Despite the challenges, community-driven crypto projects are still blooming

Community engagement has always been an important element of cryptocurrency, and it is proving its worth during bear markets.

Arbitrum’s native governance token ARB was launched and airdropped on March 23, generating a buzz around the layer-2 protocol as hundreds of thousands of eligible users and DAOs attempted to claim the token. According to sources, due to overwhelming user demand, the airdrop claim page crashed soon after its launch, displaying 404 and 429 errors for over an hour.

Arbitrum was one of the largest blockchain projects without a token, so the hype surrounding its demise was to be anticipated. Despite this, it demonstrates how community-driven initiatives in the area can thrive in the face of competitors, technical challenges, market downturns, and regulatory uncertainty.

Arbitrum was not the first, nor will it be the last, initiative to mobilise large audiences. In February, the layer-1 protocol Core DAO token distribution followed a similar engagement formula, with 1.2 million tokens airdropped to individual users. Even before the mainnet launch in 2021, the project had over 1.6 million Twitter followers and over 215,000 Discord users.

“Community ownership and inclusion was a major goal from the beginning,” Core DAO contributor Brendon Sedo told sources. “Another important aspect for our community is transparency.” Too many initiatives keep their progress and development hidden behind closed doors. We’ve made it a mission to spread information across multiple platforms.”

Satoshi Plus, Core’s blockchain’s consensus method, combines proof-of-work and delegated proof-of-stake. Its airdrop was carried out in collaboration with the Satoshi App, an app that allows users to “mine” in-app rewards without the need for money or an exclusive invite. According to Core, the app was critical in getting tokens into the hands of true network users, with 25% of the token supply devoted to the collaboration.

Community participation is also essential for Web3 games and metaverse networks.

According to the business, the virtual world Aftermath Islands Metaverse is about to reach 4 million resource pack NFT generated in just 140 days after releasing its first play-to-earn game, adding the last 1 million users in just 15 days.

“Our priority is not the number of users, because our users are anonymously verified using our Proof of Humanity solutions, and they can only have one account with no duplicates, fakes, or bots.” This effectively eliminates ‘eyeball’ measuring and false results, allowing us to concentrate on what users are doing,” explained David Lucatch, managing director of Aftermath Islands.

The resource pack NFTs reflect true ownership of things that can be traded or used in various ways as personal items on the platform. According to the business, Pack generates 60,000 real users per day.

Decentralization and community involvement have always been important elements of cryptocurrency. Sedo of Core DAO contends that project insiders and a dearth of community ownership endanger blockchain’s potential. “[…] chains had to make tradeoffs between security, scalability, and decentralization,” he explained, adding that “the classic blockchain trilemma gets a lot of attention, but there aren’t many solutions.” Many chains and initiatives simply accept that in order to be scalable, they must forego decentralisation.”