An Analysis of the Latest Knuth Token $KTH Airdrop on SmartBCH

Yesterday I reported about the upcoming airdrop of the $KTH token on smartBCH - which is the official token of the Knuth Bitcoin Cash software development team. The token is intended to be used as a tipping token and there will soon be a reward for staking it - allowing you to support the Bitcoin Cash software development while earning passive income at the same time.

And last night the $KTH Telegram group passed the 2,000 subscribers count - which triggered the airdrop.

How did the airdrop go?

The airdrop was handled a lot more professionally than most previous airdrops I have witnessed: The group members were given clear instructions in the pinned messages of the group well in advance.

In addition to that the members were informed that the airdrop would start once the member count passed 2,000. As soon as that occurred, the exact time for the airdrop was announced and multiple reminders were sent to the group.

Once the countdown was over, the group members were given a time window of 15 minutes to post their smartBCH addresses. This time window may have been a bit too narrow for some real users, unfortunately.

I also barely managed to post my address in time - as I was out and about and completely missed the countdown. But thanks to the #Club1BCH members who messaged me, I checked the $KTH Telegram group and I managed to submit my address just in time before the closing of the airdrop time window. Thank you guys from #Club1BCH for having had my back on this one! 💚

Before and after the 15 minutes time window, smartBCH addresses were automatically deleted from the group chat which helped to avoid unnecessary spam messages - and it also determined a clear start and a clear finish of the airdrop. There was no ambiguity as to whether you posted your address early enough or not - which I appreciate.

After the closing of the address submission window, the admin, Fernando, checked if the same address has been posted multiple times - and he excluded people who maliciously posted their address more than once.

I definitely appreciate this check of double posting. I have noticed in some previous airdrops that some people posted their address several times and therefore received the airdrop multiple times. I agree with Fernando that this behaviour is dishonest and I applaud him for checking for it - and for excluding the corresponding addresses from the airdrop.

Unfortunately, I don't know if he also checked whether any Telegram account was posting multiple different addresses, but I assume he did check this, too, because he is a smart guy and he handled the airdrop very well.

The reward

50 $KTH - currently worth about $0.2 were sent out to almost 8,000 addresses.

In the comments after the airdrop I have seen several people complaining about the received crypto being currently of low value, but once again, I believe that Fernando is absolutely right. I think it was a great decision to airdrop a low value to so many accounts. Let me explain why!

Imagine he gave more value to the almost 8,000 addresses. Many of these addresses probably only participated in the airdrop to get "free money" - and they may not be interested in $KTH or in supporting the Knuth team or Bitcoin Cash.

These are probably the same people who complained about it. Would someone complain who plans to hold the token? Probably not.

What would such people most likely do?

I assume some would hold the token hoping that it appreciates in value. But many would probably dump it right away if the current value was higher.

And current token holders may anticipate that behaviour and they might sell a part of their position in anticipation of a big drop in price due to the airdrop. That could crash the token's price and it could reduce the liquidity so far that it becomes impossible to sell the token.

If that happens, people would probably shout "rug pull" and "scam"- when in fact the liquidity pool just became illiquid due to a high selling pressure. And we can see that this is not a hypothetical scenario - as this has happened just yesterday with $PHA. The $PHA creator renounced his ownership of the coin yesterday, because the selling pressure forced him to continuously add liquidity in form of BCH to the liquidity pool - and he simply ran out of BCH. The $PHA price has hit the bottom with a market capitalization of around $1,000 - which might actually be interesting for crypto bargain hunters. However, I doubt that we will see any new global highs in that token any time soon...

Back to $KTH

To avoid such a scenario in $KTH, I think that 50 $KTH is the perfect amount of tokens to be distributed. The amount is big enough to get people interested in the token - without giving them the selling power to potentially murder the price and the liquidity.

To sum up, it was a good airdrop.

But I wouldn't be me if I didn't have some constructive criticism. 😏

Here is what could possibly have been improved upon:

• A bot checker could have been included in the group as it seemed like several bots were flooding the group with addresses.

• And I believe that airdrops could be done for BCH supporters only. For instance using read.cash: The Random Rewarder could tip with airdrop tokens for one week - instead of tipping with BCH.

  Alternatively, another qualifying metric could be used to determine who receives the airdrop. Preferably one that excludes bots - and people who hate BCH anyway - and just come for the free money and to dump the airdrop and leave right after.

Here are some of the reactions to the airdrop - probably written by people planning to dump the token right after receiving it.

I have to add that one ungrateful person literally spammed the chat with her messages. She is a repeat offender - as I have seen this behaviour from her after other airdrops as well...

Then there were many people complaining about supposedly not receiving the airdrop - when in fact they didn't even use Metamask or they didn't even set up smartBCH - or they didn't add the token - all of which was explained in a pinned message in the group.

Here is a positive message for a change:

And then poor Fernando must have received a ton of private messages on Telegram for all kinds of reasons. How do I know? - Because these people flooded the group with "please check your private messages" or "I wrote a private message" or similar posts.

Summary

I do like airdrops and I do like participating in them. And I preferred this airdrop in many ways to many previous ones.

However, the smartBCH airdrops have summoned the mindless airdrop raiders - and hoards of bots.

The reason why I write this article is to show how Fernando handled that situation well - and to inspire what else could be done.

If you plan to airdrop a token, be aware of the current climate in smartBCH Telegram groups - and be prepared for what may await you.

Two things in the end

Remember when I said that the airdrop was triggered when the Telegram group passed 2,000 members last night? - Guess how many members there were in between starting a two hour countdown and ending the 15 minutes time window for posting addresses! Let me show you:

Literally 6,700 accounts joined within 2.5 hours. 🤯

And Fernando did something very clever for the next airdrop - or at least I think he is doing this: He monitors the accounts which received the airdrop. - Why? I assume to find scammers, dumpers and bots. And probably to reward holders in the next airdrop.

So if you are a real person, join the group and participate in the next $KTH airdrop!

Thank you for reading!