Must-Read for Project Teams: Say Goodbye to Airdrop Traps, Let the 'Wool Comes from the Pig' Model Achieve Long-Term Growth

In recent years, it has become a standard practice for crypto projects to distribute airdrops extensively on the eve of Token Generation Events (TGE). By luring with free tokens, projects hope to accumulate enough hype and user attention before launch. However, the reality is often that projects reach their peak at launch, with hype and prices rapidly declining shortly after. Users often sell their airdropped tokens immediately, putting pressure on the token market, cooling community enthusiasm, and causing the user base that the project just built to collapse.

Although the traffic brought by airdrops is considerable in the short term, it is difficult to truly settle into community assets or product users. Since most projects lack real business scenarios to support them, they often have to rely on continuing to issue tokens to maintain user activity after the airdrop. This incentive mechanism is essentially透支ing future value. Ultimately, most of these tokens and user traffic flow into the arbitrage cycle of '羊毛党' (freeloaders), wasting the resources that could truly support the project's development. The means originally designed to kickstart the ecosystem instead become a burden that weakens the project's vitality.

To break out of this vicious cycle, the conclusion is: projects must become 'the kind where the wool comes from the pig.' That is, the benefits given to users are actually borne by third parties willing to pay. As the saying goes, 'the wool comes from the pig,' meaning the platform provides products or services to users for free, while other market entities foot the bill. In the context of Web3, this means the project does not profit directly from the user end but first gives benefits to users, with other stakeholders footing the bill, creating a win-win-win situation: users benefit for free, the project expands its influence, and the paying party gains users, data, or brand exposure.

1. Define the core user group: Specifically identify who the most important users are for the project at the current stage. Are they veterans trading on your platform? Daily users of your product? Or investors holding your tokens? In other words, first answer 'what user behavior counts as success.' Only by locking in the core user group that can truly bring results will subsequent strategies not deviate from the goal.

2. Unearth unique competitive edges: Analyze the project's moat to find advantages that others cannot easily replicate. It could be cutting-edge technical strength (like robust infrastructure), a large and active user community, unique data assets, etc. Ask yourself: 'What unique skills does our project have that others don't but desperately need?' Only by clarifying your core value can you have the confidence to make others pay.

3. Find the paying 'pig': Identify partners who most need your resources and are willing to pay. For example, if an exchange or public chain project has strong liquidity, you can collaborate with new projects, where the latter uses tokens or funds to purchase access to your platform; if you operate a DApp with a large number of active users, other projects wanting users may be willing to pay to conduct airdrops or promotional activities through your channels. In short, whoever lacks your advantage is the 'pig' willing to pay.

Through these three steps, you will find that 'others giving you resources to benefit your users' is not a fantasy but a designable business model. Essentially, you are using your core resources to help partners achieve their goals, with partners funding benefits for your users, forming an ecological closed loop. This not only allows users to continuously enjoy dividends but also strengthens your ecosystem's stickiness.

Typical case: Binance's liquidity strategy

Take the world's largest exchange Binance as an example, its core advantages are strong liquidity and a large user base. Binance's target users mainly include traders and BNB token holders. It proposes to new projects: willing to exchange tokens or funds for liquidity and exposure opportunities. Binance through Alpha airdrops and other activities, distributes new project tokens for free to users holding BNB or participating in mining. This method helps new projects quickly gain user attention and liquidity, while bringing additional benefits to Binance's loyal users, thereby enhancing the stickiness of BNB holders. Alpha airdrops distribute new project tokens to active users participating in staking, trading, and providing liquidity, achieving a win-win situation of 'users get dividends, new projects get exposure.'

By the way, a common question is: 'Why doesn't Binance do airdrops for ordinary spot trading users?' The answer is, the trading volume on the main site is mostly provided by market makers (MM), who themselves profit from liquidity. Binance needs to retain these core market makers, so it prefers to leave airdrop dividends to more small and medium散户 users, promoting new projects by expanding a broader user base. This approach aligns with the spirit of 'the wool comes from the pig': giving散户羊 free scratches, while the real payers are the project方 needing liquidity and the market makers maintaining the market.

Another noteworthy case is the social incentive platform Kaito. Its operation mechanism essentially uses users' behavioral data and content participation on social media (mainly Twitter) as 'assets' to attract traffic, then collaborates with other crypto projects to distribute these projects' tokens as rewards to content contributors. Under this structure, users accumulate points or receive airdrops by 'outputting attention and discourse power,' while the real cost of incentives is borne by new project方 hoping to leverage social volume to expand influence before TGE.

On the surface, this is a typical 'the wool comes from the pig' business model: users benefit for free, the Kaito platform meets demand, and project方 pay for volume. However, the sustainability of this model has obvious structural risks. Its core reliance is whether Kaito has the ability to occupy the social attention入口 long-term. If project方 find more efficient or cost-effective customer acquisition methods in the future, Kaito's value as a 'middle撮合者' will significantly decline.

Win-win cooperation: Core value determines the lifeline of the ecosystem

Whether it's a technology or community project, the premise is always to hold onto your core competitiveness. Once you lose the unique value that makes others willing to pay, this model won't work. 'The wool' is ultimately based on 'the pig' seeing value and being willing to pay. If you find it difficult to定位 your own advantages, then you should consider adjusting your direction or focusing on深耕 what you're best at.

For project方, instead of一味投钱拉盘, it's better to think more about what resources you have that can be exchanged with others. Find suitable partners to bring external forces into your ecosystem. For example, your strong user community can bring traffic to other new projects, or your unique data resources can help projects make decisions. These are values that others are willing to pay for with funds or tokens. Once successful, your users enjoy tangible benefits, you strengthen ecosystem stickiness, and partners achieve their goals—everyone is happy.

Investor perspective: More emphasis on sustainable empowerment

Now that炒作 in the crypto market is渐歇 and investors are more rational, this is a sign of industry maturity. As an industry observer, I believe that projects that can survive long-term either have breakthroughs in technology or product层面 (providing long-term value), or innovate in business models (providing良性循环). Projects that can do both naturally have more advantages.

For investors, the next time you encounter a project boasting, first ask if it has the造血 ability to have third parties foot the bill: can the project truly make 'the pig keep flying'? After all, only those cooperation models that can 'make the pig刷单 daily,让 the羊 never饿死' can have the last laugh in this market.

The idea of 'the wool comes from the pig' is not a slogan but a feasible strategy guiding project operation. It requires project方 to clarify their own value, design ecosystem subsidy mechanisms, and构筑 growth together with partners.