🎉 Introducing Good as Gold by GOLDIBLOCKS

GM. Welcome to the inaugural edition of Good as Gold — your no BS roundup of all things web3 from GOLDIBLOCKS.

Whether you're a founder, investor, or just marketing a project, we’ll be hitting your inbox once a month with our in-depth analysis of who's winning and losing in web3 marketing and comms.

We're a year old, and a decade wiser...and we thought it was about time we started sharing with our friends.

Now, enjoy your new essential web3 newsletter — Good as Gold. Let's do this.

• 📰 In the News

• ♟ Strategy Corner: Airdrops

• 🥣 Hot Porridge

• 🍻 Happy Hour Facts

This month's newsletter is 1,064 words, a 4-minute read.

📰 IN THE NEWS

SBF actually showed up to NY Times DealBook Summit. And we don't feel any better. Asked about whether his lawyers think his speaking is a good idea, SBF said "They very much do not"...we'll just leave this one here. Read More

Polygon is the gateway to web3 we’ve all been waiting for. What do Starbucks, Instagram, and DraftKings all have in common? They're building on Polygon. Yea, this is how millions of mainstream users finally get on board. Read More

Open Mouth, Insert Foot. OpenSea completely botched their response to the NFT royalties debate. First silence, then indecision, then decision. Key rule of comms: do not manufacture a crisis (unless of course, that's your intention 😉). Read More

Don't be like Elon. As crypto plunges, tightening company spending is natural, but how you communicate changes internally and externally speaks volumes. Elon's Twitter takeover and the company's dramatic "reduction in force" provide a masterclass on how NOT to handle this delicate issue. Read More

Does your brand need a Discord? Discord quickly established itself as the reigning champ in web3 comms. It's where community members meet and hang out, and a project’s team and supporters connect. Yet, operating a Discord requires expertise and presents security vulnerabilities. So, is it worth it for your brand? Read More

Nothing drives FOMO in web3 quite like an airdrop - even a rumor can send Twitter and Discord into a frenzy. This web3-native marketing tactic is used to distribute small (sometimes large) amounts of a new digital asset to a project's community for free, in exchange for historical engagement or marketing activities like retweets and Discord participation.

We've all watched as big names like Bored Ape Yacht Club have used airdrops as integral levers in their marketing and token distribution strategies. We put this marketing lever under the microscope to figure out why some airdrops elevate a brand while others damage it.

Pros and Cons

Why We Like Airdrops

• Brings broad awareness to a project

• Bootstraps a user base

• Empowers community stakeholders

• Rewards early participation and engagement

Why We Don’t Like Airdrops

• Can irreparably damage your brand and reputation

• Abundant opportunities for theft and manipulation

• Potential to inflate user metrics

• Can generate buzz for unworthy projects

Airdrop winners 👍 and losers 👎 

Below we take a look at some notable airdrops and evaluate them on what they achieved from an awareness, user activation, and community-building perspective.

👍 Blur

Blur's creative multi-phase airdrop strategy accelerated the project's awareness in the crowded NFT marketplace niche and bootstrapped an engaged, aligned, and active user base. Well done 👏

👍 Ethereum Name Service

Ethereum Name Service distributed $ENS tokens to historically active users, empowering stakeholders with a say in protocol governance. The airdrop coincided with a significant increase in registrations and cemented ENS as the standard-bearer for web3 domain identity. Mission accomplished.

👎 Aptos

Aptos, a web3 infrastructure project, drew criticism for its VC-weighted token distribution and absence of community allocation. The team hastily put together an airdrop that lacked Sybil protections and led to an attack costing 6.3 million $APT, causing irreparable reputation damage. Lesson: be weary of sacrificing security and reputation for speed.

👍 Optimism

Although this widely anticipated airdrop suffered from early stumbles, the multi-phased rollout provided a powerful incentive for new and existing users to transact on this Ethereum scaling solution. Usage has grown significantly since the airdrop went live. As they say, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

👎 OpenDAO and Gas DAO

OpenDAO and Gas DAO conducted airdrops with questionable code and unclear product roadmaps. Soon after, $SOS and $GAS went into a death spiral, never to return...Basic rule: do not create an airdrop out of thin air - have an ironclad strategy, a clear product roadmap, and tangible utility.

🥣 HOT PORRIDGE (aka hot takes)

Blockchain: Is this really a hot take? SMH. We couldn't be more bullish. Markets go up and markets go down...but the genie is out of the bottle. Blockchain WILL change society for the better. It's a matter of when not if. We just have to buckle in.

Moonbirds: Quietly coming onto the scene with Proof Collective and then executing one of the most masterfully planned NFT launches of all time - Kevin Rose & co. continue to deliver for their community. One might say they have set the standard...Bravo 👏

Starbucks Odyssey (web3 loyalty program): For a company worth $114 BILLION we expected a little more than a couple of generic emails. Do better 😕

LinksDAO: Are they really going to buy a golf course? Time will tell...Until then, the team continues to roll out tangible utility for their community. Brand partnerships, exclusive merchandise, and IRL activations to name a few. Good job team 🏌️‍♀️⛳️

🍻 HAPPY HOUR FACTS

Metaverse fashion trends: your avatar dresses better than you do. We bet you didn't know there are 200 times as many creators designing clothing in Roblox as there are creating physical collections in the United States. Read More

That’s a wrap for this month 🎉 Follow us on Twitter @goldiblocks_ for more insights, inspirational tweets, and the occasional meme.

GOLDIBLOCKS is a marketing and comms firm serving web3 founders and founding teams. We help our clients promote and protect their brands and reputations.

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.