Blockchain data-availability protocol Avail announces 600M token airdrop

The airdrop was announced one year after Avail was spun-off by Polygon Labs.

Avail, a Web3 infrastructure layer built using Polygon’s software development kit, will be airdropping 600 million of its native token AVAIL to users.

“The Unification Drop is a unifying force bringing different communities together, rewarding developers, governance contributors, technical educators, rollup users, stakers, and other valuable contributors from across multiple blockchain communities,” Avail said in an April 18 statement. 

Founded in 2020, Avail consists of three segments: Nexus, Fusion, and DA. Avail DA improves base-layer transactions further by scaling rollups via methods such as KZG commitments and data availability sampling. 

Data availability enables nodes to verify bundled transactions without having to download all data for a block. Meanwhile, KZG commitments, common in zero-knowledge protocols, allow for the verification of underlying data without revealing private information. 

At the same time, Avail Nexus provides a cross-chain bridge for users to transact or swap for assets on multiple blockchains. Finally, Avail Fusion allows the liquid staking of assets on Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), and others. 

According to its developers, the Avail token is used to “obtain Avail DA services, secure the unification layer via staking, and take part in governance.” Tokens are airdropped based on a user’s total time, depth, and impact of their commitments to the ecosystem. A total of 354,605 wallet addresses will receive the airdropped AVAIL token upon mainnet launch.

Out of the 600 million token airdrop supply, 90 million are allocated to blockchain ecosystem developers, 49.5 million to testnet users, 380 million to rollup users on various blockchains such as Arbitrum One, 70 million to Polygon stakers, and 10.5 million to community contributors. 

The airdrop is not exclusive to users of the Avail or Polygon ecosystems. “Unification of Web3 requires unification to happen at the most fundamental level,” Avail wrote. “This [airdrop] includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Avalanche, Near, and others who have each made unique contributions to the blockchain ecosystem.”

Many in the Polygon community spoke highly of the airdrop. “Oooh, looks like a massive airdrop is upon @0xPolygon community,” commented Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, in relation to the news. 

Avail was spun-off from Polygon Labs on March 16, 2023. At the time, developers explained that the move was due to Polygon shifting its attention to more Ethereum-native data availability efforts. “Avail as a standalone layer will be better positioned to play a leading role in bringing modular blockchain architectures to market and enabling any Web3 project to scale,” Polygon Labs said in a statement. 

Related: Polygon CEO says L3s are taking value away from Ethereum, sparking debate