Original source: Shenchao TechFlow
Editors note: On January 17, Blast, a Layer 2 network launched by Blur founder Pacman, announced that its test network was officially launched. At the same time, Blast announced the launch of the Blast BIG BANG event for developers to attract Dapps to settle in. Blast has turned itself into an L2 with its own Launchpad attribute. At the same time, the operation idea of this incentive event also provides us with a more direct template focused on revenue.
Blast, has appeared in everyones field of vision again recently.
On January 17, Blast officially announced the launch of a test network and a one-month Big Bang incentive plan to encourage developers to become active in building applications in its ecosystem and conduct competitions according to certain rules. Projects can receive Blast token airdrops, as well as opportunities to network and network with top investors.
More importantly, this incentive event is more like an audition and preview, and the final stage is the Blast mainnet. The audience was full of users that Blast had attracted in the past few months, waiting for the launch of new projects and eager for the next liquidity feast.
L2, launched by Blur founder Pacman, has attracted widespread attention since it was announced in November last year: its own income, Paradgim investment and Blurs successful experience have made it extremely topical and controversial.
The last time Blast caused widespread discussion in the industry,It’s because of its ability to quickly attract users and liquidity.
Just a few days after its launch in November last year, Blasts TVL quickly exceeded 500 million US dollars, making many L2 competitors sweat. At that time, the CEO of Arbitrums parent company also said on Twitter, We created this monster.
And now, the monster has grown even bigger.
Blast has successfully absorbed a total of US$1.3 billion in TVL and more than 100,000 users in about 2 months. Considering that Blast has not yet been officially launched and has a short operating time, for comparison, the TVL of Arbitrum, which has been mature and has been running for a long time, is 2.6 billion US dollars, which is only double that of Blast.
Not only attracting users, Blast is now also extending an olive branch to developers.
Big Bang’s testnet plan will help you find users, funds, and connections. The price may be hard for new projects to refuse.
The incentive method in the crypto world is really to let Blast play clearly.
A test network, airdrop half points
We can take a closer look at the details of this Big Bang test incentive plan.
Think of L2 as a stage, where users watch the show and projects sing the show.
For stage organizer Blast, there are at least two troublesome things affecting each other:
Promise the operagoers that someone will sing the opera, and promise the opera singers that there will be people watching the opera.
At the same time, this is also a common dilemma faced by any platform-based project, that is, how to dig out resources when neither end is available, or even both ends are on the side of competitors.
The method provided by Blast is crude, primitive and effective---profit, profit, profit.
The L2 mainnet is not online yet, but it directly and honestly informs users that depositing assets can get the corresponding ETH pledge income and stablecoin interest. This alone is enough to attract a collective influx of crypto users who are focused on making money, not to mention the subsequent points exchange for airdrops. expected;
On the other hand, Blast can confidently attract projects to build with real TVL, and it also directly states that developers will be rewarded with airdrops.
A test network, the income is divided half and half.
Half of all Blast airdrops will be given to developers of winning projects and mainnet applications, and the other half will be given to users who deposit liquidity on Blast.
Generally speaking, airdrops are mostly aimed at retail investors, and it is rare to directly use airdrops to hit developers; but under the so-called heavy rewards, there must be brave men, especially when other L2 ecology is solidified and the effect of head projects is obvious, go to Blast When doing projects, one has airdrops, two has users, and three is virgin territory, so why not?
Judging from the official information provided by Blast, the project types it currently encourages include 8 major categories such as DeFi/NFT/social/game/infrastructure, which basically cover the most popular areas for liquidity in the crypto market. With strong incentives, It may only be a matter of time before an excellent project comes out.
We can see that Blast is hungry for talents, and at the same time, it maximizes the value of its team and IP in terms of gameplay. Projects that win awards in the future will also have the opportunity to talk to relevant core members of the Blur project team. Although one dialogue cannot solve any practical problems, the network and circle effects it brings will be useful for working on projects, doing BD, or looking for news. They are all beneficial and harmless things.
The airdrop income and resource income are full, and Mingdao is extending an olive branch. Blast seems to understand very well how developers and users in the encryption market can be effectively mobilized.
Homogenization of technology and explosion of operations
Blast’s testnet incentive event is called Big Bang; but the author believes that the real big bang is the operational ideas.
Blast aside, how did the previous L2s attract users and developers?
There are airdrops, but the rules are vague and unclear, and they will not be played out from the beginning; there are incentives for developers, but they do not seem to directly connect with retail investors in the first place, but later become equivalent token emission attractions. User participation.
More importantly, the previous L2 was almost all about technical narratives, such as what my OP/ZK technology can achieve, how low the gas can be, and how fast the performance can be.
This is important, but not critical.
When there are dozens of L2s with homogeneous underlying technologies in the entire encryption market, users and developers have actually already planned:
I dont care much about how good your technology is, I care more about how much benefit you can give.
From the perspective of Blast’s operating philosophy, it seems to have a different pattern for us: I don’t expect you to come with NB skills, I will let you come directly for the benefits.
Outstanding, efficient and practical.
First use foreseeable returns (ETH pledge and stablecoin interest) to attract users and liquidity, and then use liquidity as a price to attract developers.
No user will refuse the temptation of real income, and no developer will refuse the temptation of a large number of users.
Both parties use profits as leverage to leverage their actions. At least they can quickly accumulate popularity and complete a late-stage L2 cold start.
Of course, there is always a doubt in the market that users accumulated by income and incentives are unsustainable, unorthodox, and untechnical; but in the encryption world, winners and losers, if the incentives continue to pile up, if the business is completed, users will receive money, and the project After acquiring users, L2 itself had transaction volume and received transaction fees, so everyone naturally shut up.
Those who will still question it in the future will definitely be the competitors and the group of people who have not made any money. This logic is especially similar to when Blur challenged Opensea.
Blur once staged a classic case of the NFT platform being late to the game, and old wine in new bottles, Blast seems to be using the same operating formula to encroach on L2’s market share:
Encourage matchmaking and promise benefits to both parties.
At the same time, Blast’s testnet event has a greater impact in that it has turned itself into an L2 with its own Launchpad attribute.
If you want liquidity, I have it here; if you want incentives, I have it here; if you want users, I have it here.
For a new project, is there any reason not to go to Blast? On the other hand, when"Going to Blast when new"This idea became a consensus, and Blast became a Launchpad, making it easier to attract subsequent projects to try.
In the new cycle, those high-end technologies seem to begin to lose their effectiveness, and users prefer projects that have fewer routines, are simple to understand, and provide direct incentives. So we saw the rise of Inscription, the anxiety of VCs, and the pragmatic choices of more projects to join the Inscription Feast or the Bitcoin ecosystem if they cannot beat it.
Is the L2 track also undergoing a down-to-earth change in concepts and operations? Blast has at least made a start.
It’s interesting to say that you can always feel that the narrative in the crypto world is changing, the team is changing, and the gameplay is changing;
But behind everything, the insight into human nature remains unchanged.
