Starknet's Airdrop Caused a Flurry of Criticism
Starknet users are leaving the network en masse amid controversy over the upcoming token airdrop.
Starknet activity and trading volume continue to plummet in the run-up to the token airdrop. Normally, the free project token distribution leads to a surge in network participants and trading volume. But Starknet has faced criticism over the suddenly changed airdrop criteria.
is this real lmaooooo (????)
— Loopify 🧙♂️ (@Loopifyyy) February 14, 2024
the allocation was actually pretty good for real devs, early eth stakers; so on ignoring farmers
but doing this completely changes things
2 month cliff for investors https://t.co/UE1sG7BSFs
Last week, the network experienced a surge of new users who were expecting to receive free tokens, the number of which turned out to be quite large. When the details were revealed, the community was furious. The network's activity dropped by 90%. The number of active accounts dropped from a peak of 220,500 to just over 84,000.
1.3 million wallets were supposed to receive STRK tokens on February 20. The subject of the dispute was the changed schedule for unlocking tokens, according to which team members should have received the reward just two months after the token launch. Usually, crypto projects distribute tokens to team members after a year or longer. This decision by Starknet, it seemed to market participants, could do significant damage to the broader ecosystem community.
Another reason for dissatisfaction was the criteria with the minimum amount of ETH in wallets. Many users found that those whose wallet balance as of November 15, 2023, was less than 0.005 ETH were deprived of the opportunity to receive tokens. They felt that their contributions to the network had been ignored.
The Starknet team quickly tried to reassure users by acknowledging the problem and assuring that it would be resolved soon.
gm Starklings, one day to go!
— Starknet Foundation (@StarknetFndn) February 19, 2024
For those eligible, STRK Provisions will be live and available to claim tomorrow, 20.02.2024 at 12pm UTC. To check your addresses and to claim, please take care to use the correct URL, linked here: https://t.co/jcQQuD8uOX.
We thank everyone who's…
By the way, the recent changes in the criteria of airdrop may be due to the increased number of airdrop farmers who have found a loophole to avoid performing onchain activities, but still get free tokens. For example, 40% of the airdrop of the Celestia project went to airdrop farmers.
