The airdrop game has changed forever. Gone are the days when airdrop criteria are based on volume and transaction count alone.

We are now in the age of commodity content and interactions. The cost of spinning up new automated wallets and Twitter accounts is almost zero.

It seems hard to stand out from the masses, but it’s actually very simple.

There are 2 pillars that I’m banking on to help us outperform the masses for future airdrops.

A quote from David Phelps summed up the airdrop meta very well:

Once you know the playbook for airdrops, it no longer works.

The farmers will find a way to replicate these interactions at scale until they become meaningless.

If we are completing the exact same actions that can be performed by millions of other wallets:

Why would a project reward us for them?

Projects have realised that airdrops are no longer effective, because they fail to retain users.

So they prioritise these even more now:

1. Having skin in the game

2. Long-term alignment

Projects have to eliminate Sybils while ensuring they include as many real users as possible.

It’s all about finding the correct balance between both, which is extremely hard.

And that’s why onchain reputation alone no longer matters:

They now choose to reward social reputation too.

The future of airdrops is based on the convergence of our:

• Onchain footprint

• Social reputation

Linking both together forms a unique profile to claim airdrops, and that can’t be easily replicated by AI.

Social accounts act as an additional Sybil filter:

It’s hard to create reputable social accounts at scale, unless you’re using engagement farming tactics.

Which are increasingly being penalised and are no longer effective.

And here’s the easiest way to bring these 2 factors together:

Saying what you do on the timeline.

It’s really that simple, and here’s how I achieve this:

I constantly yap about onchain footprint on Twitter because I believe that’s the key differentiator between a real user and a Sybil.

Quoting from ZKsync’s airdrop criteria:

A wallet’s onchain footprint reveals a lot about the owner’s behaviour.

This can be determined just by analysing what a wallet does onchain:

• How much gas fees they spend

• What they do with airdropped tokens (hold or dump immediately?)

• Which protocols they interact with

Projects can choose to reward certain interactions that they deem as meaningful contributions.

While a Sybil’s onchain footprint tries to mimic a real user, it’s very goal-driven.

As compared to a human where the interactions will likely be more erratic.

A Sybil wallet will be laser-focused on just a few tokenless protocols, and it’s obvious just by looking at the onchain activity.

No matter how someone tries to make it look real (like random swaps at random intervals):

AI has made it easier to identify these Sybils.

That’s why I strongly believe in this framework to qualify for airdrops:

• Be open-minded

• Explore protocols organically

• Qualify for retroactive drops along the way

It’s always a bonus if we can integrate tokenless protocols into our daily onchain routines.

There will always be something new to do onchain.

New protocols will launch, some with unique features.

And that’s how we get ahead of bots too:

They would have to reconfigure their scripts to include these new protocols.

Soon enough, you’d built a future-proof onchain profile where no protocol can declare you as a Sybil.

While qualifying for surprise retroactive airdrops just by being an active ecosystem participant.

Everyone’s sick of L2s, but I see them as the best way to qualify for multiple airdrops:

Modular rollups use different infra components across their entire stack, and it’s a nice X-in-1 strategy just by being active on the L2.

I shared my strategy in this post.

But in this current age, onchain footprint alone doesn’t cut it anymore.

To get the highest allocations, we need to incorporate this too:

Anyone can create a social account. But it takes time to create one with trust and credibility.

That’s why projects are allocating more of their tokens to Yappers:

They have the distribution to capture even more attention for the project.

Once that account posts about the project (especially if they get a good airdrop):

It’s effective as a form of paid ads, especially if the account has a loyal following.

Kaito and other InfoFi products make it easy for projects to reward these accounts.

Though I believe the current system has its flaws, and they will eventually improve.

The InfoFi trend is likely to stay, and it’s the best time to build a social presence.

But there’s are different ways to build yours:

Before you can say anything, you have to do it first.

No one would trust you if you’re saying something theoretical.

But you gain credibility by having results to back up what you talk about.

My Twitter account was built on this principle:

Do stuff onchain and share what I do.

And all we need is to experiment onchain and share our results (even if they’re failures).

There are tons of accounts out there that solely rely on hype to drive views and engagement.

I used to follow Ardizor for his airdrop guides, but soon realised they are completely useless:

It’s obvious that he doesn’t do any of the tasks he mentioned.

Most of them are low-quality, Sybil-level actions that anyone can perform.

So it’s actually very easy for you to stand out by sharing what you’ve actually done.

No need to fake anything, and people will trust you for being your authentic self.

Especially when you share your mistakes, which makes you even more relatable.

Kaito mentioned how using these protocols could be the key differentiating factor in the future.

I’m not sure how they can enforce this, but projects will eventually trend towards yappers that use their protocols.

Some accounts constantly shill on the timeline without actually doing what they say.

So it’s easy to stand out from commodity content that just summarises the documentation.

Once you’ve built up both your onchain footprint and social presence:

You won’t have any trouble qualifying for the next big airdrop.

Onchain or social reputation alone is no longer enough.

We need to build up both to create this future-proof profile to prove that we’re worthy of receiving airdrops.

It’s a long game we’re playing, and we can go months (or even years) without results.

But if we focus on providing value first (I’ll share my approach in another article):

The rewards will come.

Next week, I’ll share the 11 factors I’m using to spot good airdrops (and those that are a waste of time). See you in the next one!

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