Hi! Thanks a lot for sharing this Analysis. However, I regret to tell you that I believe it is mostly wrong for the following reasons:
1. The concept behind the current NFT quests on Starknet is not different than the one used for the
@arbitrum Odyssey that took place in June '22 (10 months before their Airdrop) . @optimismFND also launched their quest Campaign to allocate the following rounds of their Airdrop shortly after their first Airdrop-round. I wouldn't even exclude that there some projects using NFT quests before the first round.
I think pre-airdrop quests are important for engaging the community while boosting collaborations and relationships between projects in the ecosystem.
I would say that the "One Time Airdrop" model used during DeFi summer and the last Bull Run is not sustainable and not suitable for current times where the whole scene and tech is gradually maturing. I would also add that "feeling entitled" to airdrops for using a protocol one, two times just for farming the airdrop is not a very original and productive strategy anymore.
There are multiple ways to get small but meaningful rewards even before an airdrop. Examples can be Devs and Educators getting educational and Starter grants to start building on the Ecosystem and on the projects. Contributing to projects at an early stage. These are the most sustainable ways to farm value in exchange for honest work and talent.
I believe Quests and Multiple-Round Airdrops are a reasonable way to go. They're not perfect but there's room for improvement.
2. I think that labelling the Starknet Community "Conservative" is the confirmation that you don't know the Starknet Community very well, in my opinion.
In terms of tech, we basically have the people who invented zkSTARKs which are considered the best and most scalable option in terms of proofs. A very powerful language has been created, several experimentations are going on in different primitives like
@KakarotZkEvm, Fractal Scaling empowered by @MadaraStarknet, zkMachineLearning with
@gizatechxyz, OnChain Gaming with
@gizatechxyz and much more.
Regarding the community, events play an important way to grow the community and I'm sure
@arbitrum and @optimismFND weren't less active than
@Starknet in their pre-airdrop event-planning strategies. However, the Community is very active online as well, like for example I attend IRL events only once/twice a year but I produce tons of content and give my part to help the community grow, the same does
@Starknet_OG alongside all those who usually attend more events like @crypto_gurkha and many others. There are many community initiatives like
@StarknetEco in the media side and
@OnlyDust_xyz in helping channeling grants for Devs contributing to Open source projects being built on
@Starknet. And there are many other examples.
We also have a motto coined by
@sylvechv that reads "Keep Starknet Strange" and it doesn't match with the word "conservative" very well. People building disruptive technologies and naming them after manga characters doesn't look very conservative either.
Maybe we don't have a Token yet but we are one of the most, if not the most, talented, fun and fundamentals-driven community in the scaling scene so far.
Obviously, we would like to help you know our community better and our doors are always open for both critics and talented people.
Thanks a lot for your precious feedback.