Prior to some weeks ago, about 3 months then I never knew I'd be spending ¼ of the time I'm spending on these streets (The blockchain streets in the world of cryptocurrencies). Now I wake up and first thing I do sometimes even before I kiss my wife good morning is to check the trade charts, read new analysis and then visit my telegram. Its almost been a ritual for me to do this at least 2hours before I shut my eyes for the day and as soon as I open them the next day, I do not know if this is the same for others but I'm speaking for me. These is how magnetic the crypto world has been lately especially with the craze about Decentralized finances (DeFi), smart contracts and the likes.
Well, these would be normal for everyone except for one aspect we cannot ignore especially its effect on Newbies and this is the issue of Airdrops. People want to make quick money whether it is easy or tasking, we just want to see our investments (Time, Efforts, Monetary) yielding rewards in the soonest possible time. And I think this gluttony is what teams of any manipulative coin feeds on to make easy money through crowdfunding before dumping the shitcoin. As a newbie that I am currently hodling close to 10 different coins ( I wouldn't call them shitcoin yet... I think) all with believes and high hopes. Right now, I can almost predict what my supposed referral would say when I send him the next link to ANOTHER airdrop (my wife is usually the first to be shot).
How soon before the whole crypto thing begins to feel like another ponzi scheme for oncoming Newbies?
Airdrops are constantly in our faces. It takes the man who has been hit more times than once to restrain himself to do due work about a new coin before testing. Even at that he doesn't delve into the ocean with both feet. Newbies are thirsty, too thirsty and this is why our hurt is only as close as the market's next dip.
AIRDROPS AS PUMP AND DUMP MECHANISM
As a newbie questions you should ask yourself before buying any New coin valued at a ridiculously low price added with an absurd giveaway is this, "why would any organization or business want to throw away their money?" I want to believe mining or minting a coin or whatever they do before any currency is named costs money and hugely too. Why would I wake up in the morning and hit a mail talking about a free airdrop that gives me double of what I'm buying, and still pays me $5 per referrals?
Well let's see.
Team A created a product (congratulations to them).
• What problem does this product solve, ZERO. If at all any, it'd be a clone of a genuine product.
• It succeeds in creating some form of competition with a genuine product by increasing the hype. Who wouldn't want to buy 100 tokens and receive 200 extra?
• Promises a futuristic value pegged to a stipulated date. So you hear, XYZ coin is valued presently at $1 but speculated to be valued at $25 by December. Imagine your present 300 tokens you purchased hitting $25
• Provide incentives to encourage larger referrals to bring in more enthusiastic thirsty gluttons to also purchase this coin and hold pending the speculated time... Let's say in this case December.
• Some sharks smells blood and pumps the price too... So this coin you undervalued is now picking up pace. Wow!!! There must be something here. So you FOMO and instead of disposing whatever amount you presently Hodl, you end up buying more with your fiat money.
• All of a sudden, the sharks think they've had enough, the team's incompetence to march up their cloning practices is exposed and BOOM!!! Wake up in the morning and all you have in your bag is worthless. You're REKT!!!
Source
Unfortunately, most people don't even know when it is over and a currency is on life support (in these case FOMO support). So the price crashed and the feeling of this is the best time to buy creeps in for those who watched it afar and so they keep buying while the man who though he was high on cash is wailing.
SECURITY
Airdrops as mere tokens have no security breach of any sort in your wallet (None that I've read of) but there have been cases during my research of certain cloaked entities requesting private keys and wallet seeds before sending your airdrops to you. Or probably just a plot to get your private wallet details using malicious links.
WHAT REALLY ARE AIRDROPS
Airdrops serve various purposes;
• A way to launch a new network.
• Distribute new tokens.
• Reinforce an existing token's network by gifting A group of current token owners (mostly as a way to reward their persevered loyalty)
• New ICO startups use airdrops to notify the public of a newly minted token.
These being said, it'd be nice for ALL venturing into the cryptoworld prevent depending on Airdrops as means to get wealthy magically.
It would end in premium tears
My meagre advice to all newbies would be to trade/thread carefully.
Often times Free can be expensive.
If for anything, I have learnt to stick with long standing altcoins with history of rise and fall and most importantly, solve a problem. I am not here to buy a Lamborghini in 3 months time nor do i want to buy a whole island in 6months. I'd stick with the Bitcoin and the Ethereums, the Hives and the Chainlinks because my sanity is Paramount and given the fact that I want to be here for many bull runs and also witness bitcoin hit $50,000, I am here to start making those baby steps now.