Have you ever heard of ZKSync, the Layer 2 solution the community trusted for its big improvements? Well, now it’s trending as #ZKscam and has become the center of attraction and controversy. The much-awaited ZK token airdrop has disappointed many users, sparking backlash across social media platforms.
The Promising Start
ZKSync is a product of Matter Labs and has long been touted as that game-changer in the crypto world. ZKSync is designed to conduct Ethereum network transactions with more speed and cheaply with the aid of zero-knowledge rollups. Over the years, ZKSync has built up a community of 7 million users, eyeing intently at the perks that will be brought forward by the latter. This first ZKSync airdrop, scheduled on June 17, 2024, was one of the most awaited and expected airdrops supposed to be a grant event for the community.
Airdrop Announcement
On June 11, Matter Labs announced the ZK token airdrop details that 17.5% of its native tokens would be distributed among the community. The users were excited to receive their share of the rewards, but the happiness was only for a short time thanks to some rigorous eligibility criteria like the users needed to interact with at least ten smart contracts, trade a minimum of ten ERC-20 tokens, and demonstrate long-term interaction with the network.
The Backlash
The backlash was immediate. The users loyal to ZKSync for years, trading significant amounts and paying heavy gas fees, were not eligible for the airdrop. Even after the community members followed all the eligibility criteria and performed all the tasks, only 695,232 wallets were selected from the 7 million-strong community.
Only a select few, out of millions, received the airdrop. The rest went to Sybil accounts, aka Bots.
Sybil accounts bagged 2,000,000+ ZK tokens by depositing identical ETH amounts on the same day, each receiving 15,000 tokens per wallet. That was an unfair game played with the loyal community members.
Specifically, social media—especially X (formerly Twitter)—blew up under the hashtag #ZKscam. Not an exception—even the greatest marketplace of ZKSync, Element NFT Marketplace, which generated more than $20 Million in fees for ZKSync, was not listed, enhancing the wrath that followed.
https://twitter.com/teddi_speaks/status/1800807429334343943
One user growled in frustration, stating that he had traded more than $100,000 on the network and paid more than $100 in gas fees, yet he got no airdrop. ‘This feels like someone slapped me across the face,’ he wrote. The sentiment was across the board within the community, where many users called them out for unfair and subjective selectiveness of things within the network.
In response to the backlash, Matter Labs went on to clarify the criteria for selection, specifying the need to distribute the need to distribute tokens among the main rollups and maintaining integrity—only leading to further anger.
Conclusion
The highly anticipated airdrop was supposed to be some sort of grand celebration for the community members. Directed anger and disappointment at the community could lead to a violation of trust and the stroke of reduced user activity. It underlines the importance of transparent communication, fair practices, and community engagement. In no time, ZKSync’s reputation went from being “the best Layer 2 network” to “the biggest scammer.” The question is, what have we learned? And that one thing is actually pretty clear: in crypto’s fast world, even the most promising projects can face pretty serious challenges.
