Celestia Airdrop: Innovating Distribution Methods, Focusing on Real Contributions

Recently, the modular blockchain Celestia announced its airdrop plan for the TIA token, distributing a total of 60 million TIA tokens. This airdrop involves 7,579 developers and 576,653 on-chain active addresses, with Celestia team members and advisors excluded from the distribution. Eligible users must claim their tokens by October 17.

Looking back at Celestia's previous financing history, both its scale and investors are among the leaders in the industry. In 2021, an investment firm invested $40 million in Celestia through a fund, in July 2022, a venture capital company added an investment of $62.61 million, and in October 2022, it secured another $55 million in financing, with a post-investment valuation reaching $1 billion.

From the scale of financing, the total value of this airdrop is considerable. However, there has not been a large-scale "sheep shearing" phenomenon in the community. Compared to previous project airdrops, Celestia places more emphasis on fairness and genuine contribution when designing the rules. This article will provide a detailed analysis of Celestia's airdrop method, economic model, and the implications for future project airdrop trends.

Airdrop Details: Incentivizing Real Contributors and Active Users

Celestia will divide 60 million TIA tokens into three parts: 20 million for research, public goods, and early modular ecosystems; 20 million for early adopters of Ethereum rollups; and 20 million for Cosmos Hub and Osmosis stakers and IBC relayers. The specific allocation criteria are as follows:

Protocol public goods and infrastructure

A total of 4.6 million tokens will be distributed, with 3,838 users meeting the eligibility criteria, and each individual can receive at least 1,198 tokens. Eligibility includes: contributors to public goods and infrastructure of the protocol, contributors to Celestia and dependent projects, and contributors to EIPs and BIPs.

Eth Research

A total of 1.4 million tokens will be distributed, thanks to the community's open discussions over the past six years. The condition is to create at least 1 topic or 1 post on the Eth Research forum before the specified date. A total of 1,947 users meet the criteria, and each can claim at least 719 TIA.

Early Modular Ecosystem

A total of 8.35 million TIA will be distributed, with 3,371 users meeting the criteria, each receiving at least 2,477 coins. This includes: the first cohort of modular researchers, organizations attending specific modular summits, and projects in the Celestia ecosystem v3 diagram.

GitHub Super Contributor

Allocate additional TIA to contributors with at least 4 submissions in qualified repositories and allocate more to those with at least 23 submissions. 1.604 million tokens are allocated to 1,604 users with more than 4 submissions, with a minimum of 1,028 tokens per person. 4 million tokens are allocated to 1,210 users with more than 23 submissions, with a minimum of 3,305 tokens per person.

Ethereum rollups early adopters

Distribute 20 million tokens to the top 10 on-chain active users by TVL ranking. Points will be allocated based on user behavior on the Ethereum mainnet and other chains, with the top 10%, 20%, and 50% active addresses receiving different amounts of tokens.

Cosmos Hub and Osmosis stakers

Distribute 18.5 million tokens to stakers and delegators who stake at least $75. Similarly, users will be categorized into three levels for distribution based on address activity scores.

IBC Relay

Distribute 1.5 million tokens to 540 addresses that have conducted MsgRecvPacket transactions, with each address receiving 2,777 tokens.

Economic Model and Market Value Estimation

The total issuance of TIA is 1 billion coins, with the inflation rate starting at 8% per year and gradually decreasing. TIA can be used for paying network fees, Gas fees, POS staking, and decentralized governance.

The token distribution plan is as follows: 20% to the public community, 26.8% to research and ecology, 19.7% to early supporters in Round A and Round B, 15.9% to seed round supporters, and 17.6% to early core contributors. Each part has a different unlocking plan.

The initial circulation volume is 267 million coins, with an opening circulating market value of approximately 270 million USD. Considering the market values of related projects such as Cosmos and Polkadot, TIA's total market value may be situated between the two.

The Evolution Trend of Future Airdrop Methods

With the evolution of the Airdrop model, the relationship between project parties and users is shifting from a mutually beneficial one to a zero-sum game. In the future, projects may be more inclined to allocate Airdrops to true technical contributors and highly active users, rather than simply to "wool pullers."

Airdrop standards may become more diversified, taking into account factors such as cross-chain activity and main chain activity. Overall, project teams are seeking more precise ways to identify and reward genuine contributors and active users to maximize the value of the Airdrop.

Conclusion

The airdrop method of Celestia has to some extent revolutionized the previous simple token distribution model, placing more emphasis on genuine development contributions and on-chain activity. Its distribution strategy values core contributors while also taking into account a wide range of active users, reflecting the project's wisdom.

For developers, obtaining airdrop qualifications in the future may require deeper involvement in project development. Ordinary users may need to enhance their account activity across multiple dimensions to increase their chances of receiving airdrops. Overall, project airdrops are evolving towards a more precise and valuable direction.