Blockchain.com, a popular online Bitcoin wallet provider with over 30 million wallets, is conducting the largest cryptocurrency airdrop in history but will require full identification information from participants.
USD 125 million of Stellar Lumens (XLM), the #6 cryptocurrency with a market cap near USD 5 billion, will be distributed starting 6 November 2018 to 5 million Blockchain.com wallet users. Each person who signs up for the airdrop will receive USD 25 (almost XLM 100).
The airdrop does not occur automatically; users must sign up and then claim the airdrop through their email. This is to prevent XLM from being airdropped to inactive wallets since Blockchain.com users often have numerous accounts and throw them away over time.
Claiming to prevent people from gaming the system and getting more XLM than they are entitled to, Blockchain.com is requiring users to provide full identification information including name, address, date of birth, verified phone number, and a picture or video of themselves. These details were previously not required to use Blockchain.com wallets; in general, Bitcoin wallets allow users to maintain privacy.
The co-founder of Stellar, who is also co-founder of Ripple, Jed McCaleb, says, “Giving away lumens for free is an invitation to communities to design the services they need. By working with Blockchain to increase the availability and active use of lumens on the network, leveraging their almost 30 million wallets, we will increase the network’s utility by many orders of magnitude.”
This concept is thoroughly explained in the Blockchain.com airdrop white paper. This is the first in a series of airdrops to wallet users to increase decentralization, popularity, and user base for the cryptocurrencies that decide to get involved in this program. Further, airdrops are the easiest way for new users to enter the crypto space. Indeed, Blockchain.com is letting people create a wallet for the airdrop, and being a pre-existing user is not a requirement.
Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith says, “Looking back at the last five years of crypto, one of my favorite things has been giving users their first USD 20 of crypto and watching them realize the power of a new financial system in their hand as they saw their first transaction. But you can only do this for so many people in that fashion. The genesis of this project was; how do we help millions of people make their first transaction?”
Many of the early Bitcoiners got their first coins from faucets. Faucets are similar to airdrops, and the first Bitcoin faucet gave out up to 5 Bitcoins per day, which at the time was actually worth much less than the USD 25 of XLM Blockchain.com is giving out. Today, those 5 Bitcoins are worth USD 32,000.
Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom
Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews
Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay
