The future of EOS tokens?
Tokens are a big deal. According to EIDOO there are nearly 500 traded tokens that they track, and according to eosflare there are 1582 deployed token contracts on the EOS Mainnet.
In the EOS world tokens cost RAM. Every unique token balance for “standard” token contracts costs 240 bytes of RAM. There are some RAM cost savings if a single contract deploys multiple tokens, however at this point in time that is very rare.
At the time of writing this 240 bytes of RAM costs $0.18 USD, a small charge… however for prospective airdroppers wishing to share their token with the nearly 300,000 EOS accounts this cost becomes $54,000 USD.
Is the cost worth it?
Some analysis of IQ and HORUS shows that out of approximately 160,000 accounts dropped to, and in the months since drop, there has been over 16,000 and 7,000 transactions respectively. Not unique users, but transactions, many of them to DEXES.
This indicates very low user engagement and participation, however these DAPPS are still in their early development phases.
The purpose of airdrops is to add instant awareness of a project and increase engagement from the potential user base. Often Airdrops are also a means to fund your project, and highly engaged users means high trading volumes, making the Token more attractive to exchanges.
However, are there better ways?
Airgrabs!
By now many in the EOS ecosystem have begun to become familiar with the concept of the Airgrab (coined by Syed of EOS Cafe and bloks.io). This “opt-in” method allows participants to pay the RAM cost themselves in exchange for receiving the future airdrop. This significantly reduces the cost for the airdropper, and guarantees early engagement by the community.
Details from eosflare tokens indicates that EOS tokens that use the airgrab process are seeing between 7000 to 10,000 accounts opting in to receive tokens. This can be extrapolated to indicate that the airgrab model may be seeing higher user engagement than tokens that have airdropped directly.
The downside to the Airgrab model is that the marketing requirements are much higher… user’s won’t be aware of the tokens in their balance and may miss out unless they happen to see the correct promotional material.
Why not both?
Part of my new role as CTO of AirdropsDAC (an upcoming EOS token incubator and service provider) is to provide exciting new ways to make Tokens affordable, accessible, marketable, and highly engaging.
To this end I created the claimable.token — a new token type that has rapid RAM recovery for the Airdropper and provides a brand new mechanism: THE SKYHOOK
How does this claimable.token work?
- The token is airdropped like normal.
- When an account transfers ANY quantity of the token the RAM cost is immediately transferred to that account, freeing the RAM from the Airdropper.
- Accounts that don’t wish to make transfers can use the claim action to assume the RAM cost.
- Now the kicker: the Airdropper can execute a SKYHOOK on any unclaimed tokens after a pre-announced period of time. This is essentially a “reverse drop” to predictably reclaim the RAM cost from non-engaged users.
- These reclaimed tokens can be burned, redistributed, or re-dropped. The SKY is the limit!
Why do it?
This SKYHOOK method on the claimable.token opens many exciting possibilities and cost savings. You can create:
- Instant brand awareness through the Airdrop,
- Instant user engagement through the claim method and announcing a SKYHOOK deadline,
- A predictable cost model for deploying your Token,
- Assurance that only engaged users have access to your Token,
- Flexibility to redeploy or reallocate tokens as befits your purpose!
Wow, what else?
At AirdropsDAC we foresee this model creating exciting new possibilities. The predictable pricing models the SKYHOOK creates opens many doors:
- PULSEDROPS: Airdrop tokens for one month, SKYHOOK any that aren’t claimed, DROP THEM AGAIN and repeat! The FOMO to keep your tokens, and the awareness by seeing the tokens drop and be retrieved from the community will become irresistible.
- EVENTDROPS: Increase brand awareness and flex the muscles of the EOSIO platform by dropping tokens prior to an event, and use those Tokens with a simple QR code mobile platform to purchase drink tickets, swag, keynote access, VIP access, and more. SKYHOOK the tokens after the events for predictable marketing and promotional costs.
- SECSAFEDROPS: Airdrop to the world, SKYHOOK from those that aren’t able to meet the appropriate SEC (or other) KYC/AML obligations that are required for specific countries or purposes.
- What else can you imagine?
AirdropsDAC will help!
These new contracts will be open sourced and made available, and while the cost predictability and reclamation is fantastic, there is still a very high upfront costs that not everyone has available.
AirdropsDAC is currently undergoing it’s formative stages — when our doors open we will be excited to provide cost effective offerings to help bring your ideas to life at a dramatically lower fixed cost than rolling your own. We will lease RAM, CPU, and Network for a fraction of the cost and provide legal, engineering and marketing services to suit your needs.
What do you think?
We are eager to hear from the EOS community, the entire Blockchain community, and the entire world as a whole what it thinks of the SKYHOOK concept!
Please leave feedback how you feel about this potentially revolutionary change to the world of Tokens.
