Retrodrop Rewards: A Beginner's Guide to Earning Free Crypto

This article provides insights into retrodrops, their purpose of distributing money, an overview of past drops and their criteria, the most promising projects at present, and the anticipated criteria for receiving rewards.

Understanding Retrodrops

Retrodrops refer to the practice of projects (whether blockchains or individual protocols/dApps) freely distributing coins or tokens to their users.

Coins or tokens are given as a reward for early engagement and contributions to the project's development. It's worth noting that retrodrops are typically not announced in advance to prevent blatant abuse of the system.

Reasons for Project-based Money Distribution

Retrodrops serve several purposes:

Marketing

Engaging in retrodrops is an excellent and cost-effective way for projects to attract attention to their endeavors.

Community Building

Before participating in retrodrops, users typically delve into researching the project, including its underlying technology, tokenomics, team, and more. When a project demonstrates a solid foundation, it tends to gather a dedicated and supportive community.

Metric Enhancement

In the pursuit of retrodrops, users carry out hundreds of thousands of transactions and spend millions of dollars on fees. Concurrently, project teams can leverage this data in presentations to showcase investors how successful their investment has been (though success is not guaranteed).

Decentralization and Legal Market Entry

I consider this the primary motivation. Projects find it advantageous to conduct retrodrops to mitigate potential regulatory concerns regarding their coins or tokens.

Review of Past Retrodrops

The concept of retrodrops gained widespread recognition following Arbitrum's distribution in March of this year. In total, the project disbursed approximately $1.3 billion worth of $ARB tokens.

Arbitrum served as a significant milestone due to its straightforward eligibility criteria, with hundreds of thousands of wallets receiving 650 $ARB tokens (equivalent to around $900 at the time of the retrodrop).

The main challenge with retrodrops lies in the lack of advance knowledge regarding important details:

Will the project conduct a retrodrop?

When will the snapshot (a statistical data capture of the project) and the retrodrop occur?

What specific actions or criteria will determine eligibility for the retrodrop?

What multipliers or incentives will the project implement?

Our approach relies on historical retrodrop data and allows us to make informed assumptions.

Let's examine the statistics of notable retrodrops from the past, starting with Arbitrum.

Arbitrum: Layer2 blockchain

Snapshot Date: February 6, 2023.

Retrodrop Date: March 23, 2023.

The retrodrop eligibility criteria were based on a point system. Participants needed to accumulate a minimum of 3 points to qualify for a reward.

Points (multipliers) were awarded for:

Bridge usage: Utilizing the bridge to the ARB and Nova network.

Months of usage: 2, 6, or 9 months.

Number of transactions: 4, 10, 25, or 100.

Transaction volume: Total transaction volume of $10,000, $50,000, or $250,000.

Bridge to Arbitrum One: Bridge activity with values of $10,000, $50,000, or $250,000.

Engagement in Arbitrum Nova: 3, 5, or 10 transactions.

The measures taken to prevent multi-accounting were surface-level. Generally, accounts associated with one another, conducting all activities within a single day, and exhibiting other evident patterns were disqualified from receiving the retrodrop.

Uniswap, DeFi-protocol

Uniswap, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, conducted a retrodrop on September 16, 2023, following a snapshot taken on September 1, 2020. The retrodrop criteria included various options for eligibility, such as making a single trade on the platform, providing liquidity for any duration, receiving $SOCKS tokens, or holding one or more $SOCKS tokens. The majority of wallets received less than 412 $UNI tokens, valued at approximately $2000 at the time. However, there were also wallets that received significantly higher amounts, with some receiving up to $250,000 based on the 2020 exchange rate.

Sushi, DeFi app

Sushi, a DeFi application, conducted a retrodrop on September 12, 2020, following a snapshot taken in September 2020. Approximately $2.2 million was distributed among 4,607 wallets, averaging around $480 per wallet. Notably, this retrodrop was distributed to active users of Uniswap as an apology for the exit scam carried out by the founder of SushiSwap, in which $14 million was withdrawn from the platform.

ENS, domain name

ENS, a domain name system, conducted a retrodrop on November 8, 2021, following a snapshot taken on October 31, 2021. Nearly $185 million was distributed among 137,689 wallets that owned a .eth domain. Many addresses received around $14,000 based on the exchange rate at that time.

1inch, DEX

1inch, a decentralized exchange (DEX), conducted a retrodrop on December 25, 2020, following a snapshot taken on December 24, 2020. The retrodrop criteria included options such as executing at least one trade before September 15, 2020, executing a minimum of four trades, or executing trades with a total value of at least $20. The retrodrop was distributed to 55,223 wallets, with a minimum drop amount of $1500.

Blur, NFT marketplace

Notably, some users received significant rewards, with one user claiming 9.75 million tokens worth over $25 million at that time.

Blur, an NFT marketplace, conducted a retrodrop on February 15, 2022, following a snapshot taken on October 19, 2022. The first season of the retrodrop was based on trading activity on competing marketplaces, and the drop amounts varied widely, ranging from $50 to a maximum of $3.3 million.

Aptos, Layer1 blockchain

Aptos, a Layer1 blockchain, conducted a retrodrop on October 12, 2022, following a snapshot taken in the autumn of 2022. A total of 110,235 addresses received the retrodrop as a reward for submitting a node deployment request or claiming an NFT in the test network. The retrodrop rewards amounted to $3000 for a node deployment request and $1500 for claiming an NFT.

How to participate in retrodrops

A retrodrop is a reward given for activity, and the specific activities required can vary depending on the project. Commonly evaluated factors include the duration of interaction (days, weeks, or months), transaction volume and quantity, provision of liquidity, interaction with smart contracts, and engagement with official bridges.

There may also be specific criteria such as the time interval between the first and last transaction, donations to GitHub, voting on snapshot, and more.

Covering the full range of actions that can qualify for a retrodrop can often be costly, especially if you are using multiple accounts.

This leads to the recommendation of creating account tiers, which means dividing them based on the quality and quantity of interactions.

For example, a tier-1 account in zkSync might have the following characteristics:

100+ transactions in Era

15+ transactions in Lite

Volume of $50,000+

6 active months

50+ smart contracts

Official bridge

Transactions on the Ethereum mainnet

The cost of such an account, depending on gas fees, would start at $50. Based on your budget, you should calculate how many tier-1, tier-2, and tier-3 accounts you can create.

Here's a step-by-step approach to retrodrop farming:

Begin by replenishing your wallets with the necessary assets from a centralized exchange account. It is crucial to ensure that there are no overlaps or intersections between these wallets.

If your goal is to farm a blockchain's retrodrop, head over to DeFiLlama and explore the protocols associated with that particular blockchain. Engage with a wide range of projects by conducting trades and providing liquidity.

It is advisable not to rush through all the activities in a single day. Instead, carefully choose periods with low gas fees and spread out your interactions over several weeks or even months.

To monitor the account's statistics for each blockchain, you can often find dedicated checkers. For instance, zkSync offers such a tool to verify your account's status.

Once you have thoroughly warmed up your account and completed all the required activities, proceed to withdraw your funds to sub-accounts on centralized exchanges. Remember to ensure that the addresses used do not overlap.

For specific projects, you can find detailed guides and resources on the internet. Additionally, feel free to visit my Telegram channel for occasional assistance and updates.

Currently, several projects are highly sought after for retrodrops, including zkSync, Starknet, Layer Zero, Linea, Aptos, and Arbitrum (second drop). These projects hold the potential to yield retrodrops ranging from $500 to $3,000 for well-established accounts.

Conclusion

Retrodrops are a unique and exciting way to earn crypto by actively engaging with blockchain projects early on. By understanding past retrodrop patterns and following the right steps, you can increase your chances of benefiting from these rewards in emerging projects. With blockchain continuing to grow, retrodrops offer a new way for users to support projects and potentially earn along the way. Start exploring opportunities with top projects like zkSync, Starknet, and Arbitrum to join the next wave of crypto rewards!

FAQ

1. What is a retrodrop, and how does it differ from an airdrop?
   A retrodrop is a reward distributed to users for early engagement with a blockchain project. Unlike typical airdrops, which are usually announced and distributed widely, retrodrops are often unannounced and given to users who have demonstrated long-term or meaningful engagement with a project.
2. How can I qualify for a retrodrop?
   To qualify, users typically need to meet specific criteria, such as transaction volume, frequency of interactions, or usage of certain project features. Projects like Arbitrum and Uniswap rewarded users based on their engagement level, such as using bridges, interacting with smart contracts, or holding certain tokens.
3. Is there any risk involved in participating in retrodrops?
   Yes, retrodrops often involve making multiple transactions, which can incur gas fees, especially on high-demand networks. It’s important to consider the cost of transactions and interact responsibly. Additionally, since not all projects conduct retrodrops, there is no guarantee of a reward.
4. Which projects are known for potential retrodrops?
   Projects like zkSync, Starknet, Aptos, Layer Zero, and Arbitrum are frequently mentioned for potential retrodrops. These projects are actively growing and encourage community engagement, making them promising candidates for future rewards.
5. How can I maximize my chances of earning from a retrodrop?
   To increase your chances, consider creating multiple accounts with varied levels of engagement and interacting consistently with the project. Monitor your transactions, stay updated on project announcements, and avoid rushing through interactions. Thoughtful participation over time is often rewarded more than high-frequency, short-term activity.