Hop Protocol Rewards Sybil Hunters with Innovative Airdrop Tool – How Does it Work?

As Sybil farming ahead of anticipated airdrops is becoming increasingly popular in the cryptosphere, Hop Protocol is unveiling a new initiative under which it will reward Sybil hunters for their diligence in combating Sybil attackers who target such airdrops. 

Sybil attacks are carried out by persons who set up numerous accounts on selected blockchain projects which are moving towards token airdrops, and subsequently attempt to collect as many tokens as possible.

“When the Hop DAO was launched, Sybil hunters submitted reports that ultimately removed Sybil attackers from the HOP airdrop, resulting in the DAO keeping almost 3.5 million tokens that would have otherwise been in the hands of Sybil attackers,” said a post on Snapshot.org, an off-chain voting platform for blockchain-focused communities.

With this in mind, the protocol’s community voted on proposal which seeks to reward the involved Sybil hunters with 25% of the saved tokens now, roughly a year after the DAO was launched.

Community agrees to reward Sybil hunters

The results of the latest vote indicate that a vast majority of the Hop community was in favor of rewarding the hunters for their efforts. 

Users representing some HOP 7.4 million, or 99.48% of the total, agreed to the proposal. In contrast, users in possession of HOP 33,000, 0.45% of the total, voted against it, and those holding HOP 5,500, or 0.07%, abstained from the vote, as indicated by data released by the off-chain voting platform.

“Beyond the direct benefits of token recovery, the Sybil hunters also contributed to promoting the DAO in indirect ways. Both the SAFE airdrop and the Arbitrum airdrop adopted elements of Hop’s airdrop design as a result of the hunters’ effort and innovation, thus validating and enhancing the DAO’s influence,” the post said. 

“Each of those teams specifically called out Hop as inspiration during their airdrop process.” 

Innovative tool to reward Sybil hunters

As a result of the latest vote, a total of 869,566.51 tokens are to be allocated to some 35 recipients. The selected token distribution method will see the DAO send the earmarked funds to an OpenZeppelin PaymentSplitter contract which allows the addresses to claim the due tokens which were sent to the contract.

“The contract claim start time will be Fri Jun 09 2023 10:48:36 GMT+0000, which is the same start time as all of the HOP vesting contracts created at the beginning of the DAO’s lifetime,” according to the post.