Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sees cryptocurrency airdrops as a promising initial use case for blockchain-based identity frameworks.
In an August 28 post on X, Buterin described the goals of airdrops as distributing tokens to authentic community members, rewarding contributions to projects, and ensuring fairness. He suggested that projects could leverage ZK-based identity, identification, and attestation frameworks to achieve these goals.
He stressed:
“We can actually use all these identity/identification/attestation solutions that identity geeks have been working on for the last 5 years to… actually (have) good token distributions.”
Buterin added that current identity projects like Worldcoin may need to integrate proof of community membership, as crypto projects aim to reward aligned community members, not just random individuals.
Buterin’s idea comes at a crucial time, as cryptocurrency airdrops face growing controversy. Many participants are trying to circumvent the system by using multiple wallets to harvest airdrops, often with profitable results.
This has prompted projects to tighten their distribution methods to filter out farmers using airdrops. However, these measures sometimes impact actual users.
Discounted sales
Buterin also suggested that the same framework could be used for discounted token sales. He explained that the extent of an individual’s community membership or contributions could determine how many tokens they can purchase at a discounted price.
He noted that this approach could help distribute supply more fairly, reward non-financial contributors and ensure that buyers have a stake in the project.
Buterin commented:
“Any technique that works for airdrops also works for remittances. A related concept is to subsidize savings rates for small accounts as an alternative to universal income. Singapore’s CPF already does something similar.”
However, the Ethereum co-founder conceded that his idea might face implementation difficulties. According to him:
“I don’t think there’s a single solution, I think it’s a multi-factor problem that’s going to have to evolve over time. It’s an inherently hard problem, but it’s an incredibly rewarding one because if we solve it, that solution could naturally be exported to better reward all the types of work that are currently unpaid in our economy across humanity.”
