Original article by Charlie Rogers (Nillion CMO)

Compiled by: Asher ( @Asher_0210 )

A few weeks after the Nillion Eligibility Checker went live, the Nillion team has observed a variety of speculation within and outside the community regarding airdrop eligibility. Some are outraged, others are excited, but the fact is that no one really knows the final distribution at this point. Today, I want to clarify who the Nillion airdrop rewards are for, and detail the methods to ensure that real community members can receive rewards, rather than "tourists" who only use the Nillion Discord as an airdrop waiting room.

How Nillion’s Airdrop is Different

Before I get into the details, I’ll just say this straight out: “We’re doing something different. This may upset some people, but we firmly believe that this approach will become the new standard for how crypto projects recognize their communities.”

Nillion has always been a leader, not a follower. Remember the community round financing model that was first adopted? Later, many projects followed suit. Now, it is setting a new standard again, giving back to real contributors first, rather than those who just want to take profits.

The realization of all this is inseparable from the firm support of the core community. It is everyone's dedication and belief that has allowed crypto projects to redefine the way they measure community value.

Measuring True Community Contribution

When designing the airdrop matrix, the Nillion team identified three main categories:

• Community Value

• Developers and Open Source Contributions

• Validator Program Participation

These categories are designed to reward contributions that have a profound impact on the project, including cultural contributions (such as art, writing, design) as well as technical contributions (such as GitHub code contributions or applications built on Nillion).

Among them, regarding the validator program, the Nillion team's goal is to demonstrate the power of community-driven privacy, and we succeeded. But at the same time, the team also encountered the challenges of witch attacks and airdrop "brushes". Some people use one-click nodes (I took the initiative to contact them and asked them to remove Nillion), others operate multiple wallets, and some even use 40, 50, 60, or even 100+ wallets to obtain airdrop shares that do not belong to them. These situations are not speculation. The team has seen people openly discussing these strategies in some Discord groups. For example:

• “I claimed it with 50 wallets”;

• "I was discussing how to split IP addresses to bypass detection."

Therefore, the team has decided that these accounts will not be included in the airdrop list, even though the eligibility checker currently shows them as eligible. The team must ensure that the rewards truly belong to long-term supporters and core community members of the Nillion project.

Weighting based on real impact

So, how do we decide which community contributions are more important? The answer is simple: positive value contributions to the project.

It’s not simply “how much time was invested”, but whether it actually advanced Nillion. This means that certain roles and contributions will be given higher weight because they have a substantial impact on Nillion. For example:

• Cultural contribution: shapes the foundation of the community, the value of which is difficult to measure;

• Volunteer role: Some people have persisted for 8-10 months and have earned volunteer status. Their commitment is more valuable than that of a “one-click node operator”.

While the team will not release specific values or weighting details, we are willing to transparently share its logic and allocation method, as follows:

NIL Airdrop Value-Weighted Reward Mechanism

The team reward system is based on a matrix framework, and the more items a user meets in the following categories, the rewards will be stacked and multiplied.

• Community Contributors

• Developers

• Active participants in the validator program

• Launch Partners

• Additional bonuses (these additional contributions will not directly determine whether you will receive an airdrop, but users who are already eligible will receive additional bonuses for these contributions)
  

Who will not receive the airdrop?

The Nillion team strives to get as many real contributors as possible into the airdrop list, but users will not receive airdrops if they meet the following conditions, including:

Category 1: Low-engagement secret submitters

• Only 4 secrets were submitted;

• No ETH is staked;

• There are no Discord characters (including bonus characters such as Sage/Hot Potato);

• No Nill Pill NFTs held.

Category 2: Late validators with low participation

• The validator node will be started after September 14, 2024;

• No ETH is staked;

• No Discord characters (including bonus characters);

• No Nill Pill NFTs held.

Excluding the above two groups of people ensures that the rewards truly belong to those community members who invest in the long term and demonstrate true commitment.

What it means for the crypto industry

From day one, the Nillion team designed its program to be technically challenging enough to discourage pure “brushwork.”

The model that the Nillion team is building will become a template for future crypto projects' airdrops. The first person to break the old rules often gets hurt, but it's a price worth paying because the team is setting a higher standard for community recognition. As for those so-called "unofficial airdrop checkers", please stay rational, don't believe everything, and wait patiently for the official announcement from Nillion's official Twitter.

The Nillion team is not only building a project, but also working hard to create a new industry standard so that the value of the community can be truly recognized. Together, we will make Nillion stronger.