The People Hunted by LayerZero: We Are the "Cogs" Behind the Illusion of On-Chain Prosperity
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The People Hunted by LayerZero: We Are the "Cogs" Behind the Illusion of On-Chain Prosperity
The largest witch hunt in history comes to an end, as the witch hunt gradually devolves into a game of human nature, and those who once held the upper hand in "plucking feathers" now face a dead end.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Mia, ChainCatcher
Edited by: Marco, ChainCatcher
Amid routine airdrop farming, A Brother’s other major focus lately has been filling out appeal forms—his studio’s 200+ accounts and over 100 premium accounts were all flagged as Sybil accounts by LayerZero.
"To increase the chances of a successful appeal, our team used ChatGPT to write appeals, providing different justifications for each account, even in different languages. The core message is always 'I am a real user,'" A Brother told ChainCatcher.
Hua Jie also filled out the appeal form as required by LayerZero, declaring that her farming accounts were personal rather than those of a studio Sybil operation.
Previously, 20 accounts she had painstakingly built over half a year were deemed Sybil accounts. In LayerZero’s sweeping “witch hunt,” she became one of its targets.
"I hoped farming would make me rich, but instead it left me in the red," Hua Jie joked bitterly to ChainCatcher.
As for whether these appeals will work, both A Brother and Hua Jie say they’re just doing their part and leaving the rest to fate. "There are too many appealed accounts; how could the project possibly review them all?"
LayerZero previously reported that 800,000 addresses were potential Sybil accounts. Although the final list hasn’t been released yet, the number is expected to be substantial.
This “witch hunt” has elevated the game between projects and farmers to a new level: scrutiny, self-reporting, and bounty rewards. Terms like these, which run counter to the spirit of crypto freedom, have sparked widespread controversy.
Farmers, once dominant, are losing their edge as the Web3 industry evolves.
Both sides have strong arguments: Projects want to distribute tokens to genuine users, not studios that dump en masse upon listing; Studios argue they invested real money, helped boost metrics, and stress-tested performance, only to be discarded afterward.
On May 30, LayerZero’s witch hunt officially concluded, while Hua Jie and A Brother are still awaiting judgment.
The Coveted Prize: LayerZero
A Brother has been in the crypto space for a long time. When mining faced crackdowns, he shifted to airdrop farming.
Leveraging his existing research and technical team from mining operations, along with connections within the community, he formed a full-scale airdrop farming studio.
In his view, every large-scale farming effort is a long-term value investment. Researching the project’s backing investors became crucial, with the team focusing on projects funded by renowned firms such as a16z, Paradigm, and Coinbase—large funding rounds being standard.
"High funding amounts mean high valuations, which often translate into more valuable airdropped tokens," A Brother explained.
Early on, the studio successfully farmed notable airdrops like ARB, Aptos, Sui, and Wormhole, achieving solid returns despite an overall bleak market.
LayerZero stood out due to its strong investor lineup and high valuation, making it a top target for A Brother.
In March 2022, LayerZero, aiming to become the "simplest and lightest cross-chain messaging solution," raised $135 million in an A+ round at a $1 billion valuation, joining the ranks of Web3 unicorns with backers including a16z, Sequoia Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.
In April 2023, LayerZero secured another $120 million in a Series B round, raising its valuation to $3 billion, attracting traditional capital this time.
With funding secured, LayerZero announced it was considering a governance token airdrop.
Given its robust funding and anticipated airdrop, LayerZero became a feast eagerly awaited by farmers.
Individual farmers and farming studios began positioning themselves, sparking a flood of research reports and farming tutorials across communities.
LayerZero’s interaction data surged dramatically. Since the April 2023 funding announcement, on-chain interactions spiked, daily transactions exceeding 200,000. Official cross-chain product Stargate also saw massive growth, with daily transactions around 150,000.
A Brother moved swiftly: his technical team generated 200 farming wallets via code, plus 100 premium accounts, launching a months-long farming campaign.
According to A Brother, the team performed designated daily interactions to ensure each address met airdrop criteria, with strict account isolation.
Rising Costs
During LayerZero interactions, farming sunk costs kept piling up.
Due to high fees and lack of transparency, Stargate, LayerZero’s cross-chain product, earned the nickname “cross-chain assassin” among farmers. Early on, without clear fee breakdowns, many users discovered exorbitant charges during gas payments, varying inconsistently across tokens.
A Brother said they had no choice but to endure Stargate’s steep cross-chain fees for the sake of the LayerZero airdrop.
Hua Jie deeply resented this as well. She bought STG tokens at $0.9 each for staking due to farming needs, but when the broader market declined, the value of her STG holdings halved.
When discussing farming costs, A Brother said each account cost over $200, with the goal of earning about $1,000 per account. "For safety, we also used 100 premium accounts to interact, ensuring we wouldn’t get rekt."
Hua Jie said this was her first attempt at multi-account farming. Since single-account participation previously yielded good airdrops, she went all-in this time, spending roughly $3,000 overall.
But when the list of potential Sybil addresses emerged, both A Brother and Hua Jie were stunned—A Brother’s entire studio and all 100 premium accounts were wiped out.
Hua Jie’s 20 accounts were also completely disqualified. She quipped, "I hoped farming would make me rich, but instead it left me in the red."
The Biggest Anti-Sybil Campaign in History
What wiped out their accounts was LayerZero’s witch hunt.
On May 2, LayerZero officially announced completion of its first snapshot, estimating around 5.8 million actual users.
The next day, LayerZero declared it would distribute tokens to persistent users—not Sybils—out of “ongoing trust in the community.” For Sybil users, two options were offered: “self-report” to retain 15% of their airdrop allocation, or await internal screening and receive nothing.
Additionally, LayerZero stated its Sybil detection report would be co-authored with Chaos Labs and Nansen.
This made Sybil monitoring stricter, delivering a harsh blow to studios and professional farmers who had waited long for airdrops and relied on farming for income.
LayerZero even introduced a bounty system: successful reporters would receive 10% of the reported account’s tokens.
By the end of the initial self-reporting phase, approximately 803,000 addresses were preliminarily flagged as potential Sybils. Over 338,000 self-reported, each receiving 15% of their expected allocation, while the remaining 85% was redistributed to legitimate users. With only about 40% choosing to self-report, most stayed silent.
The purge continued. During the following two-week “bounty hunting” period, LayerZero received 3,550 witch-hunting reports, each containing at least 20 addresses accused of Sybil behavior.
Industry consensus suggests the final list will preserve only “6.67%–13.33% of addresses.” However, most multi-account farmers and studios were already eliminated in the first wave.
Mutual Destruction and Mutual Dependence
The game between projects and farmers continues to evolve.
Hop Protocol pioneered this “encirclement” strategy, targeting studios by scrutinizing bulk interactions from multiple accounts, use of common Sybil-farming tools like Merkly, L2 Pass, and L2 Marathon, and minimal-value cross-chain transactions.
Under waves of “self-reporting,” “screening,” and “whistleblowing,” Sybil detection increasingly resembles a purge, with studios cast as sacrificial lambs.
Yet farming studios are no pushovers.
After multiple major airdrops, most mature studios now have dedicated research, technical, and interaction teams. Farming has evolved from a nearly zero-cost loyalty gesture into a professionalized technical operation.
In response to Sybil checks, studios employ various anti-detection tactics: randomized interaction scripts, distributed and independent IP addresses, and stricter account isolation.
An ongoing博弈 exists between projects and farmers around Sybils and anti-Sybil measures.
In the eyes of studios like A Brother’s, farmers contribute significantly to on-chain activity, and farming has become a key component of active on-chain metrics.
As LayerZero itself previously indicated, many projects announce early airdrops and launch Odyssey tasks to incentivize user and studio interactions, creating an illusion of “false prosperity” on-chain.
The surge in interaction data allows projects to optimize and stress-test early on, while generating revenue from transaction fees.
For farmers, however, they take risks under unknown airdrop rules, providing free testing and on-chain contributions. As Hua Jie put it, “Projects rake in fees while we walk away empty-handed.”
Fellow LayerZero farmer and crypto KOL Hebi commented, “Aggressive Odysseys, manipulative PUA—everything was so intense. Farming is over. I’m out.”
They mockingly admit that under LayerZero’s anti-Sybil mechanism, they’ve become mere “tools” manufacturing false on-chain vitality.
The Controversial Bounty Mechanism
In the increasingly competitive farming landscape, the “witch hunt” has devolved into a game of human nature.
When asked why they were flagged, both A Brother and Hua Jie pointed fingers at the “mutual reporting” mechanism.
In their view, despite using multiple accounts, they implemented risk controls for premium accounts, yet all accounts were wiped out.
In reality, the mutual reporting phase ran from May 18 to 31, meaning this couldn’t have been the sole reason.
Still, the人性-testing bounty system has stirred debate in the crypto community.
LayerZero announced it encourages users to report Sybil behavior, with successful reporters receiving 10% of the reported address’s airdrop share.
This undoubtedly exploits the darker side of human nature—users can sacrifice others’ efforts for a 10% reward.
Hebi said: “Human nature is evil; every Sybil check reveals its dark side.”
Hua Jie added it’s a “lose-lose” approach. She accepts LayerZero’s strict rules but believes mutual reporting is “harmful to everyone.”
Another studio not involved in LayerZero farming also called mutual reporting a step backward, saying it not only “disgusts” users but also tarnishes the project’s reputation.
Mutual reporting isn’t just a battle between projects and studios—it’s also a conflict between studios and individual users. Since 90% of a reported account’s tokens return to the airdrop pool, ordinary farmers stand to gain more, turning mutual reporting into a weapon for asserting “farming justice.”
Rumors suggest an employee quit a farming studio to report internal accounts; some claim a “hunter” submitted a report with 480,000 Sybil addresses.
LayerZero co-founder Bryan Pellegrino responded on social media that anyone can submit whatever they want, but not every report is valid.
This seems to confirm suspicions of report inflation.
LayerZero successfully leveraged human nature, turning its witch hunt into a war between individual farmers and studios.
Different Perspectives
Today’s farming scene resembles a battlefield.
Sybil attacks have existed since Web1, first proposed by Microsoft researcher John R. Douceur in 2002, inspired by the 1973 novel *Sybil*. Web3’s on-chain anonymity provides fertile ground for Sybil attacks, enabling attackers to easily create bulk addresses to claim multiple airdrops, then dump immediately—severely impacting projects.
“Anti-Sybil” efforts have long been the moral high ground in farming, protecting project and genuine user interests to some extent.
Studios argue they contributed to on-chain activity during interactions.
As Hua Jie put it: “We all spent real money interacting with the project.”
While individual users celebrate escaping the Sybil label, they also lament LayerZero’s harsh and dehumanizing anti-Sybil rules.
Most studios call this a “Waterloo,” but since getting rekt is common, serious players won’t dwell on a single defeat—they’ll look toward broader opportunities.
Some studios and pro farmers say farming involves personal risk tolerance—not all believed in LayerZero, and some may avoid future LayerZero ecosystem farming.
Meanwhile, some multi-account users and studios still await their final verdict.
With the airdrop snapshot complete, LayerZero’s on-chain interactions have quieted down. Combined with user backlash over aggressive anti-Sybil measures, LayerZero’s on-chain data has hit a one-year low.
On May 19, total messages dropped to just 39,000, a 94% decline from previous highs.
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