Tech
Blast’s $3 Billion Airdrop and Bitcoin’s Mt. Gox Moment
FREE, PAID: After all, token flips are free money, one reason project teams may be less understanding of users who complain about not getting what they thought they were owed. Now, the LayerZero blockchain interoperability project has introduced a new twist to the process, what some observers are calling “pay to claim.” When the LayerZero Foundation came out with the ZRO airdrop last week, it forced users to fork over a “proof of donation” before they could claim the new tokens. As detailed by CoinDesk’s Shaurya Malwa, users had to make a donate 10 cents in USDC to Protocol Guild – a crowd funding mechanism for Ethereum Level 1 R&D maintainers – for every ZRO token they hoped to claim. In a address of the video published on X, LayerZero Labs co-founder Bryan Pellegrino said that “users have to do something to get something,” adding that the amount was “extremely small” and that “the simplest path” would be to “optimize for the fewer criticisms.” The LayerZero Foundation said it will match all donations up to $10 million. The apparent motivation? “By donating to Protocol Guild, eligible recipients show a long-term alignment with the LayerZero Protocol and a commitment to the future of cryptocurrency,” LayerZero said in a post on X. Needless to say, approval of the move is not been universal: “If I’m at McDonald’s and they force me to make a donation to get my cheeseburger, do I really care about the kids or am I just hungry?” a frustrated poster wrote on X.