There are two major groups in the Web3 industry: those who speculate in cryptocurrencies and those who take advantage of airdrops.
Although there are fewer and fewer opportunities to get rich from airdrops nowadays, token distribution methods such as airdrops will always exist.
The entire Crypto industry is still in its early stages, and we are still one of the early players, so we can still reap the industry dividends through airdrops in the next two years.
For newcomers to the Web3 industry, airdrops are a good way to learn.
Because in the process of interacting with different projects, you can not only build your own cognition and methodology, but also have the opportunity to earn airdrops as positive feedback for learning.
So how do you get started with airdrops?
No matter which field, newcomers can start from the three dimensions of Tao, Shu and Qi.
"Tao" means cognition, the cognition and thinking method of the industry. This requires long-term accumulation to form one's own thinking model.
"Skill" refers to methodology, specific and practical methods, which can be broken down into different modules and capabilities to guide our daily operations.
"Qi" means tools, tools used in daily life. If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. Efficient tools can help us get twice the result with half the effort.
01 Dao: Establishing a global cognitive model
What is an airdrop?
When issuing tokens, the project party will distribute tokens for free to community members or specific user groups.
Why does the project party want to airdrop?
On the one hand, it is for the cold start of the project. Under the incentive of airdrop tokens, many wool party users will invest time or a small amount of money to participate in the product to complete the cold start;
On the other hand, it encourages more people to participate in the development of the product. The more people hold tokens, the more people will participate in using the product, the more prosperous the ecosystem will be, the higher the value of the token will be, and ultimately a positive cycle will be formed.
Of course, from a purely trading perspective, the purpose is to build a plate. After the airdrop, the capital plate will be even bigger.
So why do we want to take advantage of the airdrop?
First of all, you need to have a correct mindset. Don't fantasize about getting rich by stealing money, but accumulate your first pot of gold by stealing money.
On the one hand, you can maintain market sensitivity, participate in more new projects, grasp the direction of market development, and build your own project analysis capabilities; on the other hand, you can gain certain benefits through "hard work", which can be regarded as Learn to Eran, earning while learning, and providing positive feedback for your own learning.
Finally, where is the airdrop?
The core has two dimensions: First, the track selection. The Web3 industry actually has many subdivided tracks, and you must choose a track with a high ceiling. This is why Layer2 tracks often have big hair, while pure application projects often have small hair, because the ceiling of the public chain is higher than the application.
Second, choose the leader. No matter which track you are in, you must focus on the leader project and add a second leader at most. Many tracks are basically dual-leader. For example, in Layer2, Arbitrum and Optimism are the absolute leaders; in the Inscription track, SATS and ORDI are the absolute leaders.
Well, after understanding the above, we have basically established a basic understanding of airdrops.
However, this information is far from enough. Global cognition and thinking models can only be established through long-term immersion in this industry and the accumulation of experience.
02 Technique: Establishing a systematic methodology
When it comes to airdrops, the two most important abilities are project analysis and fund management.
(1) Project analysis capabilities
Learn to research and screen projects through large amounts of information.
The most important thing is to target leading projects: industry infrastructure and track leaders.
There are many dimensions in the criteria for judging top projects: team background, financing background, operating mechanism, technological innovation, product data, user reputation, etc.
Only products that can bring user value and have a decentralized goal (i.e., can issue tokens with high certainty) are worth airdropping.
The most important point is to experience the product yourself. When you have experienced enough products, you will have a very intuitive feeling and judgment when a new product is placed in front of you.
Airdrop hunters are all deep experiencers of this industry.
(2) Fund management capabilities
There is a lot to do here.
Anti-Witch: A witch is a person who controls many identities, so the project team will take many anti-Witch measures. For us, different wallet addresses must be isolated from funds and cannot have related transactions. (High-level isolation also includes device isolation, IP isolation, etc.)
Enrich on-chain data: multi-chain interaction, experience different products, and stay active.
Efficiency of capital utilization: interact during periods of low network fees. Killing two birds with one stone, with a certain amount of capital, do as many on-chain interactions as possible to reduce wear and tear.
Risk management: Especially for early-stage projects, the probability of running away or being attacked by hackers is very high, so it is necessary to isolate funds. For example, try not to put large amounts of funds into the project's smart contract for a long time, and be cautious in signing and authorizing.
Cost control: Make a good cost calculation, which is divided into fine-grained and shallow-grained. The wallet address of fine-grained wallets needs to consume more network fees.
From the specific process of airdrops, we can see that airdrops are a systematic project, which not only requires the establishment of project analysis capabilities, but also requires a systematic understanding of various scenarios of on-chain interactions.
03 Equipment: Build your own arsenal
The key is to find effective tools and information channels.
(1) Recommended commonly used tools:
-DeFi analysis tool: Deflama, which can show the top DeFi applications in different public chain ecosystems.
-Project background analysis tool: RootData, which can show the investment and financing situation of each project.
-Asset management tool: Debank, which allows you to manage your assets in one stop, with very comprehensive asset coverage.
-On-chain data analysis tool: Dune, where you can find many valuable data dashboards.
(2) Do the task:
If you don’t know which projects to work on, these task platforms are the weather vanes.
The first one I recommend is Cryptopedia of OKX wallet, which selects many well-known projects with airdrops and provides additional prize pools. Therefore, I will participate in every event, and the actual rewards I get in the end are unexpectedly many.
Wallet Platform:
- Cryptopedia of OKX Wallet
-Binance Wallet Airdrop Platform
-Bitget wallet's coin earning center
Mission platform: -Galxe: a veteran mission platform
-Layer3: A task platform for newly issued coins
-RabbitHole: Ancient Quest Platform
-QuestN: Emerging Quest Platform
(3) Establish information channels:
Here I am just throwing out some ideas and sharing some of the short-term investment bloggers that I often read. There are many short-term investment teachers that are not listed here.
-IceFrog @Ice_Frog666666 : Focus on sharing thinking methods
-Feng Mi @KuiGas : Sharing practical experience
-sanyi @sanyi_eth_ ：focus on technical guidance
-Hebi @hebi555 : Discover early projects in advance
-zhaozhao @0xzhaozhao : Provided a systematic methodology
-Chasing the wind @ZF_lab : Daily project summary and sharing
-WY_mask : Daily project summary sharing
- Prophet @Crypto_He : Daily project summary sharing
Finally, the easiest thing is to take the first step, buy some digital assets, and then experience some decentralized applications. Only in this way can you have a personal experience of this industry.
If you just stand on the shore and watch without going into the water, you will never learn to swim.
