The much-anticipated launch and airdrop of Arbitrum’s native governance token, ARB, took place on March 23, creating a buzz around the Layer 2 protocol as hundreds of thousands of eligible users and DAOs attempted to claim the token. As Cointelegraph reported, the overwhelming user demand caused the airdrop claim page to crash shortly after launch, displaying 404 and 429 errors for more than an hour.
Since Arbitrum is one of the largest tokenless blockchain projects, the hype surrounding its fall was to be expected. Still, it demonstrates how community-driven projects in the field can thrive despite competition, technical challenges, market downturn, and regulatory uncertainty.
Arbitrum isn't the first and certainly won't be the last project to mobilize a massive audience. In February, the token distribution of layer 1 protocol Core DAO followed a similar participation recipe, airdropping 1.2 million tokens to individual users. Even before the mainnet launch, the project, founded in 2021, has over 1.6 million Twitter followers and over 215,000 Discord members.
“Community ownership and inclusion has been a major goal since the beginning,” Core DAO contributor Brendon Sedo told Cointelegraph. "Transparency is another key for our community. Too many projects are holding back their progress and development. We have made publishing information on various platforms a priority." Core’s blockchain runs on a combined Proof-of-Work and Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism called Satoshi Plus. Its airdrop was conducted in partnership with Satoshi App, an app that allows users to “mine” in-app rewards without payment or exclusive invitations. According to Core, the app is critical to helping get tokens into the hands of real users of the network, with 25% of the token supply earmarked for partnerships.
Community engagement is also key for Web3 games and Metaverse platforms. The virtual world Aftermath Islands Metaverse is on track to hit 4 million resource pack NFTs generated in just 140 days after releasing its first earning game, adding its last 1 million users in just 15 days, the company said.
