"Money can’t appear out of no where… But cryptocurrency can".
Have you ever come across the term cryptocurrency airdrop and wondered what it meant? Well, it’s nothing like the image you probably have in your head of an airplane dropping coins from the sky. In times of war, natural disaster, or other forms of crisis where the lives of people have been affected in places that are difficult to access by land, airdrops are carried out to provide essential supplies to people trapped in those zones. In the world of cryptocurrencies, airdrops have a different meaning. The cryptocurrency world has its own unique vocabulary which is expanding as the market evolves over time. In this article, cryptocurrency airdrops will be explained in detail.
What is an Airdrop?
The simple answer: it’s literally just free coins just waiting for you.
LETS GO DEEPER
Airdrops can be defined as the process whereby a cryptocurrency enterprise distributes cryptocurrency tokens to the wallets of some users free of charge. Airdrops are usually carried out by blockchain-based startups to bootstrap their cryptocurrency projects. Also, established blockchain-based enterprises like cryptocurrency exchange platforms and wallet services can also carry out airdrops as well.
Reasons for Carrying Out an Airdrop
From creating hype and buzz around a new blockchain-based enterprise to rewarding loyal customers, there are a number of reasons why a cryptocurrency airdrop is carried out. The following are some of the reasons for carrying out a cryptocurrency airdrop.
· As a Reward for Loyal Customers
From time to time, blockchain-based services like cryptocurrency exchange and trading platforms, wallet service providers etc. wish to give back to their customers and subscribers. Airdrops can be used as a means of rewarding loyal customers with free cryptocurrency tokens. This serves as an incentive that can assure continued patronage on such platforms. This type of airdrop mirrors the voucher and discount giveaways of non-blockchain companies in the mainstream commercial world.
In 2017, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance, carried out an airdrop of 500 TRX cryptocurrency to account holders on the platform. The airdrop lasted from the end of October 2017 to the middle of November 2017. In order to qualify for the airdrop an account holder needed to have at least 0.003 BTC in addition to having completed at least one transaction on the account. Binance account holders who had the equivalent of 0.003 BTC in other cryptocurrencies were also eligible for the airdrop as long as they fulfilled the transaction requirement.
· To Generate Lead Database
Marketing is all about leads. Organizations tend to pay a lot of attention to generating appropriate leads that will drive their marketing campaigns and increase patronage. Airdrops can be used by blockchain-based enterprises to generate valuable lead databases for their organizations. In exchange for free cryptocurrency tokens, users will be asked to complete online forms that contain valuable user information which can be used to develop targeted marketing strategies. This application of airdrops to generating lead databases can even be utilized by none-blockchain enterprises.
· To Create Awareness About a New Cryptocurrency
With the sheer size of the cryptocurrency market, a new cryptocurrency can go completely unnoticed if it isn’t given the right boost in terms of substantial marketing campaigns. Just like every other aspect of the digital world, hype and buzz play an important role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. With many cryptocurrency enthusiasts looking for new cryptocurrency options, an airdrop is a great way to get people interested in a cryptocurrency.
The marketing campaigns on social media for an airdrop can lead to increased attention being paid to a new cryptocurrency. Word of mouth advertising and other forms of organic engagements brought about by an impending cryptocurrency airdrop can lead to increased user participation in the cryptocurrency. This can help to bootstrap a new cryptocurrency as seen in the case of Bitcoin Cash. After the Bitcoin fork that led to the creation of the Bitcoin Cash, the developers of Bitcoin Cash carried out an airdrop rewarding all of its users. For every bitcoin held by a Bitcoin Cash participant, the developers gave a corresponding amount of Bitcoin Cash. The end result was that in less than one month, Bitcoin Cash was among one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the market.
Participating in Free Airdrops
The Tools You’ll Most Likely Need
An Ethereum Wallet: not one that is on an exchange. It has to be a personal address that is ERC20 compatible because most of the tokens that are airdropped are ERC20 tokens, which are or were originally Ethereum-based ICOs. I suggest using MetaMask or MyEtherWallet to get started immediately, but in the long-term I always recommend getting a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S.
The Ethereum Wallet Must be ACTIVE. By active, I mean that you have to show at least some human use of it. Lots of airdrops have checks in place to make sure that you aren’t just randomly generating a bunch of addresses and signing them all up to unfairly obtain more coins. This means that if your wallet doesn’t show activity, it might not receive the airdrop. Sometimes, coins will be explicit in what they look for, including some type of balance in the account.
A Telegram Account (https://telegram.org/): I’m sure there are amazing reasons why Telegram is the chatting tool of choice for many of these ICOs. The coins want to boost the audience count. Usually, these airdrop coins will also require you to sign up for their Telegram accounts. Until you receive the coin in your Ethereum wallet, do not leave the Telegram accounts or you risk disqualification for the airdrop.
A Twitter Account (https://twitter.com/): Similar to the reasons behind the Telegram account, many of the airdrop coins will also require you to follow them on Twitter. Some of them will even ask you to retweet some tweet.
An email address. sometimes airdrops will ask for your email, too. If you don’t feel comfortable with giving them your real email, just create a spam one. Remember the password, though; some of them actually ask you to confirm your email.
Obtaining and Withdrawing Tokens
Usually, it takes about 1–2 months after the end of the airdrop before you receive your tokens. This is primarily due to the fact that many airdrops occur before or during token sales, in conjunction to spread awareness. And tokens are not distributable until the end of a token sale anyway (I’ll write a separate piece on Token Sales, or ICOs).
To check your wallet info and see if the token has appeared in your wallet yet, just go to Etherscan (https://www.etherscan.io). Type in your ETH address into the search box.
Circled in Red is the area you want to look. If the token is available in your wallet already, it will show up in the token tracker dropdown. If you don’t have a token tracker appear on your result, then you don’t have any tokens in your wallet yet, and it also means you didn’t receive it.
Once you actually obtain the tokens, you can withdraw them directly through a services like My Ether Wallet (MEW). All you have to do is access your wallet (through MetaMask, Ledger Nano, or some other way — direct private key pasting is not recommended) and select the token you want to withdraw.
Don’t Get Scammed
With all the promises of free coins out there, it’s easy to lose track of everything and just start a clicking frenzy. Here are some tips to avoid getting scammed:
Never send any private keys. No one needs to have your private key in order to be able to check you wallet balance. They can do so very easily with tools like Etherscan.
Don’t send any money to any addresses. Remember this — airdrops are free. Whether it requires you to be holding a certain coin, or if it’ll just appear in your wallet, an airdrop will never ask you to send any amount of some coin to some type of address. If they ask for this, steer away immediately.
Check official sources. If a coin is actually doing an airdrop, it is likely they’ll have announced it on their official social media accounts, such as Twitter. Check there to make sure that the airdrop is official; otherwise, you might be subject to a scam with scammers trying to collect your data.
Resources to Help You Find Airdrops
There are many communities and newsletters available to help you with identifying airdrops as they come along. I definitely recommend signing up for them (they’re free), rather than trying to look for them yourself. That’s because there are many scammers out there, and they make themselves very present and legitimate-seeming. These resources that you subscribe to have (hopefully) already screened the airdrops.
If you’re looking for one to join right now, take a look at https://cosmictrading.org/
If you’re looking for one to join right now, take a look at Cosmic Trading. Members post airdrops in that channel that they’ve already verified are legitimate. Furthermore, the community is just a huge group of cryptocurrency traders and enthusiasts with experience levels ranging from years of trading and Holding to people who just started yesterday.
FOLLOW ME AS I WILL BE DROOPING LINKS TO VERIFIED AIRDROPS.