Blast officially airdropped last night, but both the token price and earnings have been criticized by the community. The following article summarizes the operation principles, airdrop information, and token economics of Blast to help readers understand this unique Layer2 network.
(Table of Contents)
What is Blast?
Blast Team and Financing Status
How does Blast work?
AUTO REBASING
L1 Staking
On-chain T-Bill Yield
Gas Revenue Sharing
Blast Airdrop
Blast Points: 7 billion tokens (7%)
Blast Gold: 7 billion tokens (7%)
Blur Foundation: 3 billion tokens (3%)
Unlocking
BLAST Token Economics
BLAST Token Listing Performance
Potential Risks of Blast
Blast Ecosystem Projects
Munchables
Biconomy
Particle Trade
Ultiverse
. June 26, 2024
BLUR Holders Can Also Receive BLAST Airdrop! But Distribution Rules Spark Community Outrage
. March 27, 2024
Blast Winning Project “Munchables” Hacked! Loss of 62.5 million pounds, Analyst: North Korean Hackers Infiltrated the Team…
. March 1, 2024
Blast Mainnet Launched! Over 180,000 Users Invested 2.3 Billion Pounds in Potential Airdrop Points
. February 26, 2024
Blast Ecosystem’s First Rug Pull! RiskOnBlast Scammed 420 ETH and Fled, Previously Received Official Retweet
Blast, an Ethereum Layer2 network introduced by Pacman, the founder of NFT trading platform Blur, has attracted many users since its launch at the end of last year due to its unique “passive income” feature. On June 26, at 22:00 Taiwan time, Blast officially launched its first airdrop, with a planned distribution of 17 billion $BLAST tokens, accounting for 17% of the total token supply.
However, due to the pre-trading price of approximately $0.03, the official listing price dropped to around $0.022 per token within an hour (later fluctuating and currently at $0.027). Some large holders of the airdropped tokens also expressed dissatisfaction with the distribution amount, leading to a community backlash.
For readers who may not be familiar with Blast, the following article provides information on the operation principles, airdrop details, and token economics of this Layer2 network.
What is Blast?
Blast is an Ethereum Layer2 network compatible with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). It adopts Optimistic Rollup technology and aims to solve the scalability issues on Ethereum by increasing network capacity for more transactions at a lower cost. Blast is the first and only Layer2 network that provides passive income for ETH and stablecoins, as well as gas fee subsidies for Dapps. The platform positions itself as an ecosystem that allows users and contributors to earn passive income in ETH, USDC, USDT, and DAI.
Blast’s testnet was launched in January 2024, and the mainnet was launched on February 29, 2024.
Blast Team and Financing Status
Blast was created by an experienced team of developers and contributors from well-known institutions and organizations. Key figures include Pacman, the founder of NFT trading platform Blur, and researchers from MIT, Yale University, Nanyang Technological University, Seoul National University, and other renowned institutions. Prior to this, Blast raised $20 million in funding from prominent investors such as Paradigm, Standard Crypto, eGirl Capital, Primitive Ventures, and Andrew Kang.
How does Blast work?
We know that the explosive growth of DeFi comes from the concept of Ethereum staking, but the general staking model requires users to manually operate the staking process. In contrast, Blast innovatively replaces user staking with its ecosystem, simplifying the staking process. Users only need to deposit funds into Blast, and their funds will be automatically staked, initiating the process of earning income. The specific elements include:
AUTO REBASING
In Blast, the balances of ETH and USDB (Blast’s native stablecoin) are automatically rebased. This means that users’ balances will increase over time without any additional effort.
L1 Staking
Blast utilizes Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade to facilitate L1 staking. The ETH earnings generated from L1 staking (initially on Lido) will be rebased on L2 and transferred to users. This system ensures that users benefit from the earnings generated by staking ETH without having to navigate complex staking protocols.
On-chain T-Bill Yield
For stablecoin yields, Blast utilizes MakerDAO’s on-chain T-Bill protocol. When users bridge stablecoins to Blast, they receive USDB, which is a stablecoin that is automatically rebased. The yield of USDB comes from the T-Bill protocol and can be exchanged for DAI when bridged back to Ethereum. This integration provides significant returns for stablecoins.
Gas Revenue Sharing
In addition, unlike other L2 solutions that retain gas revenue, Blast programmatically distributes gas revenue back to Dapps. This revenue-sharing model incentivizes Dapp developers to build on Blast because they can retain this revenue or use it to subsidize users’ gas fees.
Blast Operation Principles
According to Blast’s official website, the current yield on ETH in Blast is 3.4%, while stablecoins enjoy an 8% yield.
Blast Airdrop
Blast announced on June 25, 2024, that its first airdrop event will officially start on June 26, 2024, at 22:00 Taiwan time. It is expected to distribute 17 billion BLAST tokens, accounting for 17% of the total supply. Users can pre-register on the mainnet to check token distribution.
Airdrops are a key element of the Blast ecosystem, aiming to reward users for participating in and supporting the platform’s development. According to the documentation, the 17 billion BLAST tokens from the first airdrop will be distributed to the following users:
Blast Points: 7 billion tokens (7%)
Users who bridge ETH or USDB to Blast and provide initial liquidity to the Blast ecosystem will receive Blast Points. These users will receive 7% of the total BLAST supply as a reward.
Blast Gold: 7 billion tokens (7%)
Users who contribute to the success of Dapps will receive Blast Gold and will be rewarded with 7% of the total BLAST supply.
Blur Foundation: 3 billion tokens (3%)
Blur Foundation will receive 3% of the total BLAST supply, and these funds will be used to distribute retroactive and future airdrop rewards to the Blur community.
It is worth noting that, according to Blur’s latest tweet on the social platform X, the Blur third-quarter activity will end at 22:00 on the 26th, and the BLAST allocation to the Blur Foundation will be distributed to Blur traders and Blur holders. The details are as follows:
0.5% allocated to BLUR traders and holders for the third quarter.
0.5% reserved for BLUR traders for the fourth quarter.
1% reserved for BLUR holders for the fourth quarter.
0.5% will be reserved for future use.
Top-ranking users in the Blur third-quarter airdrop will receive a linear distribution of a portion of the airdrop within 6 months.
However, Blur later tweeted that Blur holders will be able to claim a combined airdrop of 1.5% for the third and fourth quarters after the airdrop claim is open, while Blur traders will remain unchanged (0.5% for the third quarter).
Note: Holders refer to users who deposit $BLUR on the BLUR platform.
Unlocking
It is worth noting that the top 0.1% of users (approximately 1,000 wallets) will gradually unlock a portion of their airdrop rewards over 6 months, subject to reaching specified score thresholds in the first stage of the activity.
BLAST Token Economics
On June 26, Blast announced its token economics as follows:
Total supply of BLAST: 100 billion tokens
50% allocated to the community (linear unlocking within 3 years from TGE)
25.5% allocated to core contributors (locked for 4 years, with 25% of core contributor tokens unlocked 1 year after TGE and the remaining unlocked linearly over the next 3 years)
16.5% allocated to investors (locked for 4 years, with 25% of investor tokens unlocked 1 year after TGE and the remaining unlocked linearly over the next 3 years)
8% allocated to the Blast Foundation (linear unlocking within 4 years from TGE)
BLAST Token Listing Performance
On June 26, along with the launch of the airdrop claim, BLAST also listed on centralized exchanges such as Bybit, Bitget, and KuCoin (Binance and OKX temporarily not listed). After listing, the price of BLAST fluctuated and increased. At the time of writing, it is priced at $0.022726 per token, with a circulating market cap of $402 million.
Potential Risks of Blast
Although Blast offers attractive passive income opportunities, there are still potential risks, including:
1. The asset custody contract of Blast is secured by a multi-signature mechanism involving five participants, but the identities of these five participants have not been disclosed, and the standards for signing and approval are still unclear.
3. Munchables, a GameFi platform running on Blast, experienced a security vulnerability earlier, resulting in a loss of 62.5 million pounds. Therefore, network security is also a major concern.
Blast Ecosystem Projects
Munchables
Munchables is one of the winning projects in the Blast BIG BANG competition and is a chain game project based on NFT staking. In the early stages of the protocol’s development, users could mint NFTs and lock them for 30 days by staking 1 ETH or an equivalent token, with additional incentive mechanisms to encourage users to lock for longer periods. Staked assets can receive Blast Points, Blast Gold, protocol governance tokens, and a series of benefits.
However, Munchables suffered a hack in March, resulting in a loss of 17,400 ETH (approximately $62.5 million).
Biconomy
Biconomy aims to enhance the user experience of Dapps through account abstraction and a free transaction SDK. By eliminating the barrier of gas fees, it is expected to significantly increase user activity and potential Blast rewards for Dapps.
Particle Trade
Particle Trade aims to become the Uniswap of leveraged trading. This is an ambitious goal, but it has received support from Polychain Capital, Neon DAO, Arthur Hayes, and others.
Its innovation lies in the Leveraged Automated Market Maker (LAMM) protocol, which allows users to directly borrow from centralized liquidity pools such as Uniswap V3, enabling leveraged trading for any token.
Ultiverse
Ultiverse, supported by Binance Labs and Sequoia, is a social gaming platform that integrates AAA-grade games, native crypto, and AI. Ultiverse plans to enhance its platform economy by leveraging Blast’s native income mechanism. The team has already launched multiple projects interlinked through its Bodhi protocol.
More news related to Blast can be found by clicking the link.
Related Reports
Tutorial: Blast Launches “Super Doubling” to Stimulate User Points, How to Make a Big Profit?
Complete the following interactions to surpass 95% of users in BLAST points!
Blast Mainnet Launched! Over 180,000 Users Invested 2.3 Billion Pounds in Potential Airdrop Points