Application Framework

Airdrop Hunter

Playing airdrop farmers - Design guide for harvesting airdrop hunters

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|                    AIRDROP HUNTER                          |
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|   Guide to harvesting airdrop hunters                     |
|   Three types of airdrop design                           |
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Understanding Airdrop Objectives

Airdrops are essentially a variant of Ponzi scheme logic. First understand your airdrop objectives (the "Three Types"):

ObjectiveTarget Audience (Who to extract money from)
Generate data for VCs and exchangesVCs and exchanges (investment + listing liquidity)
Drive traffic for IDO and listingPrimary and secondary market retail participation
Profit from the airdrop process itselfAirdrop farmers themselves

Your objective can be one or a mix of the above, but the content in parentheses is what matters


Three Types Explained

1. Generate Data for VCs and Exchanges

Revenue = Benefits from VCs and exchanges (investment + listing liquidity)
        - Actual airdrop costs

Essence: A complex mutual-aid scheme where wool comes from sheep, but cattle and turtles pay

Large numbers of farmers participate in mutual-aid

Entry timing completed by VCs and exchanges

Final airdrop tokens find secondary market retail to hold bags

Hidden Demand: Reserve chips as insider positions for yourself and stakeholders

Strategy:

  • Financing and listing incomplete → Extend airdrop activities, continue PUA
  • Strict anti-Sybil, control actual distribution ratio
  • Maximize airdrop participation base and dimensions (muddy waters for fishing)

2. Drive Traffic for IDO and Listing

Essentially the entry side has nothing to do with airdrop recipients
Farmers have POW mining mentality: Did tasks, want rewards
Do Bitcoin miners buy Bitcoin?

Solution: Find the common ground between farmers and degens - both want to make money

StrategyDescription
Change redemption methodConvert to IDO and early secondary participation rights
Max out expectationsMaximize IDO or listing profit expectations

3. Profit from Airdrop Process

From the farmer perspective, airdrops like AEVO/Backpack/Linea are dividend scheme variants:

Mining rig cost = Cost of writing scripts or hiring workers
Electricity = High fees/gas

Bubble elimination mechanism: Sybil hunting = Mining disaster, total loss

Airdrop scheme design that treats farmers directly as revenue source


Understanding Strategy from Farmer Side

Farmer Participation Framework

Farmers' expectations for "big airdrops" mainly depend on:

FactorImpact
Funding amount and VC lineupEndorsement and trust cost
Treasury revenueProof of capability
Visible costsSunk cost perception

Design Recommendations

StrategyDescription
Front-load PR resourcesLet VCs appear more to reduce trust cost
Quantitative metric hintsEasy to imagine stories, hints of big airdrop potential
Back-load costsDownplay early visible costs, back-load to point of no return

Core Formulas

Three Airdrop Types:
├── Data type: Revenue = VC benefits - Actual airdrop cost
├── Traffic type: Convert farmers into degens
└── Extraction type: Farmers as revenue source

Farmer Essence:
├── POW mining mentality
├── Rig cost = Script/worker cost
├── Electricity = Gas/fees
└── Sybil hunting = Mining disaster, total loss

Design Principles:
├── Front-load resources to reduce trust cost
├── Quantitative hints of big airdrop potential
└── Back-load visible costs

@ projects you think have terrible airdrop design in the comments, join the discussion