What is an NFT Airdrop?
Airdrops are giveaways sent to personal crypto wallets. In general, the airdrop distributions are unsolicited, meaning that the transactions are done voluntarily, without an explicit economic intention. However, being free of charge does not imply that airdrops are selfless acts of charity. Indeed, these kinds of giveaways proved to be a strategic marketing move mainly to:
- reward users for the early adoption of a project;
- share additional value with the community of a project;
- increase awareness and attain loyal customers.
A real-life analogy for airdrops is free samples offered in shops or in the street. Imagine leaving the office late, hungry from overworking. Then, you see that the new cafe down the road is delivering free sandwiches. You go to take a bite and get convinced to stop by more often. The idea behind the airdrops is quite similar. Either exposing you to an emerging blockchain ecosystem, introducing tokens, or getting contact info for further use; an airdrop distribution is an effective way of reaching out and communicating with a target group.
Different types of airdrops
An airdrop can give away tokens, NFTs or other utilities. However, the distinction between different airdrops is mostly done regarding the procedures followed by the receivers. The two main clusters are active and passive airdrops. Though the name is quite self-explanatory, passive airdrops refer to giveaways for which receivers are not expected to have any engagement. Whereas for active airdrops, receivers are asked to follow some steps such as joining discord servers, liking, tweeting, or inviting friends. Then, the active airdrops are given as a reward. Apart from these two general clusters, there are subcategories for airdrops.
- Standard Airdrops. They are in the passive airdrops cluster. Mostly the wallet address and basic communication information are all you need to give. Due to the simplicity of the distribution process, standard airdrops are high in demand and difficult to find.
- Bounty Airdrops. They fall under the active airdrops definition. Bounty airdrops are rewarded when a user performs certain tasks. Generally, these tasks require the user to raise awareness of a project by retweeting, discord engagement or inviting a friend.
- Holder Airdrops. Holder airdrops are designed to compensate existing holders of a token or an NFT. Investors who hold a significant amount receive the airdrop. The process is mostly passive. Since wallet addresses and ledger distributions are transparent, airdrops can be sent without prior notice.
- Exclusive Airdrops. Exclusive airdrops are distributed to a specific group of people, selected on a specific criterion. The difference between the exclusive airdrops and the holder airdrops is that, for the prior, the selection is not based on how many tokens are held. One of the most common criteria is how much time is spent engaging with the project such as the time spent on the Discord server or the number of posts created. Considering these, exclusive airdrops are much closer to the active airdrops cluster.
- Raffle Airdrops. Finally, raffle airdrops are rewarded randomly when the demand for the airdrops exceeds the supply. If the project is granting a hundred airdrops for retweeting about them and a thousand complete the task; hundred people are selected randomly to get the raffle airdrops. So, to receive them luck plays a big role!
How much does an NFT airdrop cost?
The amazing thing about airdrops is that.. they are free! The literal meaning tells the story: imagine NFTs falling to your hands from the air. Well, you might need to complete some tasks before actually receiving the airdrop, but that is about it. If you are asked for money in return, then it is not an airdrop. If you are looking for upcoming airdrops, just google “Airdrop Calendar” and take note of the dates. Most of the time, the process is quite simple and can be completed in minutes.
Things to be careful about
In the crypto world, there are many harm-intended people exploiting their anonymity. Unfortunately, fishing scandals and scams are not exceptions when it comes to airdropping. Sharing your public wallet address should be mostly sufficient. If you are being rewarded for an active airdrop, you might also give your social media account names. However, you should never share your private keys to your wallet or the passwords of your accounts. If you are being asked for private information, that is a big red flag and you should report it. For more information about how you can secure your NFTs and wallets, have a look at our guides.
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