There are several ways of making money from cryptocurrencies but not all are secure and legit ways. However, one genuine way of earning through cryptocurrencies is AIRDROPS.
Some of you reading this concept of ‘Airdrops’ for the first time might ask what Airdrop for cryptocurrency means.
An airdrop for a cryptocurrency is a procedure of distributing new tokens/coins by awarding them in a certain proportion to existing holders of a particular blockchain currency, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum etc. In simple terms, if you hold one type of coin, you are automatically eligible to claim other coins/tokens just because you were HODLing the parent coins/tokens on which airdrop is being done. That is why this method of coin/token distribution is called airdrops signifying ‘free droppings’.
Sometimes, there are different reasons and motivations for these airdrops such as forks, marketing, decentralization & distribution etc. There are other reasons too of which we will talk about later in the article.
Why Do Free Crypto Airdrops Occur?
There are several motivations for carrying out cryptocurrency airdrops, right from creating the hype and buzz to actually distributing the whole supply of coins/tokens.
Some of the reasons for carrying out crypto airdrops are:
• Even Distribution Of Total Token Supply
One proper reason for airdrops is to evenly distribute the total token/coin supply so that there is less centralization in terms of bagHODLer holding a large sum with themselves.
Omise gave away five percent of their OmiseGO cryptocurrency to holders of Ethereum in September 2017. In this case, OmiseGO took the advantage of already distributed Ethereum economy to distribute their tokens too.
• Rewarding Faithful Early Investors
Many cryptocurrencies want to reward its early supporters and investors who first bought their ICOs or tokens. What better way to reward them than by offering them some more new tokens – for free. This also motivates early investors to hold their parent tokens for longer durations and overall I feel it is a good way of rewarding.
• Awareness About The New Crypto
Many times, just for spreading awareness, the airdrops are carried out for the HODLers of popular cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Walton etc.
• Marketing & Hype
This is the most common trend nowadays. Airdropping coins/tokens for the purpose of marketing and collecting leads for further business opportunity expansion.
You will also find projects running schemes such as:
- (TEU) is airdropping 125.000 USD in TEU tokens to first 15,000 airdrop participants!
- Get up to 60 REPU tokens free just by joining Telegram!
- #ApolloDAE referral airdrop for Telegram users!
- 50 SYN tokens free when you sign up!
So this a kind of airdrop cum bounties for doing minor tasks like signups, referrals or joining Telegram and following on Twitter etc.
• Hard Forks
Another popular way is to fork popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and create a new coin, to be distributed to existing holders of these parent coins. CoinSutra has supported few airdrops that happened in the past through such forks, some of which were:
- Bitcoin Cash
- Bitcoin Gold
- Bitcoin Diamond
- Litecoin Cash
Now the million dollar question – How to know about such airdrops? Good question, considering it is one of the easiest ways to make money.
How To Stay Updated On Such Crypto Airdrops?
There are several ways to be updated, one of the most effective of which is to join an active crypto community that works in this area. CoinSutra is one such crypto-community. We have already, in the above-mentioned links, explained how we help our community members to make full use of such opportunities.
There are some more services and websites through which you can get regular updates about airdrops. However, understand the fact that not all airdrops are worth participating in and can be sometimes fraudulent too.
Nevertheless, here are few of those services:
• Crypto Airdrops
• AirdropAlert.com
You can also find airdrop announcements on Twitter page and Bitcoin forum page of a particular project that you might be following.
How To Get Your Free Airdropped Crypto?
Claiming your airdropped free crypto coin/tokens can differ from project to project.
For example…
For the airdrop forked coins, you either need to be in control of your private keys or should know how to sign your public address with your private keys.
That is we always suggest you to always store your cryptocurrencies in the following types of wallets where you are in control of your private keys:
Ledger Nano S (Hardware Wallet)
Trezor (Hardware Wallet)
Exodus (Desktop Wallet)
MyEtherWallet (Web Wallet)
Im token (android wallet) etc..
Sometimes you just need to do the following things to get/claim your airdropped tokens/coins:
I. Sign-up
II. Retweet
III. Refer a friend
IV. Join Telegram
V. Or complete other social media tasks
Conclusion: Stay Updated & Stay Safe
With the popularity index of cryptocurrencies rising every day, the scams surrounding it are growing too. That is why if you find scams around cryptocurrency airdrops, don’t get surprised or fall for it. The only workaround to do away with them is educating yourself on the subject of airdrops, or as a matter of fact, on cryptocurrencies.
But I will tell you how scams around airdrops happen.
A scammy project with airdrop plans will ask you for your private keys to be entered at places and sometimes even fool you so that you enter your seed words in a malicious software.You will usually see such types of tactics in hacked slack channels, Telegram channels or tweaked Twitter accounts that will try to imposter the original account in some way.
In the interest of your safety, I would suggest you do the due-diligence by going an extraimile while examining such airdrop.
For more information go to https://coinsutra.com/what-is-airdrop/