Initia Airdrop Post-Mortem: Retail's Comeback Victory, Precise Expectation Management—What Did Initia Get Right?
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Initia Airdrop Post-Mortem: Retail's Comeback Victory, Precise Expectation Management—What Did Initia Get Right?
Airdrops are not chips in a zero-sum game, nor should they be tools for收割; they ought to become the trust infrastructure of the industry.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Ice Frog
Last year, I wrote an article titled How to Manage Airdrop Expectations: The Right Way for Projects to Think Big.
Yet reality has ironically shown me another side of the industry—users' expectations collapsing, project teams losing trust, and capital trapped in a vicious cycle. I was forced into the维权 (rights protection) track.
Airdrops have devolved from growth engines into "harvesting games." Until Initia’s airdrop arrived, which not only validated my views but also proved that an airdrop with “no losers” is indeed possible.
Initia's airdrop demonstrated to the entire industry what true vision looks like: building trust through transparency, managing expectations with reasonable rules, transforming airdrops from mere marketing tools into foundational infrastructure for project governance.
1. Initia's Airdrop Strategy: No PUA, No Show-Offs, Back to Basic User-Centric Thinking
In September last year, Initia’s two co-founders gave an interview emphasizing their goal of aligning the project closely with its community and creating long-term, sustainable wealth effects. They clearly opposed short-termism. From the analysis above and the founders’ statements, it’s evident that from product design and tokenomics to the final airdrop, the project truly practices long-termism.
Upon close examination, Initia’s airdrop strategy isn’t particularly sophisticated or clever. There were no manipulative tactics to tease users with false hopes, nor any flashy tricks. Especially notable is how the entire airdrop was almost entirely "de-KOLized"—I call this a simple yet highly effective "marketplace philosophy." Nothing more than fairness, integrity, and transparency.
1⃣ Transparency: Rules Set Early, Progress Openly Shared
From the very first testnet task phase, the project clearly announced incentives. After completion, they promptly and unequivocally informed users there would be no further rewards—no delays, no ambiguity.
Additionally, anti-cheating mechanisms were activated during the testnet stage, rather than retroactively changing rules after the fact, eliminating suspicions of insider manipulation. Unlike some projects that tacitly allow bots to farm points before turning around to punish them at airdrop time.
This is like going to a transparent marketplace—you see clear pricing upon entry, and you decide whether to buy. It’s not about advertising lamb and selling dog meat.
2⃣ Fairness: Inclusive Distribution with Dynamic Adjustment
Another defining feature of Initia’s airdrop is its inclusivity, contrasting sharply with traditional projects that center airdrops around KOLs and whales. Initia created a highly inclusive token distribution framework—truly big-picture thinking.
No-barrier access: Most users only needed to post two tweets to receive over 400 tokens, effectively democratizing participation among genuine users.
Long-tail incentive design: With yap points, the airdrop covered 4,000 users—far beyond the typical top 100 model—ensuring smaller contributors received rewards proportional to their efforts.
Dynamic adjustment mechanism: The bottom 1 million low-tier users were excluded, redirecting more tokens to deeply engaged participants, creating a positive feedback loop where higher activity leads to higher rewards.
Throughout this process, whether you’re a KOL or an ordinary user, what mattered most was adherence to fair rules—not leveraging KOL influence for promotion.
3⃣ Integrity: Deliver on Promises, No PUA
The project consistently demonstrated integrity in multiple ways, avoiding vague promises altogether. When the founder tweeted that TGE (Token Generation Event) would launch by month-end, it did exactly then.
Testnet and mainnet development progressed in parallel, with 70% complete and a clear roadmap for the remaining 3 months. Similarly, deadlines for testnet phases were explicitly communicated via Twitter and Discord—words matched actions.
2. Initia Made Users Feel True Long-Termism
Given these three pillars, it’s no surprise that the community began self-organizing to support the project. Users genuinely felt the spirit of long-termism—not just short-term speculation. This accumulation of trust transformed users from indifferent "airdrop hunters" into organic participants who actively promote and defend the ecosystem. When rules are clear, interests aligned, and value co-created, natural loyalty and stickiness emerge within the community.
Initia proved that in the decentralized world, the core isn’t KOLs—it’s the silent majority. Traditional airdrops often revolve around KOLs and whales, leaving average users as mere "also-rans." Initia’s approach emphasizes inclusiveness, quantifiable contribution, and transparent redemption—ensuring every real user receives commensurate returns.
At its commercial essence, Initia’s success doesn’t rely on complex "magic tricks," but returns to fundamental business ethics: long-termism doesn’t require flashy designs—just 100% delivery on simple promises. That’s all.
This principle is common in century-old shops and street market vendors in the physical world—simple, yet capable of earning lasting trust.
3. Outlook & Discussion: What Kind of Airdrops Does the Industry Really Need?
Is there still a need for airdrops in this industry? I believe Initia has already answered that. If the project continues developing technology with this level of sincerity, its longevity and potential may exceed our imagination.
The industry is clearly veering off course when it comes to airdrops. Most projects obsess over grand narratives while failing miserably in execution. Initia proves that if you simply make a good bowl of ramen with honesty, that authenticity will outlive any fictional imperial banquet. It’s a humble operational philosophy—but perhaps exactly the breakthrough point we need.
An airdrop should not be a zero-sum chip, nor a harvesting tool. It should become the trust infrastructure of the industry. In today’s landscape, a good airdrop boils down to: transparency (verifiable rules), quantifiable contributions (fairness), accumulable rewards (long-termism), diffusable value (ecosystem alignment), and delivered promises (integrity).
A deeper question lies here: Do project teams and capital view users as traffic or as assets? If you treat users merely as traffic instead of assets, then conflict, distortion, and rights-protection movements will never cease.
The crypto industry is still in its cold-start phase—airdrops remain necessary market tools. But if users are seen only as short-term traffic rather than long-term assets, the industry will remain stuck in a vicious cycle of “user short-term arbitrage → project team harvest → market trust collapse.” What the industry needs isn't a revolution in airdrop production relations, but rather alignment between project teams, capital, and the community on rule details and shared values.
Perhaps it’s time we called for a supply-side reform of airdrops!
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