Participating in the Steemit Crypto Academy task every week has provided me with the opportunity to learn so much about cryptocurrency and I do not take the opportunity to learn from the wealth of knowledge of our professors for granted at all. This week’s homework task by professor @wahyunahrul has exposed the mind to another interesting topic in the crypto space and I am glad to be a participant here.
What do you think about Airdrop in cryptocurrency?
If you ask a person who isn't familiar with the details of airdrop to explain airdrop according to their knowledge, you will be told that airdrop is the process whereby companies, organizers, and/or airdrop developers share free money to members of their community (users) but then, as a person who understands airdrop, it is no doubt that there is more to the organizers, companies, and development giving out free tokens asides from giving free money.
Airdrop is a big name in the cryptocurrency space because airdropping tokens to eligible participants have become one of the ways most companies create value and awareness for their tokens. Companies in the crypto space have developed the idea of distributing their tokens freely to participants, this idea helps the company to gain several users, more holders, and of course well-spread information about the token. Users who get these airdropped coins are usually requested to spread information about the token through social media channels and referring more users to participate as well.
I consider airdrops to be a really great idea, there are lots of people who have made good money by simply participating in simple airdrops, but on the other hand, there are a lot of scams airdrops currently.
In short, Airdrops, if done the right way is a marketing tool for a new project While some people see airdrops as free, so many airdrops do not come free as the developers request that the recipients perform a few activities, and these activities are often beneficial to the company which will be sharing the airdrop. Most of the activities performed are marketing services.
How can we know about an Airdrop event so that we can participate?
These airdrops can be found on social media channels especially on a platform like Twitter with the hashtag airdrop on the Twitter platform, there will be a display of different available airdropped tokens. Telegram also contains lots of distributive platforms for airdrops, channels like Facebook, YouTube, and even Steemit give room for lots of airdrop advertisement and the endless list of users who are trying to get a part of the distributed tokens will also keep posting about it. The website of the company promoting the token will also contain detailed information about the airdrop, there are lots of social media users that take it as a duty to source for various airdrops and it is made available to other interested users freely, these channel admins make their own profit by the shared referral code.
Where are Airdrop events often held?
Airdrops are usually done by blockchain-based start-ups so when the coin officially gets listed as an ICO, more people will make use of the exchange. The idea of a legitimate airdrop is a marketing tactic to get users to a particular crypto coin, airdrop events are majorly held on chosen EXCHANGES, Discord and Telegram groups are major anchors of airdrops.
Are all Airdrop events free from scams? Otherwise, how can we avoid the scam?
As mentioned earlier, the intention of every good airdrop is to market its product to the public in order to get more investors but scammers have also gotten into the system and they are taking advantage of people’s ignorance to steal identity and funds and apart from that, some airdrops are completely a waste of time as well. Below are some of the ways to avoid airdrop scams.
Airdrop participants must avoid giving out their private keys.
Airdrop participants must understand that no legitimate airdrop will request for the user’s private key, private keys are the user’s hidden identity that must not be disclosed to a third party on any occasion. Anyone that has access to our private key definitely has complete access to every asset on that wallet address and scammers will definitely take advantage of the situation.
Airdrop participants should not be in a haste to give out their information’s.
Scammers usually gain access to people’s complete information and begin to use this information to commit various crimes. In order to participate in an airdrop, we are usually requested to fill out detailed information in a form that includes pictures, identity cards, etc now in order to avoid falling victim to a scam like this, we need to clarify the authenticity of the site on which we are filling out the form.
Check out the reputation of team members.
Some airdrop process simply involves scammers who do not have the intention to grow and build the community they simply want to cash out massively when they have successfully drawn investors to the site and they are quick to dump that project and move on to the next one as quickly as possible. Once the profile of the team members of a project is checked first before participating, then it will be easier to identify the project whose team members have a very bad reputation and avoid getting involved in such a project. In some cases, some team members will like to make themselves anonymous this interprets that something is fishy about the group and must be avoided.
Watch out for details on whitepaper.
An airdrop site is fishy if the whitepaper is incomplete or is nowhere to be found. A whitepaper usually contains everything that a trader or an investor needs to know about the company or token airdropped, if any of the information is found incomplete then it is something to watch out for and tread with caution.
Legitimate Airdrops do not ask for donations.
When there is a request for a donation from an airdrop page, it usually signifies a red flag since legitimate airdrops do not ask for donations from members, the sole purpose of an airdrop program is to create awareness and not for fundraising.
Request for payments before completing a transaction.
Every reward gotten from an airdrop transaction should be available for users to withdraw at any time, in a case where there is a request to pay a specific amount for a processing fee or signup fee (Irrespective of how little it is) then there is something wrong completely.
Have you ever participated in a cryptocurrency Airdrop event? If so, then explain. Meanwhile, if you have never participated but have heard of the Airdrop event, then explain it. (Show proof with screenshot).
Uniswap airdrop was a popular airdrop token that a lot of people made huge profits from. DEX is a popular cryptocurrency exchange and it shared its token to all users who have ever made us of the exchange platform before September 1st, 2020, these airdropped token was worth about $2-$4 and as expected, a lot of users sold their tokens but by April 2021 the price of this token had risen to $30 which is a big win for holders.
Source
The images presented below show step by step guide on how users who were eligible for this airdrop were able to easily claim their tokens.
Give and explain an example of an Airdrop event that has passed and the airdrop was successful. Then give one more example that has been proven to be a fraud (It is not allowed to take the example that has been taken in question number 5).
An example of a past successful airdrop.
Oyster airdrop is an example of a past successful airdrop that distributed a total of 2227PRLs amongst participants. This token was distributed to users between 14th November to 18th November, this airdrop was tradable on Kucoin. In order to get eligible for the airdrop, it was compulsory for participants to get registered by filling out the provided form before the 23rd of October 2017.
Source
An example of a past failed airdrop.
A good example to describe a failed airdrop is the CORBIT Airdrop which turned out to be a big-time Airdrop scam. The introduction of Corbit was supposed to be a new decentralized exchange that had low fees, the airdrop process was extremely easy and it required users to simply sign up to their Twitter and telegram handles, each eligible participant at the end of the airdrop was supposed to get 30 coins which would be worth about $6 at the end of the airdrop.
This airdrop got a massive turnout as more than 80,000 people joined the airdrop within one week and just in one night, the website, telegram channel of Corbit disappeared into thin air. Looking back at the website details now, it was clear that the Corbit project had a great possibility of being a scam project because it had no complete information on the whitepaper, the information on the team members was also not found.
Look for examples of ongoing Airdrop events, make an analysis that proves that the Airdrop of your choice is good (Screenshots required).
There are lots of cryptocurrency Airdrop that shows up every single day, but one airdrop that I participated in recently is a Binance based airdrop called ‘’Big Doge Coin’’. The concept of Big Doge is to create a possibly new experience for gamers, the team works with selecting games that are of great qualities and it boosts of being the first decentralized world for gamers on Binance smart chain.
I have a strong respect for Binance and hope that it would only support tokens that have great and promising prospects. The process of airdrop did not require the submission of the private key which means that my wallet is safe and I have nothing to worry about except for the waste of time if airdrop does not work well, the airdrop process did not also require that I make any form of payment and this makes it quite secure.
Explain the steps to participate in the Airdrop of your choice (Screenshot required).
In order to get a share of this token after it has been distributed, it is compulsory to participate in every task listed in the screenshot below.
[From the telegram chat)
The first verification process was to authenticate if the user was human or a robot, the system will be able to detect the presence of a human or robot based on the correct input of the number presented in the image below.
[Source](From telegram chat)
The next step was to join the official telegram group and channel which I did and in order to proceed to the next verification stage, I had to click on confirm.
[Source](Telegram chart)
The next request was to follow the Twitter page of ‘’Big DogeCoin’’ and then input my Twitter user name for verification. After that, I was requested to like and retweet the Airdrop tweet and then go ahead to tag three real Twitter users in the comment section and after doing this I was to click on the confirm button in order to get to the next stage.
[Proof of following on Twitter)
[Source](Telegram chart)
After going through all the requested processes successfully, I was asked to submit my BEP20 wallet address. This means that if this token is real at the end of the airdrop, I should expect a fair share of the 10,000,000,000$ BigDoge that will be distributed in my BEP20 Wallet. I could also get more rewards if I choose to refer friends.
[Source](Telegram chart)
Conclusion.
I am grateful for the opportunity to learn again about cryptocurrency and the constant knowledge that I am able to derive from the lessons shared and personal research done cannot be taken for granted a big shout-out to @steemit and professor @wahyunahrul for the amazing and knowledgeable topic.
CC:
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