Original author: IceFrog (X: @Ice_Frog666666 )
Last year, I wrote an article titled How to Manage Airdrop Expectations: The Correct Way for Project Parties to Develop the Big Picture .
However, reality ironically showed me another side of the industry - user expectations collapsed, trust in project parties collapsed, capital fell into a vicious circle, and I was forced to enter the rights protection track.
Airdrops also degenerated from a growth engine to a “harvest game” until the emergence of the Initia airdrop, which not only verified my point of view, but also proved that an airdrop with “no losers” is possible.
Initias airdrop showed the entire industry what a big picture is: building trust with transparency, managing expectations with reasonable rules, and making airdrops not just a marketing tool, but also an infrastructure for project governance.
1. Initia airdrop strategy: reject PUA, reject showmanship, and return to simple user operation thinking
Last September, the two co-founders of Initia had an interview. The core concept was to maintain a high degree of consistency between the project and the community and create a long-lasting wealth effect, and to clearly oppose short-termism. From the analysis in the first part and the founders’ speeches, you will find that from product design, token economics design to the final airdrop, the project is indeed practicing long-termism.
A careful analysis of Initias airdrop shows that there is no particularly superior airdrop strategy, nor any tricky operation to dangle carrot PUA users, especially the entire airdrop is almost de-KOL, which I call a simple but very effective market philosophy. Nothing else, just fairness, integrity, and transparency, thats all.
1. Transparency: rules in advance and progress transparent
In terms of airdrops, the project clearly provided incentives during the first testnet mission phase, and after the end, it clearly informed users without delay or ambiguity that there would be no subsequent incentives.
Secondly, during the entire airdrop period, the anti-cheating mechanism is activated during the testnet phase, rather than modifying the rules afterwards, to eliminate concerns about insider trading. This is unlike some projects that first vaguely allow the robot to surge, and then sharpen their knives after the airdrop begins.
This is just like when customers go to a vegetable market with clearly marked prices. They can see the prices as soon as they enter and decide whether they want to buy or not, instead of selling dog meat at a price that is not what they claim to be.
2. Fairness: Universal airdrops and dynamic adjustments
Another distinctive feature of Initias airdrop this time is that unlike the airdrop mechanism designed around KOLs and whales in traditional projects, Initia has created a very inclusive token distribution framework with a very high level of pattern.
Zero threshold coverage: Most users only need to complete two tweets to get 400+ tokens, which will give the right to participate to the real user group.
Long-tail incentive design: In terms of YAP points, the airdrop covers 4,000 users (far exceeding the top 100 users on the YAP list), allowing small and medium-sized participants to obtain returns that match their contributions.
Dynamic adjustment mechanism: Eliminate 1 million low-level users and allocate more tokens to deep participants, forming a positive feedback of more active users and higher returns.
Throughout the entire process, whether you are a KOL or an ordinary user, you should pay more attention to the fairness of the rules rather than focusing on the KOLs sales effect.
3. Integrity: Keep your word and say no to PUA
On this point, the project has been reflected in many places, with basically no vague promises. The founder tweeted that it would be launched at the end of the month, and then the TGE was launched at the end of the month.
In addition, the development progress of the test network is basically consistent with that of the main network. After 70%, there are only 3 months left, and there is a clear planning route. The same is true for the airdrop. The test network deadline, tweets and DC are extremely clear, and what is said must be done.
2. Initia allows users to experience true long-termism
Based on the above three points, it is not difficult to understand why community users spontaneously maintain the project, allowing users to feel the true long-termism rather than short-term speculative games. This accumulation of trust makes users no longer just indifferent airdrop hunters, but gradually become organic participants in the project, and even actively promote and defend the ecology. When the rules are clear, interests are bound, and values coexist, the stickiness and loyalty of the community will naturally form.
Initia proves that the core of the decentralized world is not KOLs, but the silent majority. Traditional project airdrops are often designed around KOLs and whales, causing ordinary users to become runners-up. Initias strategy emphasizes inclusiveness, quantified contributions, and transparent cashing, so that every real user can obtain matching benefits.
From the perspective of business essence, Initias success does not rely on complicated magic tricks, but returns to the most basic business ethics: long-termism never requires fancy designs, but only requires 100% fulfillment of simple promises, nothing more.
This is common in century-old stores and shops in vegetable markets in the real physical world. It is simple, but can gain lasting trust.
3. Outlook and discussion: What kind of airdrop does the industry really need?
Is airdrop necessary in this industry? I think Initia has given the answer. I believe that if we continue to operate in this sincere way and continue to develop technology, the vitality and height of this project may exceed our imagination.
This industry has gone further and further astray due to airdrops. Most projects are obsessed with grand narratives and are lagging behind in airdrops. Initia has proved that as long as you can honestly make a bowl of ramen, this sincerity is far more vital than the fictional Manchu Han banquet. This is a very simple operating philosophy, but I think it may be a breakthrough point.
Airdrops are not bargaining chips in a zero-sum game, nor should they be a tool for harvesting. Instead, they should become the industrys trust infrastructure. In the current industry, a good airdrop is nothing more than: transparent (verifiable rules), quantifiable contributions (fairness), accumulative benefits (long-termism), diffusible value (ecological binding), and fulfilled promises (integrity).
A deeper consideration is whether project owners and capital view users as traffic or assets. If you do not operate users as assets, but merely as traffic, then this opposition, distortion and even rights protection will not stop.
The crypto industry is still in the cold start stage, and airdrops are still a necessary market tool. However, if users are only regarded as traffic rather than long-term assets, the industry will fall into a vicious cycle of user short-term arbitrage-project party harvest-market trust collapse. What the industry needs is not the innovation of airdrop production relations, but the project party and capital party need to maintain the same understanding of the details of the rules as the community.
Perhaps, we can say that it is time to carry out supply-side reform of airdrops!
