Airdrops

Most people know the Airdrops from Apple. A smart functionality to wirelessly send documents, photos, videos, websites and map locations to and from a Mac and iPhone. But do you know what an airdrop is in terms of Crypto?

There are several ways to earn Cryptocurrency with Airdrops. However, not all ways are safe and legal. In this post we will dive into what Crypto Airdrops exactly are and how it you could possibly benefit from them.

What are Airdrops?

An Airdrop is a marketing campaign to bring a coin to the attention of the general public. In other words: new cryptocurrency that is (partly) distributed for free. This is a completely new form of marketing.

More and more companies are discovering the success of cryptocurrency and want to participate. This keeps new cryptocurrencies coming up. By giving away a small portion of the coins, the underlying company hopes to generate enough attention, so that there are enough interested parties and potential investors who want to participate in the token sale (paid tokens).

Because companies cannot or are not allowed to do marketing via the normal (social) media channels, this is a good solution and the rewards reach the user immediately. The "middle man" is thus taken out.

What can I do with an Airdrop?

The main purpose of participating in an Airdrop is to try to sell your received Crypto for a profit on the crypto market. For this to work, however, it is necessary for the token to be "listed" at an exchange where new speculators can buy this token from you. You need to have an account with an exchange where the relevant coin of the Airdrop is listed. These can be all kinds of exchanges. Registering with an exchange is often a simple task.

If you’re already regularly participating in Airdrops, you know how difficult it is to manually keep track of when your token has been listed on an exchange. Fortunately, there are all kinds of tools that can do the job for you.

What are the benefits of an Airdrop?

The value can vary a lot, but it is often between $ 1 and $ 20. It is definitely worth it for 5 minutes of work! One of the most successful Airdrops was the Airdrop of Ontology (ONT).

People who registered for the ONT newsletter received 1,000 ONT tokens. If you sold these in June, you would have just made more than $ 9,000. However, the knife cuts both ways. It also regularly happens that your Airdrop is ultimately worth nothing if you have not sold on time. An Airdrop is often only available for a few days / weeks.

How did crypto Airdrops originate?

After the great “boom” of the crypto market at the end of 2017, ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) suddenly became a lot more popular and many were added at the same time. Many of those companies wanted to raise a lot of money as quickly as possible, so they started advertising a lot on the internet. When the market turned out to be uncertain and some people had been scammed, the ad providers became a lot stricter. A large number of providers, such as Google and Facebook, had also banned cryptocurrency ads (this has now been partially lifted). This also made it a lot more difficult for crypto companies to advertise. It is possible that this made alternative marketing for crypto companies such as an Airdrop a lot more attractive. Airdrops were also used to quickly grow a community in the number of members.

What do I need to participate?

So, by participating in an Airdrop you receive free tokens / coins. A certain wallet is required to receive those coins. Examples are: My EtherWallet (MEW) for ERC20 tokens or a NeoWallet. Which wallet is needed is stated with the relevant Airdrop.

  • Telegram; this is a must-have to participate in most Airdrops, as much of the communication is done via telegram channels.
  • A wallet; for storing your tokens.
  • (Optional) Twitter account and / or Facebook; Sometimes projects that organize an Airdrop ask for a like or share promotion, in this way you provide them with free marketing and receive a number of tokens in return.

Data that can be requested with an Airdrop are often: an e-mail address, a wallet address, a Telegram group to follow and to remain there until after the coin / token has been issued.

Note that most tokens will be sent to your wallet when the Initial Coin Offering “first token issue” (ICO) has ended.

Websites with Airdrop alerts

As mentioned above, the announcements of airdrops mostly take place on various crypto channels such as Twitter and Telegram. However, you can also follow airdrops via various websites and apps. Below is an overview of a number of websites where you can go for airdrop reminders and alerts:

Crypto Airdrops on autopilot

There are also tools such as Airdropalert.com, which participate in airdrops for you on autopilot. The free coins or tokens are transferred to your Ethereum (ETH) wallet, without having to do much yourself. You usually pay a monthly fee for such services.

Are there any downsides to participating in a crypto Airdrop?

Short answer: If you’re careful, not really.

However, for those new to this market, we can imagine how strange it sounds, how easy it seems to make money this way. After all, how can there be situations where your Airdrop is suddenly worth extra cash.

The value of a token mainly has to do with the speculative nature of the market and the amount of “hype” that prevails at any given time. It can become worth a lot, it can also become worth little.

That said, participating in an Airdrop only takes time (+/- 5 minutes per Airdrop). However, always do thorough research before participating in airdrops. Many scams take place in the crypto world and airdrops are food for scammers. Be warned! Below is a short list of tips that you should consider before taking part in an airdrop.

Here are some tips regarding crypto airdrops:

  • Never give anyone access to your private key!
  • Wonder how reliable the source that promoted the airdrop is.
  • Never pay for an airdrop!
  • Estimate the professionalism of the company behind the airdrop.
  • Be cautious with KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures.

What should I do if I have not received my crypto Airdrop?

While things are going well in most cases, there are sometimes situations where people have not received their Airdrop. Often the conditions have not been fully met (for example, forgetting a step in the registration process). However, it is also possible that something went wrong with the distribution of tokens / coins. I would therefore advise you to keep any confirmations and evidence. In the unlikely event that you have not received anything after distribution of the Airdrop, we advise you to contact the customer service of the relevant Airdrop. In most cases, you can just go to their Telegram channel for that.

Conclusion

Crypto airdrops can certainly be interesting, history has taught us that. There have been many airdrops with which you could have made a lot of money. The most important thing you need to remember is that caution is advised. There are airdrops that are solely focused on your personal information or even access to your crypto wallet.