Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
March 15, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- A cryptocurrency
"airdrop" is a giveaway of a bunch of newly minted tokens for free
during the rollout of an ICO. It might seem like the company doing
the ICO is giving away free lottery tickets, and, in a way, they
are, but there is a method to the madness. Airdropping is really a
guerilla marketing tactic meant to contribute to the success of a
new cryptocurrency.
Token startups know that there is a lot more value when their
token is held on as many wallets as possible. The airdrop quickly
promotes mindshare in the crowded cryptocoin space (walking up to
someone and handing them money is a sure way to get their
attention!), thus enabling faster mass adoption and price gains
beyond what is typically achieved in an ICO.
When looking at a token distribution pie graph post-ICO, you’ll
see a large part of the pie is owned by the devs and management
team, people who joined the pre-sale, and by other people and
organizations invested in the ICO. An airdrop adds an extra slice
to the pie, and often that slice, though it may not be the biggest
slice, will have the most people in it.
Every airdrop has a different set of rules, though you must
always be a holder of an existing coin like bitcoin or ether to
participate. Sometimes you need an active account on Twitter,
Telegram (telegram.org), or the Bitcointalk forum (bitcointalk.org) to be eligible
for an airdrop. Eligibility often requires a retweet on Twitter,
and you may need a minimum number of followers for your retweet to
count. If you are a newbie on Bitcointalk you may not be eligible,
so, if you want to be eligible for as many airdrops as possible,
get active on Bitcointalk now and work on getting a higher
rank.
Holding a lot of different coins makes you more likely to
receive airdrops. Often the only requirement to receive airdropped
crypto is that you have coins from the relevant blockchain stored
in your wallets, such as Byteball, Stellar lumens, or OmiseGo.
There is usually at least one airdrop every day on either Bitcoin,
NEO, Litecoin, or Dash. Platforms like Waves or Komodo sometimes
deliver airdrops for users without any announcement. Check your
wallets regularly to see if you may have received a surprise
airdrop.
To avoid airdrop scammers trying to steal your crypto, never
give your private keys to anyone, use 2-factor authentication on
your wallets, be careful downloading wallets of smaller projects,
never click on a link redirecting to a wallet, don’t use your main
email address to apply for an airdrop, don’t re-use your passwords
when you register, and don’t be tricked into sending a small amount
of crypto to receive your airdrop.
Your personal wallet address should be ERC20 compatible because
most of the tokens that are airdropped are ERC20 tokens. Your
Ethereum wallet must be active, with some human use. Airdrops have
checks in place to block people who randomly generate a bunch of
addresses and sign them all up to unfairly obtain more airdropped
coins. If your wallet doesn’t show activity, it might not receive
the airdrop. Sometime airdrops even require a minimum balance in
the account.
It can take a month or two to receive your airdrop. This is
because the ICO must be formally concluded prior to the issuance of
the airdropped tokens. To check your wallet info and see if the
airdrop tokens have appeared in your wallet, go to Etherscan
(etherscan.io) and enter your ETH
address into the search box.
Enjoy the airdrop phenomenon while you can. Airdrops are being
overpromoted to the point where they are starting to lose their
intended effect. Follow all the action at https://airdropalert.com.
By: BGN Editorial Staff
