Right now, there's a short window where there are still projects that are naively

air dropping without proper civil detection.

And I think that window will close pretty soon.

Until they're using like world ID and comparably secure things, it's just not going to be closed.

It's honestly like world ID or I prove I have a unique passport to log in.

It's going to have to literally be at that level.

Welcome to Web 3 with A16Z.

I'm Robert Hackett, and today we're talking about one of the most familiar and most misunderstood mechanics in crypto, the AirDrop. In this episode, we'll explore the history of air drops in

and outside crypto, the challenges of incentive design, and learnings from major airdrops to date.

We'll also answer questions like,

how do you avoid civil attacks and professional airdrop farming?

Should your drop be big or small, one time, or ongoing?

And what happens when AI agents enter the mix?

To break it all down,

we're joined by A16Z Crypto's chief technology officer Eddie Lazarin,

A16Z Crypto Data Science partner, Darren Matsuoka, and A16Z Crypto research consultant, Andrew Hall,

who is also a professor of political economy at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Whether you're planning a token launch, looking for token rewards, or just curious why

airdrops have become

such a powerful mechanism in crypto, this episode is for you. After my voice, you'll hear

eddies, then Darren's, and finally Andes. Let's dive in. So I thought we'd start maybe with the most obvious question, which is, what is an airdrop?

Eddie, maybe you could kick us off.

...