Thread by @WagameEth

1/22 Hey anon, got caught by on-chain detectives 🕵️ @gzeon or @raise_exception sybiling $HOP #airdrop? 😱
We love #airdrops 🪂 but strictly against abuse 🙅‍♂️ .

Check our reasoning why sybil farming is not sustainable and why devs should implement measures against it
🧵👇

@gzeon @raise_exception 2/22 first things first: does it still make sense for #Web3 projects to airdrop instead of just conducting a token sale or #LBP?

Reminder of desired outcomes for having a token:
✅ high degree of decentralization
✅ genuine users taking responsibility

@gzeon @raise_exception 3/22 likely outcomes for 2 different token distribution methods:

1⃣ LBP:
👍permissionless
👎concentrated ownership stakes
👎available to non-users

2⃣ Token sale:
👍allocation per person basis
👎mandatory KYC
👎available to non-users
👎not web3

@gzeon @raise_exception 4/22
3⃣ airdrop:
👍decentralization
👍actual product users
👍likely high alignment with vision
👎prone to abuse via sybil attacks
👎future community is not considered

In our opinion, #airdrops still to this date meet the above-mentioned desired outcomes for having a token

@gzeon @raise_exception 5/22 now to the reasons why sybil airdrop farming can severely hurt web3 projects:

💀 ownership gets concentrated
💀 low alignment with project's vision
💀 genuine users get diluted and might loose conviction since they feel betrayed
💀 the death spiral begins... 😭

@gzeon @raise_exception 6/22 P.s. If you're sybil farmer, please stop. ⚠️ it's becoming increasingly difficult if not almost impossible to not get caught - with severe consequences ⚠️

See these examples 👇

@gzeon @raise_exception 7/22 @HopProtocol proposal to reward Sybil hunters with 25% of tokens saved w/ 1-year lockup:

https://twitter.com/WhinfreyChris/status/1525178679483019264?s=20&t=OArZrDGBeXH6yMZiw9sB_g

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol 8/22 @dexguru went above and beyond to weed out sybilers, letting the community decide over threshold criteria for being considered a sybil farmer.

https://twitter.com/raise_exception/status/1518606268788879362?s=20&t=OArZrDGBeXH6yMZiw9sB_g

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru 9/22 an interesting evolution happening with eligibility criteria for retroactive airdrops. $UNI-airdrop required only a single swap, now projects are becoming increasingly creative on how to reward most valuable actions and hereby effectively reducing impact of sybil attacks 👇

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru 10/22 $ELFI Airdrop
Users who engaged in @element_fi Discord conversations got 205-819 $ELFI. On-chain users with <$1000 LP got 0. Not saying that low volumes are all sybilers, but it's mainnet and anything <$1000 wouldn't make economic sense for genuine user given gas fees

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi 11/22 $OP Airdrop
Genuine user with rich Web3 history got 30k $OP. Users who just bridged and didn't do much else got 727 $OP. 1 good genuine wallet is worth 41 single-action wallets in this case. More apps will do multiple criteria too, but they won't repeat the same criteria

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi 12/22 web3 projects releasing a gov token via #airdrop to their community have recently become quite weary of sybil attackers (multi-account airdrop hunters) - we think quite rightfully so!

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi 13/22 Armed with the learnings from the recent trend to "hunt the (airdrop) hunters" - the next wave of Sybil attacks on new protocols will be without doubt very difficult to trace. 🧐🤷‍♂️

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi 14/22 Sybil farmers will inevitably up their game. We expect the more sophisticated sybillers to fund multiple wallets via @aztecnetwork or @twister_cash
The less savvy ones might just fund multiple wallets via CEX and use this tactic to avoid wallet links on the blockchain.

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash 15/22 This will put the project teams in front of difficult choices, e.g.
1⃣ deploy advanced and expensive tools/services like @nansen_ai, @MessariCrypto, @chainalysis
2⃣ hunt down just the less sophisticated sybillers
3⃣ do nothing and surrender to aggressive sybil attackers

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis 16/22 prominent thinkers in the Ethereum ecosystem are concerned too:

https://twitter.com/epolynya/status/1522439386989744128?s=20&t=E1di0eAEi9n4bPJQBI23WQ

https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1522615587477676032?s=20&t=E1di0eAEi9n4bPJQBI23WQ

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis 17/22 A more creative approach 💡 is gamification: we don't know yet if e.g. #ArbitrumOdyssey and @Clipper_DEX Adventure will be an exclusive eligibility criteria or just a multiplier for the respective (but inevitable 😉) token airdrop

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis @Clipper_DEX 18/22 Some basic sybil protection is already included by design within both approaches (e.g. signup with socials) and the continually required social and protocol interactions to complete the gamified quests literally creates genuine protocol users

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis @Clipper_DEX 19/22 another interesting tool is @BrightIDProject, which can be used to assert that you are a unique person in a context (without revealing which person) - their "Aura" verification basically intends to finally protect against sybil attacks for good forum.brightid.org/t/aura-a-new-v…

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis @Clipper_DEX @BrightIDProject 20/22 we can imagine BrightID being implemented for future #airdrop claim process 👀 therefore we strongly suggest to familiarize with this tool. Hey devs, why hunt sybilers when you could instead let the users themselves prove an account belonging to a unique person?

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis @Clipper_DEX @BrightIDProject 21/22 We're excited to see more creative ways of involving users as persona, away from the concept of anon wallets and therefore designed to be sybil proof, shout out to
@lisr_D for covering

https://twitter.com/lisr_D/status/1523414116689649665?s=20&t=E1di0eAEi9n4bPJQBI23WQ

@gzeon @raise_exception @HopProtocol @dexguru @element_fi @aztecnetwork @twister_cash @nansen_ai @MessariCrypto @chainalysis @Clipper_DEX @BrightIDProject @lisr_D 22/22 Another solution is also just around the corner - devs actually did something! Legitimacy by web3 credentials and DID's (decentralized ID's) minted as soulbound NFTs 🤯.

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