Airdrop Sparks Controversy: A Review of Historic Airdrop Incidents That Triggered Public Backlash, Starting from Starknet
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Airdrop Sparks Controversy: A Review of Historic Airdrop Incidents That Triggered Public Backlash, Starting from Starknet
From Arbitrum to SEI, every airdrop has been accompanied by significant controversy, and Starknet is no exception.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Web3 Insights
Throughout December 2023, discussions around the Starknet airdrop never ceased.
On December 1, after Starknet officially announced its airdrop plan, it quickly followed up with details on the distribution rules: establishing a "provisions committee" responsible for allocating 900 million STRK tokens. The team stated that this body would ensure fair, decentralized, and transparent token allocation across various projects and stages. They also mentioned the upcoming "devonomics" initiative planned for rollout in Q1 2024, which will allocate 10% of the previously accumulated 1,600 ETH toward rewarding transaction operators—8% to DApp developers and 2% to core developers.
Many regular users criticized Starknet’s airdrop rules as clearly favoring developers while neglecting the interests of ordinary users. Some viewed this as a sign of Starknet's lack of confidence in its ecosystem, fearing users would take the tokens and leave immediately after receiving them. Coupled with Starknet’s silence on key concerns, the community fell into confusion.
In fact, beyond Starknet, many other projects have sparked widespread debate during their airdrops:
Arbitrum: Whether black cat or white cat, any address contributing data is a good cat
In March 2023, Arbitrum launched its token airdrop. The ARB token had an initial total supply of 10 billion, with a maximum annual inflation rate of 2%. Of the initial supply, 11.62% was allocated to Arbitrum users and 1.13% to DAO treasuries building on Arbitrum.
According to public data, there were 2.66 million unique addresses on-chain, with 625,143 qualifying for the airdrop—about 23.5% of all addresses.
After the ARB airdrop, many users reported receiving rewards across multiple addresses. It became clear that Arbitrum did not fully exclude bots from eligibility; rather, they considered any active address that contributed sufficient transaction volume eligible for the airdrop.
SEI Airdrop Public Relations Battle
If counting controversial airdrops of 2023, SEI certainly ranks high.
Since SEI unveiled its airdrop plan in August 2023, drama surrounding the rules unfolded one after another:
The ill-fated Discord identity verification requirement was met with strong backlash from the community upon release, forcing the team to later retract the rule.
The airdrop divided users into two main groups: participants in the incentivized testnet and active users from six major blockchains.
First, testnet participants: data showed 7 million addresses took part, including a large number of sybil addresses. After checking their airdrop amounts, many users felt deceived—the value of tokens received barely covered the gas fees spent completing testnet tasks. Although users could earn an additional ~400 SEI by completing Twitter and cross-chain missions, dissatisfaction remained.
As negative sentiment mounted over the testnet airdrop design, the announcement of the public chain user airdrop dramatically shifted public perception.
The SEI Foundation tweeted that the number of eligible wallets for the cross-chain airdrop would increase from 500,000 to 1.5 million, including users from Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Solana, Optimism, and Osmosis. This tripled the scope, targeting active users across major blockchains in 2023. Eligibility required bridging assets to the SEI network.
The airdrop amount was roughly tied to two factors: 1) Active address criteria—addresses with frequent cross-chain activity within the past year; 2) Value of assets bridged to the SEI network.
Based on user feedback, this portion of the reward was significantly more generous, and the expanded eligibility earned broader approval.
Airdrops are directly tied to financial incentives, so users pay close attention. Wherever significant value is at stake, controversy inevitably follows. From Arbitrum to SEI, every airdrop has come with substantial public scrutiny—and Starknet is no exception.
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