DeFi
Crypto projects can generate greater organic growth through fair launch
Although the cryptocurrency industry presents itself as an egalitarian industry, the reality is often quite different: many new token distributions are biased in favor of a handful of private investors. These are usually the people who created the token, those connected to them, and the professional investment community, who are informed before the project launches.
A quick look at the token distribution of some of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the space reveals that early investors often control a large portion of these networks, while everyone else plays second fiddle. The general public often gets a few crumbs, and they have to pay much more for the handful of tokens they can get their hands on.
This explains the recent emphasis on what the cryptocurrency industry calls a “fair launch.” This is a concept that aims to address the inequalities that plagued most early projects by giving everyone an equal chance to acquire new tokens, regardless of their status or level of internal knowledge of the project.
In the cryptocurrency space, fair launches have become popular among more cynical crypto enthusiasts who believe the market is rigged by pre-mining, whitelisting, and venture capital allocations that prevent everyone from getting first access at the lowest possible price.
How do fair launches take place?
A fair launch refers to a token distribution plan that gives the broader community a chance to earn and purchase tokens up front, so that everyone has the opportunity to get in early and participate in its governance. A fair launch means that no one has early access opportunities, no pre-mining, and no allocation of any kind.
To enable a truly fair launch, it is necessary to define what “fairness” actually means. A useful framework adopted by many cryptocurrency projects was proposed in 20219 by researcher Hasu and venture capitalist Arjun Balaji, who defines the concept as ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to acquire tokens over a long period of time. The more people who know about a new project, the fairer the distribution of its tokens will be. For example, if the entire supply is sold within a month of the token launch, this cannot really be considered fair, as the market has not had enough time to become aware of the token.
Another aspect of fairness, according to Hasu and Balaji, is price equality. By this, they mean that no group or individual should be allowed to acquire new tokens at a price significantly below the market price. However, Hasu and Balaji do not rule out early access to tokens altogether, saying that discounts are acceptable if the tokens they acquire are to be acquired or locked up for a long period of time, as they need an incentive to take the risk involved.
Why should a project commit to a fair launch?
For projects that want to be able to claim to be truly democratic, it is important to give everyone the opportunity to get involved from the beginning, without any privileges for early investors. A fair launch means that early investors in the project cannot accumulate outsized influence over issues such as governance. This means that all decisions made by the community will truly reflect the will of the users of the network.
One of the problems with the traditional venture capital model, especially when applied to cryptocurrency projects, is that when a venture capitalist wants to cash out, they can dump a substantial number of tokens into the market shortly after the token is publicly launched. They let public investors drive up the price first, and then dump thousands more tokens into the market. This very often has the effect of driving down the market price of a new token, leaving public investors with much less value than they originally invested.
So, if a project wants to be loyal to the community that helps it grow, it must ensure that the distribution of its tokens is fair.
Examples of fair launch
One of the fairest ways to launch tokens is to incentivize the community to earn them through various activities that support the growth of the project.
Perhaps the best example of a fair launch is bitcoinwhich did not allocate tokens to anyone, but instead invited users to start “mining” coins by contributing computing resources to the network. Initially, this could be done with a basic PC powered by a simple processor. Bitcoin’s creator, one Satoshi Nakamoto, did not reserve any tokens for himself or anyone else, although he began mining coins before the network went live. Additionally, the initial number of participants in the Bitcoin network was small, as no one had heard of it in the nascent days of 2009/2010, when it was just getting started.
Another notable example of a fair launch is Financing of the yeara DeFi protocol that refused to allocate tokens, not even to its creator Andre Cronje. Instead, its first tokens went only to the liquidity providers who helped start its platform. While the YFI token hasn’t seen the same gains as Bitcoin this year, it still ranks among the top 200 cryptocurrencies and is considered one of the most successful DeFi projects, with more than 260 million dollars in total value blocked in June 2024.
More recently, the AI-driven blockchain network Qubic has designed what must be one of the fairest launches of all, strictly retaining its entire QUBIC token supply for those who secure its network via its useful proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
Qubic was founded by Sergey Ivancheglo, the creator of IOTA and NXT, which integrates blockchain to secure AI models via its uPoW-powered Quorum protocol.
Ivancheglo committed to a fair launch, rejecting any form of venture capital involvement, team allocation, or pre-mining. As such, QUBIC’s entire supply was only distributed to those who actually contributed to the network’s growth, meaning that governance is also dictated by these users, rather than external investors who would likely be more concerned with generating profits than the project’s actual long-term success. This was a solid model that has already proven itself, with Qubic recently reaching a $1 billion market cap and its mining network now spanning around 500,000 machines. It’s a showcase of how a fair launch model can be used. helping crypto projects drive organic growth.
It would be misleading, however, to claim that fair launches are always guaranteed to succeed. OpenDAO notably failed by opting for a token distribution model that retrospectively rewarded early adopters via an airdrop.
OpenDAO’s goal was to create a decentralized insurance protocol for non-fungible tokens sold on the OpenSea NFT marketplace. It allowed any wallet that had previously interacted with OpenSea to participate in its airdrop.
However, this token distribution model may have been too generous, considering that the project itself was not without its problems. While the launch was certainly fair, OpenDAO itself failed to establish a clear roadmap or goals, and security researchers have reported a number of issues with the protocol’s code. The negative perception of OpenDAO encouraged many token holders to dump their SOS tokens shortly after the airdrop in January 2022, causing its price to plummet. The value of SOS has flat since then, and today, it is known to be one of the least valuable cryptocurrencies of all, valued at $0.00000001739.
Equity must be applied properly
A fair launch does not guarantee the success of a project and is just one of the many options available to project teams when it comes to launching their token. The benefits of a fair launch include giving a project more credibility, as such projects are unlikely to be a scam if the founders do not get early access to its tokens. This means more transparency and the perception of fairness increases positivity around the project.
On the other hand, a fair launch may mean that the project team will struggle to find funding if the token launch is not well-planned, as early access is one of the main ways for the crypto industry to attract funds. Additionally, the lack of a large public launch means that the project will not be able to benefit from the traditional boost that many get following this event.
For crypto project teams, the concept of a fair launch can be inspiring and help drive significant growth and community adoption if done right. But project founders need to ensure that the community has a compelling reason to want to participate and help drive organic growth.