Ming Wu (Ø,G) (@spark_ren): Reflections on Community and the Role of Airdrops

Reflections on Community and the Role of Airdrops A persistent question has occupied my thoughts recently: what kind of users can truly be regarded as members of a community? If an individual engages with a project solely on the testnet, motivated by the prospect of extracting short-term rewards, only to depart once those rewards have been claimed—without retaining tokens or making any further contributions to the project’s growth—can such a person genuinely be considered part of the community? The design and implementation of airdrops present significant challenges. Fairness is often highlighted as a critical criterion; yet in the context of social and economic experiments, achieving absolute fairness is nearly impossible. The fundamental purpose of community airdrops is not to reward transient participation, but rather to incentivize those who will accompany the project in the long run, providing consistent support and sustained contributions. This raises a central dilemma: should projects extend airdrop incentives to purely speculative participants—commonly referred to as “farmers”? On the one hand, their engagement cannot be dismissed outright, as they do bring a certain degree of visibility and activity to the project. On the other hand, the depth of their contribution is questionable, and determining the appropriate scale of rewards for such users is an exceedingly complex task. If a project chooses to allocate limited rewards to these farming participants while directing the bulk of incentives toward long-term contributors, does this constitute a betrayal of the community? Or does it instead reflect a rational prioritization of the project’s long-term health and sustainability? Ultimately, if a project finds that its so-called “community” is composed entirely of speculative participants whose involvement ends the moment immediate rewards are exhausted, then it cannot be said to possess a genuine community at all. True community emerges only where individuals remain engaged beyond short-term incentives, bound together by shared conviction, contribution, and commitment to the project’s future.