Speculating on potential airdrops can be a profitable endeavour, especially when early users of new protocols are often given tens of thousands of dollars worth of a project’s token on launch (just look at the ENS airdrop that occurred earlier this month). However, with development and activity on the Ethereum blockchain increasing exponentially, Ethereum’s gas fees (the price you pay to utilize Ethereum blockspace) can be painfully high, making transacting on the network often more expensive than practical.
Luckily, layer-two (L2) scaling solutions are gaining widespread adoption and it is likely we will soon live in a world where the majority of day-to-day transactions occur on secondary layers rather than the Ethereum mainnet itself, providing for faster and cheaper transactions that are still secured by Ethereum.
While Ethereum gas fees remain high, we’ve collated a list of our top 6 potential airdrops for protocols that exist on a layer-two, allowing you to use the protocols without spending hundreds of dollars on transaction fees! The only catch is you will still need to initially bridge some assets from the Ethereum mainnet over to a L2, however, once in the L2 environment, you can easily migrate between other L2s inexpensively so you can try out some of these new protocols without stressing over gas fees.
Disclaimer: This is pure speculation and using the protocols outlined below by no means guarantees you a future airdrop. Using decentralised protocols is not for the crypto novice so please be careful with your assets!
1. Optimism
Optimism is a layer-two scaling solution enabling fast and inexpensive Ethereum-based transactions. With numerous L2 solutions competing for market share, it seems probable that these projects will launch their own tokens to incentivise new users.
Strategy:
Bridge some ETH over to Optimism using the Optimism bridge and then use some dapps like Uniswap, SushiSwap or Synthetix.
Check out Optimism’s guide on how to bridge your assets – https://docs.optimism.io/
2. Arbitrum
Arbitrum is another L2 scaling solution using similar technology to Optimism and has been gaining rapid adoption. With competition fierce in the L2 space, it wouldn’t surprise us that once one L2 issues a token the others won’t be far behind.
Strategy:
It’s impossible to say whether using the official Arbitrum bridge will be a prerequisite for any future airdrop so if you don’t want to spend the gas fees to bridge your assets from the ETH mainnet to Arbitrum, that’s okay! You can use Hop protocol (which also conveniently slides in at #3 on our list) to “hop” your assets that you’ve already bridged to Optimism over to Arbitrum for a fraction of the cost. Once on Arbitrum, use some dapps like Uniswap, Balancer or Brisbane-based DeFi protocol TracerDAO.
If you want to use the Arbitrum bridge, check out their guide here – https://arbitrum.io/bridge-tutorial/
3. Hop Protocol
Hop Protocol acts as a bridge that allows for quick transfers between L2s and the Ethereum mainnet and currently has support for Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon and xDai. Founder Chris Whinfrey has hinted in a recent podcast that a Hop token could be in the works. Even if there isn’t, we think you’ll find Hop Protocol to be an incredibly useful tool when navigating between L2s.
Strategy:
There are two functions you can use in Hop: pool and send. To cover all bases, use the pool feature to add and remove liquidity from one of their pools and then use the send feature to transfer your assets from Arbitrum over to the Polygon network. Once your assets are on Polygon you can then try out #4 in our list below! Be sure to bridge over some MATIC tokens as you will need MATIC to pay for network fees once on Polygon.
4. Zapper
Zapper is a wallet management dashboard, allowing you to track your assets across protocols and interact directly with various DeFi platforms through their easy to use interface. Zapper has a strong community and its dashboard incentivises regular use through completing daily “quests” that allow you to level up your wallet.
Strategy:
Connect your wallet to the Polygon network and complete some of the quests by using Zapper’s exchange and save functions. If Zapper do launch a token, it is probable that distribution will be tiered based on the level of your wallet so try and check back regularly to keep levelling up!
Follow this guide to connect your wallet to Polygon – https://docs.polygon.technology/docs/develop/metamask/config-polygon-on-metamask/
5. MetaMask
If you’ve been following our airdrop guide then you have probably been using your MetaMask wallet to do so. MetaMask is the most widely used digital wallet in the crypto space and have recently revealed that they are open to the idea of releasing their own token. If they do, it is likely to be the biggest airdrop in crypto history!
Strategy:
While on Polygon, use MetaMask’s swap feature to swap from one coin to another.
6. Across Protocol
Across Protocol is a L2 to L1 bridge (similar to Hop Protocol) that allows for fast and inexpensive transfers from L2 to L1. Currently it only has support for Arbitrum to the Ethereum mainnet.
Strategy:
Like Hop Protocol, there are two features: pool and send. Add liquidity to one of Across Protocol’s pools and then use Across to bridge your assets on Arbitrum back to the Ethereum mainnet. If you don’t have any assets on Arbitrum, you might want to use Hop Protocol (see #3 in our list) to transfer assets to Arbitrum before using Across Protocol.
Tax Implications
As cryptocurrency tax accountants we feel we are obligated to remind you that using decentralised protocols will likely have tax implications. If you are unsure of what your crypto tax obligations are, please get in touch with our crypto tax experts.
