Starknet, a prominent Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, recently encountered scrutiny due to its STRK token airdrop. While the airdrop aimed to reward Ethereum stakers uniquely, technical oversights led to concerns regarding fairness. Despite the anticipation surrounding the distribution of STRK tokens, the process faced delays, further intensifying skepticism among stakeholders.
However, Starknet has taken proactive measures to address these concerns and enhance transparency and fairness in the airdrop process. These efforts aim to rebuild trust within the community and ensure the equitable distribution of tokens to all eligible participants.
Starknet throws down the gauntlet
The Starknet Foundation’s airdrop of 700 million STRK tokens is now fully operational, with the first batch of “provisions” becoming claimable Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Since last week’s announcement, Starknet has received many concerns concerning anything from eligibility to anti-Sybil measures to decisions regarding STRK’s underlying tokenomics.
Despite the controversy, high demand for the much-anticipated Ethereum layer-2 solution Starknet airdrop has pushed the protocol’s completely diluted market capitalization above $20 billion.
Within the first 90 minutes, 45 million STRK tokens were claimed, and the total has since topped 220 million.
Users have until June 20, 2024, to claim their remaining balance. Despite investor euphoria, the price of STRK tokens has now fallen to $2 on the crypto market Binance, from an opening high of $7, despite the protocol’s high valuation. Currently, the protocol’s entire value is fixed at $57 million.
By 11:30 a.m. ET, more than 100,000 individual wallets had claimed tokens on X, according to Starknet.
Not all ecosystem members are pleased with the community distribution as it unfolded last week, with many groups claiming they were unfairly excluded. Starknet Foundation board member and StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson stated that his team is “aware of some minor things that might need to be fixed.”
The airdrop was unique in its attempt to reward Ethereum stakeholders. However, a technical error appears to have assigned STRK tokens to a smart contract address rather than the users’ personal wallets for a subset of those stakeholders – Rocketpool minipool operators.
Airdrop fixes amid severe backlash
The changes are being made in response to significant criticism from the crypto community, including many users who criticized Starknet’s eligibility criteria, the team’s token unlocks, and their users being referred to as “e-beggars.”
Starknet stated on X that they have received “feedback indicating that certain Provisions criteria have excluded some devoted community members and network users.” Despite this, the team stated that it is conducting research to develop a meaningful response.
“A meaningful resolution for these users requires time to research, design and test. It is in process and among our top priorities post-Provisions,” Starknet said on X.
Another common issue was the seemingly random demand that Starknet accounts have 0.005 ETH at the time of the November 2023 snapshot. Because most transactions cost only a fraction of that – one of Starknet’s selling advantages is low transaction fees — many users who completed activity requirements else received 0 STRK.
A correction was made to the 900 ETH home validator as part of the immediate adjustments to token recipient eligibility; multiple validators had been incorrectly tallied as a single validator. Additionally, the staker classification methods employed by the rated.network team was revised, leading to the redistribution of more than 6.9 million STRK to over 1,000 solitary stakers who were previously mislabeled.
Additionally, in response to GitHub handles that were seized after the airdrop announcement, the Starknet team rectified the situation. This modification preserved in excess of one million STRK for possible future community allocation.
Lastly, a discrepancy arose in the claims submitted by users of a custodial company regarding StarkEx.
However, some cryptoc community members remain irate, with enraged airdrop hunters asserting that the adjustments are of no assistance to “real users.”
This is due to the fact that the adjustments announced today only address concerns from particular staking validators, the majority of whom are members of larger teams; consequently, smaller Starknet community members appear to be marginalized once more.
