Editorial Notes (vol.28) – Preparing for the ARBI airdrop

At the moment, Arbitrum airdrop is one of the most anticipated events in the crypto community. With multiple L2 networks already having the token or having announced it, it makes perfect sense that Arbitrum will follow a similar path.

But what can you do to prepare yourself and potentially be eligible for the airdrop? Well, here, we’ll look at some things you can do to improve your chances based on how other projects like Optimism determined eligibility.

Now, before we go into the projects, you should know that the transactions on Arbitrum are really cheap – below 10 cents. Therefore, you shouldn’t worry about losing a lot of money to gas fees. Furthermore, the projects and the ecosystem as a whole are awesome and flourishing, which is why you should try preparing even though the airdrop isn’t 100% guaranteed.

First of all, you’ll need to bridge some funds to Arbitrum, all of which can be done within Omni, where you can also swap tokens.

If we take a look at what Optimism’s airdrop eligibility criteria were, it makes sense to perform as many actions as possible and try out everything the ecosystem has to offer. One way to do that is to check the projects that were a part of the Odyssey (which sadly hasn’t restarted since its pause that was established due to the high network fees at the time). In case you want to explore even more dApps in the ecosystem, take a look at the Explore Screen in Omni or go to the Arbitrum Portal.

In short, try depositing into vaults, make a few trades, vote on DAO proposals, play a game on Arbitrum like Bridgeworld, and trade some NFTs – all of this can be done through the dApps below.

Trade top cryptocurrencies on GMX with up to 30x leverage directly from your wallet.

GMX is a decentralized spot and perpetual exchange that supports low swap fees and zero-price impact trades. Trading is supported by a unique multi-asset pool that earns liquidity providers fees from market making, swap fees, and leverage trading. 30% of fees generated from swaps and leverage trading are converted to ETH or AVAX and distributed to staked GMX and GLP tokens.

As the largest perpetual exchange on Arbitrum, it might be a good idea to try out all the different products it offers – from staking GLP tokens to earning yield, to engaging in actual trades.

TreasureDAO – a decentralized network connecting games and communities into the Treasure Metaverse.

Treasure DAO is aiming to connect NFT projects across Arbitrum into a broad, story-rich ecosystem. It bridges the growing network of metaverses through an open and composable approach to the convergence of NFTs, DeFi, and gaming. The foundational metaverse within the Treasure ecosystem is called Bridgeworld, and this is where the primary game of Treasure is played and where MAGIC is produced and gathered. 

Try out some games to experience the GameFi on Arbitrum. There are also a lot of opportunities to vote on DAO proposals, which have played a role in many previous airdrops – in this case, you’ll need some MAGIC tokens to participate.

Find communities and participate by completing tasks on Guild.

Guild creates token-gated access to online communities based on NFTs, wallet histories, tokens, and more. It's a place for internet communities to come together and form guilds or groups to manage these private communities and start working together.

At the moment there are multiple open guilds with easy-to-complete tasks on Arbitrum such as Arbitrum Guild, which will give you roles in the Arbitrum Discord.

Learn and earn by completing cool projects on Layer3.

There is no better way to learn than to do what you’re already interested in. Layer3 is a platform that enables anyone to contribute to Web3, from anywhere in the world, no matter their skill level. DAOs and decentralized communities upload tasks in the form of bounties and contests that you can participate in.

Some of the quests are focused on Arbitrum and other projects building on top of it – consider completing these quests. Additionally, even if this won’t play a role in a potential airdrop, it will provide you with a nice introduction to the ecosystem.

Explore projects, get grants, and contribute to the builders in the ecosystem through Gitcoin.

Gitcoin is a platform where developers can get paid to work on open-source projects and users can submit their own project ideas to the Gitcoin platform in order to crowdsource funding from contributing donors. With the plethora of projects building in this space and us users using them for free, it is a great place to give back to the builders by donating even small amounts.

It doesn't take much to contribute, and you are in no way obligated to donate a lot of money. But, besides being one of the eligibility criteria for the Optimism airdrop (which might also apply for Arbitrum), you are giving back to the space, which is a pleasure in and of itself.

Discover, collect, and sell digital items on Stratos – Arbitrum's largest NFT marketplace.

Stratos is the largest NFT marketplace on Arbitrum, built by the team behind Quix. Discover new collections and items, check out the most active collections, and trade NFTs with low fees on L2. With Stratos, you can also easily create your own collections through the free mint launchpad and get in-depth statistics on all Arbitrum-based NFTs and collections.

NFTs play a big part in the Arbitrum ecosystem and supporting it through the utilization of NFT-focused projects might be a solid way to earn some extra “points”. While at it, you should also try using Stratos on Arbitrum Nova.

Access sustainable, hedged yields on Arbitrum with UMAMI.

Umami is building an ecosystem of strategy vaults for the future of finance. Umami’s expanding menu of strategy vaults offers sustainable, risk-hedged passive income sourced from across DeFi. In the center of their ecosystem is the native UMAMI token, which can be staked for a growing stream of passive income.

The revenue they distribute to UMAMI stakers is not derived from the dilution of their supply. They generate revenue through earning yield on their Protocol Owned Liquidity and distribute the rewards to sakers in WETH.

Access options on Arbitrum to minimize risk, earn yield, and more with Dopex.

Dopex is a decentralized options protocol that targets liquidity maximization while minimizing losses for option writers and maximizing gains for option buyers. Dopex offers a simple and easy-to-use platform, meaning that anyone can participate in an option pool.

Lend and borrow with fixed rates on Yield Protocol.

Yield is a protocol for collateralized fixed-rate, fixed-term borrowing, and lending.

At the core of Yield is fyTokens, which represent tokenized loans. They are analogous to zero-coupon bonds in the sense that they do not pay interest, but rather trade at a discount, rendering a profit at maturity when they are redeemed for their full face value. You can borrow and lend USDC, DAI, FRAX, or ETH for a fixed amount of time to earn a predetermined yield.

As one of the native Arbitrum projects that is also without its own token, you can learn about how fixed-term lending and borrowing work – you never know, you might kill two birds with one stone.

Borrow against your crypto assets without selling them with Vesta Finance.

Vesta Finance enables users to borrow against their crypto assets without selling them. Anyone can go and create their vault in which they can deposit tokens such as ETH, DPX, gOHM, GMX, and borrow VST against the token. VST is a collateralized stablecoin powered by Vesta Finance and unlike under-collateralized stablecoins, there is more than $1 worth of assets for each unit of VST.