SOS Revelation: A User's "Coup" Against the Company
Web3 products don't airdrop, we just "Dao" you.Author: Qin Xiaofeng
Editor: Mandy
On the afternoon of the 24th Beijing time, a project called OpenDAO quietly launched and announced that it would airdrop tokens SOS to all users who interacted on the NFT trading platform Opensea. Users who had previously traded on OpenSea could claim the tokens, and the amount of tokens available to users was related to their trading frequency and spending on Opensea.
In short, this is a project that airdrops tokens to users in response to the criticism that Opensea, which had previously announced a potential IPO, is not sufficiently Web 3.0. (Airdrop link: https://www.theopendao.com/)
In the following day, the project gained significant attention and likes from many crypto KOLs on Twitter, including Dogecoin founder BillyM2k, NFT collector Pranksy (the top earner in the NFT market), and Three Arrows Capital founder zhusu, among others.
As the discussion around the project in the community heated up, the price began to rise, and users who initially lacked enough tokens to pay for GAS started to actively claim them. By 9 PM, MEXC was the first to list SOS, followed by some smaller trading platforms, driving the price further up. Kucoin also announced that it had noticed SOS, hinting at a forthcoming listing.
In the past 24 hours, the price of SOS peaked at 0.000008 USDT, with the average price currently maintaining at 0.000007 USDT, an increase of over 30 times from the initial price; as of now, over 100,000 addresses have claimed the SOS token airdrop, with 52.16% of the airdrop tokens already claimed. The number of addresses far exceeds that of the previously popular ConstitutionDAO (16,779) and ENS (60,119). Uniswap data shows that the 24-hour trading volume of SOS has exceeded $130 million.
Why has a suddenly emerged, unannounced OpenDAO been able to stir the market so much this Christmas?
1. What is OpenDAO? What is the economic model of SOS?
It is reported that OpenDAO is a project initiated by the NFT ecological decentralized organization @721DAO, with its main initiator, contributor, and senior NFT player “9x9x9” confirming this via Twitter. Meanwhile, 721Dao has also stated in the community that it will soon invest $100 million into the SOS ecosystem.
According to the official website, the creation of the SOS token is intended to thank all NFT creators, collectors, and the market for nurturing the entire NFT ecosystem, especially to acknowledge OpenSea's leadership in promoting NFT trading. "To express our respect, we chose OpenSea collectors for our airdrop."
The specific amount of airdropped tokens is determined by the total number of transactions and the amount spent (ETH, DAI, and USDC), with the former accounting for 30% and the latter 70%; at the same time, users must claim the SOS token before June 30, 2022, or they will lose their eligibility.
According to the plan, the total supply of SOS is 1 trillion, with 50% allocated for airdrops, 20% for staking rewards, 10% for LP rewards, and the final 20% reserved for OpenDAO. OpenDAO will use this 20% to compensate verified scam victims on OpenSea, support emerging artists and their original works, support the NFT community, support art preservation, and provide developer grants for the $SOS ecosystem.
This token distribution mechanism has also faced skepticism from the community, with some arguing that, aside from the pending airdrop, OpenDAO still holds at least 50% of the tokens without a lock-up period, posing a risk of dumping for profit.
In response, initiator “9x9x9” stated that his work for @The_OpenDAO is voluntary, and the SOS tokens he holds were purchased by himself. "But you know I'm not in it for the money; otherwise, I would have bought it in the first hour (after the token launch), not at ten times the price."
Additionally, @QuadrataNetwork CTO FabdaRice indicated that there are vulnerabilities in OpenDAO's airdrop program that allow for arbitrary modification of claim amounts, but the official response to this issue is still pending.
As of the time of writing, according to the latest official data, over 52% of the airdrop tokens have been claimed, totaling over 102,000 addresses.
2. The Second SUSHI? The Second PEOPLE?
OpenDAO's rush to issue tokens and attract Opensea users reminds many of last year's SushiSwap. As a copycat, SushiSwap took away Uniswap's liquidity and users, becoming a leader in the DEX space for a time.
However, such a comparison is clearly somewhat unrealistic, as OpenDAO has just been established, and whether it will develop a trading platform remains unknown. Moreover, SUSHI capitalized on the high yields during the DeFi liquidity mining craze, which encouraged users to continuously contribute liquidity; the NFT marketplace is a different story. However, with the support of numerous NFT whales, such expectations do hold some rationality.
Yet, the blueprint for this value support is still early. Currently, for most ordinary traders, SOS still resembles the once-popular MEME coins like Doge, SHIB, People, GM, etc., representing a "zero-sum game" (referring to tokens with low unit prices that later eliminate decimals through significant price increases).
In the community, there are also many promotional slogans filled with FOMO sentiment, with users "shouting orders" to each other, indicating they are "liquidating PEOPLE and going all in on SOS," which seems no different from previous MEME frenzies.
Some voices of skepticism can also be heard. Cole, the initiator of the NFT project Pudgy Penguins, stated, "I sold all my SOS tokens. I know what I'm doing; this 'shitcoin' is crazy, haha. I like this token, but I want to get cheaper chips later."
3. Reflection: If Web3 products don’t airdrop, someone will beat you to it
Regardless of how the price of SOS fluctuates or whether OpenDAO can meet user expectations and deliver practical applications, this incident has led many to discuss: In the Web3 era, if products do not issue tokens, we can reward users for you, siphoning off your traffic and undermining you. There are even heated discussions in the community about how to airdrop to Metamask.
Not long ago, when news of OpenSea planning an IPO broke, the community erupted in criticism. Hundreds of thousands of Web 3.0 users frequently trade, contributing fees that have allowed OpenSea to reap substantial profits and gain a stellar reputation. Now, are you going to hand these earnings over to Web 2.0 capital? Should we buy OpenSea's stock?
The story of "the dragon-slaying youth becoming the evil dragon" is not uncommon in Web 2's business narratives. The example of SOS shows us another possible narrative: water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it; if you can't do it, we will do it for you; if you don't reward those who should be rewarded, users will "Dao" you.
As Sky9 Capital partner Vincent said: In Web2, your "value actions" only bring "value" to the companies providing services, with little relation to you. In Web3, your "value actions" will eventually bring you "value." OpenSea doesn't need to worry about not issuing a native token. On-chain, user data belongs to the users, and your on-chain actions are traceable. These valuable actions that OS does not reward can be rewarded by others. SOS has already started, and LooksRare will also airdrop to OS users. So just do what you need to do on-chain; your "value actions" will eventually bring you "value" in this magical Web3.
In this industry, data is truly a gold mine. In Web 2.0, various applications have buried data points for a long time, with most data being redundant and useless, primarily because user information is difficult to integrate, resulting in incomplete profiles. Every transaction on-chain is a "high-value" user behavior (after all, it incurs high gas fees), filtering out a large amount of useless or low-value behavioral data while connecting the user behaviors of thousands of dApps. The filtering/analysis/processing of this data can generate countless scenarios, from capturing trading opportunities to finding precise user address groups, and forming on-chain identities and social relationships; each of these is an opportunity worth over a billion dollars.
Chen Yuetian, a partner at Huofeng Capital, shares a similar view. He believes: This is very innovative and also very fundamentalist; this is the concept that emerged when Web 2 was first proposed, realized in Web 3. This is a "coup."
Innovation may fail and may have problems, but the thoughts brought by innovation are always valuable.
