Airdrops will give me freedom. Here’s how I plan to achieve it.
Airdrops are giving peanuts. Onchain actions are useless.
Teams are Sybiling their own airdrops.
All of these are true, for most projects.
But if you’re like me and have a stupid crazy conviction that airdrops are still one of the most lucrative opportunities still, then this is for you.
I have been through all the highs and lows of airdrops since 2023, and more pain will definitely come before it becomes profitable again.
Here’s the full roadmap on how I want to let airdrops come naturally to me:
Freedom is earned with airdrops
When everything is down bad, and airdrops are getting worse everyday, why are you still here?
This is the question I ask myself all the time to keep me aligned with my goals.
And I realised that what keeps me going:
Achieving freedom with airdrops.
This is my North Star that guides whatever I do here.
And that’s why I’ve become more picky with the airdrops I interact with:
Those that require constant grinding take me away from achieving freedom, so I skip them.
I’ve been hooked ever since learning about lifestyle businesses from @AliAbdaal, and want to adopt the same principles when hunting airdrops:
Earning enough through airdrops to sustain my lifestyle while spending the least amount of time ‘in the trenches’ so I don’t burn out.
I want to achieve the highest ROI with the limited time I have (which is not much because I have a day job), by letting airdrops come naturally to me (thanks to my reputation).
Instead of me having to actively chase them.
Yes, there are other ways to build wealth and earn freedom.
But I’m convinced that airdrops are here to stay, and we will continue getting them if we keep providing this:
Airdrops are earned through value
Maybe the farming route worked well in 2023 and 2024, but it’s no longer the case now.
Airdrops (but only the good ones) are increasingly becoming a value transfer:
To receive value in the form of an airdrop, we have to give value first.
The best airdrops are ones that come automatically to us, because we have proof that we’re a high-value individual based on our past actions.
Again, this is not to say that all projects will use these same rules, especially those that focus on short-term hype.
Sybils have made it impossible for projects to reward low-value tasks that do not meaningfully contribute to the ecosystem.
Because those tasks can be replicated at scale.
So allocations will be heavily diluted even if the team decides to reward them, or they choose to completely ignore those contributions (which is why studying the Sybil war becomes so important).
And yes, the project is the one who decides what is valuable (and not us).
So instead of complaining about why a project didn’t award an airdrop to us, we can focus on increasing our luck surface area with these 2 pillars instead:
Value is earned with onchain and social reputation
Value is subjective, and a project can choose to reward certain actions based on the outcomes it wants to achieve.
We won’t know what actions are valued by the project, unless either of these scenarios happen:
The criteria is announced
A points system with known criteria is released
While we can’t control these factors, we can control how many bases we cover.
This involves building both our onchain and social footprint to achieve these outcomes:
Sybil-proof: Our wallet is reputable and provably human, so it won’t be filtered out as a Sybil
Algo-proof: We form a strong connection with our audience such that they will actively search for our content instead of waiting for the algo
We create a strong and unique profile for ourselves that differentiates us from Sybils.
While giving a reason for our followers and projects to trust us.
And here’s how we do it:
Onchain: Explore new protocols organically in a non-spammy way
Social: Build an authentic personal brand that is true to your beliefs
Since both pillars are so important in determining our reputation, we need to protect our footprint at all costs.
I’ve seen many cases where someone’s seed phrase gets exploited (like the recent Trust Wallet exploit), and the hackers essentially have access to their onchain footprint.
The hackers get to claim all future airdrops from all the hard work that they put in.
This is why I believe a hardware wallet is a must to protect against seed phrase exploits.
Though it is not completely foolproof, as we still can sign a malicious transaction that drains our wallet.
As we grow our footprint, we need to build up a defensive plan to protect it too.
And to become truly reputable, we need to display this key skill:
Onchain and social reputation are built through judgment
In this sea of noise, what you don’t do or say is more important than what you actually say or do.
There are so many opportunities right now. We build our reputation by becoming a beacon of signal to filter out the right ones that suit our unique circumstances.
And if you’d like to get my raw, unfiltered takes to cut through the noise, join my new channel on Telegram here.
Because we share a certain worldview publicly, others who resonate with it will connect with us and what we do.
Sometimes, it’s because they are too scared to say their thoughts out loud.
So instead of choosing to farm everything, it’s now more important to choose those that align most with your beliefs and go hard on them.
Because, not every project is perfect.
There will be those who want to mass extract, and they cook up false promises just to feed on hype (just like Shade Network).
When all they want to do is dump on their ‘loyal community members’.
This is why judgment becomes the most important skill to decide what to do or skip.
And this can only be honed by doing and then failing or succeeding instead of staying on the fence.
Attract airdrops instead of chasing them
I want airdrops to come to me automatically, instead of having to mindlessly grind for them.
I want to spend as little hours ‘in the trenches’ and get the highest ROI on my time.
In this age when noise is at an ATH, low-volume but high-impact actions are the alpha:
Doing less yet qualifying for more airdrops.
Which is why I‘m focusing on compounding my reputation as leverage to attract airdrops instead of actively chasing them (and eventually burning out).
I shared more about how I want to achieve this here.
If you are tired of mindless grinding for airdrops, build a reputation that compounds (instead of burning out), and let rewards come to you automatically just by being yourself: