Free internet money or early signs of true internet communities?
The past couple of days there has been lots of hype and controversy on social media surrounding the SOS, MASK and GAS token airdrops. Groups and individuals unaffiliated with OpenSea, Metamask or the Ethereum Foundation have launched decentralized autonomous organizations, attracting a community with token airdrops.
The trend started around Christmas with the launch of OpenDAO. They want to use their SOS token to support emerging NFT creators, preserve art, developer grants and compensate scam victims. In order to establish their community, OpenDAO tapped into the user base of OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace in the industry. A total of 50 trillion (50%) of the total SOS supply was airdropped to OpenSea users, and the project instantly became the talk of the town.
So far the utility of SOS remains a bit unclear. There are promises about how the DAO will be used, but there’s nothing actionable yet. Nonetheless users are providing liquidity or promoting the OpenDAO on social media. These are early signs of a community being formed, but that doesn’t mean that the project will actually lift off. At the time of writing 283,605 wallet addresses have claimed the airdrop according to this Dune Analytics dashboard, which is 79% of the airdrop supply.
SOS isn’t without controversy. At the moment the anonymous developers have access to three wallets, without a vesting, time lock or multi-sig security. Technically they could empty the treasury, staking rewards or liquidity mining incentives and dump those on the community. This would make the token value plummet, as the developers will run away with some money. However, to Coindesk they said that they will apply multisig wallets.
MASK and GAS followed
With the SOS still happening, another community airdrop launched. MaskDAO launched their MASK token with a lot more controversy. This DAO taps into every wallet that used Metamask, but the project is not officially affiliated with MetaMask of course. On DexTools the MASK token was presented as being a legit Metamask project, which backfired when the truth came out. In addition Metamask now labels the project as a scam, showing a warning before visiting the official website.
The controversy surrounding MASK and the Mask DAO had a negative impact on the token pricing. Over the past 24 hours MASK lost 92% of its initial value.
The story doesn’t end there. GasDAO came into existence on Tuesday, launching its own GAS token to everybody who burned ETH for gas fees on the Ethereum network. This means that GasDAO doesn’t tap into the NFT community like OpenDAO, but instead positions itself as an all-embracing web3 community. Users who spent at least $1559 USD on transaction fees on Ethereum, can claim a share of the airdrop.
So far, GasDAO has not met any negative feedback. But the question remains whether these DAOs are sustainable without an actual product or service, and a community bonded through product usage. Will a promise of future use cases be enough to convince a community of thousands, or are people simply riding the wave of free magic internet money? Time will tell if these decentralized autonomous organizations have any chance of living up to their promises.
What about RADAR?
With all the talk about token airdrops and decentralized autonomous organizations, DAOs, we should address the elephant in the room: DappRadar and the RADAR token airdrop.
DappRadar has been building its platform for three years. It has become the go-to destination for those looking to discover new decentralized applications, or dapps. DappRadar attracts over 1 million users per month. Furthermore, with its newly launched RADAR token it’s preparing for the next stage: a community-powered dapp store.
RADAR gives users voting power and a say in the future of the World’s Dapp Store. In addition RADAR serves as a utility token, unlocking advanced data tools on both the website and on Discord. DappRadar is just getting started, and with our RADAR airdrop we’re inviting the active dapp community to become part of our journey.
