETH for use in those Pools. Like Symbiosis and Cashmere, I don't think this platform will be offering its own airdrop, but it's another great way to interact with multiple testnets over multiple types of transactions.

NooBys Swap

NooBys Swap is another Linea-based swapping platform for a variety of assets on the Linea testnet. You can also test out NooBys Swap's Pools and Staking options (and claim your staking rewards every few days), and you can grab some test assets (including test $USDT and $NBS) on NooBys Swap's own faucet.

NooBys Swap has confirmed that a $NBS airdrop is coming...but the snapshot has already been taken, apparently. But, based on their Mirror article, if you've interacted with the NooBys platform in the past - or perhaps even just the Linea testnet in general - you may still qualify, so keep an eye out for more details on this drop.

Conclusion

At the end of the day regarding airdrops, most activities for Linea have more than likely already been captured for the various projects launching on the mainnet. But while I've now turned most of my focus to other testnets like Base and Polygon zkEVM, I'm still sneaking in a few more transactions on various Linea projects in case it helps sweeten any more project-specific airdrops that might be on the way.

Are/have you been interacting with any other Linea-base projects in the hope of getting a project-specific token airdrop? If so, let me know! And if you're focusing on other current testnets like Base and Polygon zkEVM, I'd love to hear what you're grinding for these days.

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Valdyr is a "crypto-curious" blogger living in Texas with her husband and their ancient dachshund, Henry. When she's not working as an audio/visual technician or stagehand, you'll frequently find her traveling, hiking or enjoying a good craft beer. For more reading, check out www.laurahofford.com/blog/