The FLOW Airdrop That Never Happened 🪂
What’s up everybody, its LG Doucet here.
Remember when Dapper told us they would give us all some FLOW?
I certainly do.
The announcement was one of our most liked tweets of 2022.
And yet, this #load would not come to pass, as common folk have yet to receive a single green dime on the blockchain.
In fact, some would say that we were rugged on this promise-not-promise of an airdrop, as per this update that came a mere 133 days after the #load was originally etched into lore.
So today’s newsletter will focus on that elusive airdrop, and what Dapper plans to do with the remaining 330,000,000 unreleased tokens.
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Dude Roham, Where’s My 🛻?
So its May 2022.
Dapper is heading into another NBA off-season, this time with a burgeoning bear market and a massive NFL ALL DAY launch looming at the end of Summer.
Maybe they realize thats its been 20 months since thy launched their ICO for FLOW, and that 24% of the token has not yet been released. And that they better hit that fully diluted market cap, and fast before the market goes from tipsy to terrible.
So they hatch a plan that includes:
Release tokens through the Flow Ecosystem Fund
Hold 83M tokens for staking (as detailed in their whitepaper)
Airdrop the rest of the tokens to the community and all active wallets
That infamous discord ping goes out. The legend of the #load is born.
And the hallways of Dapper High erupt with speculative questions:
How many tokens will we each get?
Will it be based on Collector Score?
Where do we trade the tokens?
What does LG secretly know? Tell me LG!!
Alas, the questions would go unanswered.
As the summer wore on and we came into the month of August, there was still very little information provided on the infamous #load (despite my best efforts).
And as the leaves turned, so did the mood in the community, as little spurts of the airdrop began to arrive.
Dapper VIPs were given a $50 stimmy
FLOW finally arrived in the Dapper Wallet.
Heck, we even partnered with Gaia to announce that TS Moments could be traded in FLOW on their platform.
But still. No 🛻.
Ok thanks for the history, LG. But wen airdrop?
Great question. And - I have no idea.
That update shared at the top of the newsletter suggests that we will receive the coins at different intervals over the next 12 months (we’re 2-months in).
But, we’re starting to see the tokens sprinkle in other forms, such as Ecosystem Rebates
Check out this release from TuneGo yesterday.
It mirrors last summer’s drop on Cuvee Collective, and a similar announcement was made for Seussibles just yesterday!
Although releasing tokens in exchange for real dollars isn’t exactly scandalous (I think its smart and sneaky!), I can’t imagine this is how they’ll release 200-250 million tokens over the coming months. That would take A LOT of purchases, especially considering the token currently trade at $1.13
So What Could Actually Happen?
Again, I don’t know. But it doesn’t mean I can’t speculate!
Here’s what I could see going down:
Christmas Airdrop
Remember last holiday season? Dapper absolutely nuked the Top Shot community by giving us all back 5% of our lifetime net spend.
So why not go for a repeat, and send everyone into their holidays with a big fat #load?
Dapper Launches an Exchange
This is the most glaring hole in the Dapper Wallet right now: the lack of an exchange.
If you want to trade FLOW in/out of the wallet, you gotta send it all the way to BloctoSwap and then back again. Painful!
Potential outcomes:
Blocto integrates Dapper Wallet (and effectively kills their own wallet)
Uniswap or another DEX integrates Dapper Wallet (doubtful - Dapper likes CEX)
Someone has secretly been using the ecosystem fund to build an exchange for Dapper wallet.
Either way, I would expect this to be solved in 2022, and Dapper may celebrate the occasion with a juicy airdrop for all to enjoy.
Rebates For Pack Drops
Similar to TuneGO and Seussibles, the in-house Dapper Sports products (i.e. the super popular ones) offer a rebate of their own.
$49 for an ALL DAY pack? $49 back in FLOW!
Its not impossible, and could be used as a growth lever to pull some of the broader crypto and NFT community back into the ecosystem.
The Slow Trickle
Although the above ideas are fun, I don’t think they’ll happen.
In fact, I think Dapper’s plan IS to do the slow trickle via ecosystem rebates.
Otherwise, a large release would effectively tank the price of the token, which…well it doesn’t need that more than its already happened (its down 91% in the last year).
So - yes, we might still get the airdrop.
But they will be minuscule in size, like perhaps $10 or $20 worth a time, and likely often pointed towards spending on some other growth metric (i.e. the tokens are locked for spending on a drop of marketplace).
One Final Thought
One of the strangest things I’ve seen on my timeline is the Flow team - notably leadership - sharing updates on the growth of the ecosystem, yet withholding any specific information.
Where are these wallets coming from…
Is it 3rd party apps?
Is it the NFL game tickets claimable for 100 different games this season?
Is it bots?
This wouldn’t be the first time that Dapper effectively fudged numbers here.
Prior to the #load, Dapper rolled out a nifty website update detailing their massive numbers and metrics. I took issue with how they presented their Top Shot numbers, as it seemed pretty inaccurate to me.
And even the big boss agreed with me!
In conclusion, let’s hope that 2023 proves to be transformative year for Dapper. They’ve acknowledge their communication issues repeatedly, and yet still often leave us all frustrated - this airdrop perhaps being the crown jewel of that frustration.
Its never too late to change, and to turn things around.
Lets just hope it happens while there is still something left to change!
Now what?
In conclusion, let’s hope that 2023 proves to be transformative year for Dapper. They’ve acknowledge their communication issues repeatedly, and yet still often leave us all frustrated - this airdrop perhaps being the crown jewel of that frustration.
Its never too late to change, and to turn things around.
Or maybe its time to…
You got it, racer man 🫡
Programming note: We are sunsetting the “Basketball & Blockchain” newsletter, as Ghost has moved on from The First Mint (good luck at the new gig Ghost!). I’ll still deliver some of the best NBA highlights, memes, and NFT happenings in newsletter form. But there will be a few subtle changes to the core content. More in the next edition!
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
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