Gas Fees on Ethereum Got You Down? There's a New Airdrop for That

Just days after OpenDAO airdropped SOS tokens to OpenSea users on Christmas Eve, the next surprise holiday airdrop is here. 

The Gas DAO, an obscure, mostly mission-less crypto project, emerged Wednesday with another airdrop to reward crypto investors. You can claim GAS tokens if you spent more than $1,559 (a reference to EIP-1559) on Ethereum gas fees before December 26, 2021. 

Those who coughed up enough fees to earn 1 billion GAS tokens will reportedly be able to make proposals in the yet-to-launch decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Others who can claim at least 1.78 million tokens will earn a “gas-holder” moniker in the project’s Discord, according to marketing materials. 

These same documents also indicate that 55% of the total 1 trillion supply (550 billion tokens) have been earmarked for this airdrop. 

At the current volatile price of GAS, that comes out to a whopping $9,1575,000 doled out to anyone bold enough to claim the airdrop. Any amounts unclaimed before May 1, 2022, will be added to the DAO’s treasury. 

Another 15% of the supply (150 billion tokens) is reserved for the 25-person developer team. 

Of that stash, 80% (120 billion tokens) will vest linearly over six months. The remaining 20% (30 billion tokens) is unlocked immediately.   

Beyond the token allocation plan, it's still very unclear what the project aims to do. 

Though its introduction document says its purpose is “to be the heartbeat and voice of the Ethereum network’s active users,” the specifics of this objective won’t be outlined until a few days. It's all about rewarding Ethereum users for suffering through high gas fees.

As Reddit co-founder and Web3 advocate, Alexis Ohanian tweeted on Christmas Day, airdrops like ENS and SOS "flip script on how EVERYONE will value their time + spending online. u're finally rewarded 4 using."

Is the GAS airdrop safe?

In an encouraging sign of maturity, many GAS recipients have set Crypto Twitter ablaze asking if the airdrop is safe and who the team is behind the project—rather than just pumping their GAS bags.

By connecting a Web3 wallet to a crypto project, users can expose themselves to a wide variety of bugs, scams, and hacks. Thus blindly “apeing in” (crypto lingo for not doing due diligence on a project), though sometimes lucrative, can also leave you “rekt” (another crypto term for going broke). 

For now, though, some users report the claim is safe. 

“$GAS is not ruggable,” tweeted one user after reviewing the token contract. “100% safe to claim and trade,” they added. The Gas DAO also tweeted that its “contracts are built based off the heavily audited OpenZeppelin governance contracts.” 

OpenZeppelin is a crypto developer platform offering white-label smart contracts that come equipped with security tools. Developers turn to these smart contracts because it helps them ship fast as they needn’t focus on security (which isn’t necessarily a good thing, of course). 

And ship fast The Gas DAO developers have. 

According to another user, who also vouched for the token claim’s safety, development for the project began roughly 18 hours ago. “Very little (if any) of the code is unique, meaning that it may have taken as little as an hour or two to create,” they tweeted. 

This means that for roughly one to two hours of work, 25 people just made a little under $5 million at today’s prices. 

If the current prices hold, this group will enjoy a payout of roughly $20 million over the next six months.  

Happy holidays indeed.