Why is RedStone's Airdrop Event Design Considered 'PUA' Marketing?

In the world of cryptocurrency, airdrop activities are often seen as an effective way for projects to attract users, increase community engagement, and promote their tokens. However, not all airdrops are created equal, and some have come under fire for their questionable design and execution. One such case is the RedStone airdrop, which has been accused of employing "PUA" - style marketing tactics. This article will delve into the details of the RedStone airdrop and explore why it has drawn such criticism.

RedStone is a modular oracle project that aims to provide cost - effective, efficient, and secure data feeds for on - chain financial applications, including DeFi, GameFi, and NFTFi. It has gained some attention in the industry for its unique architecture and has received support from well - known investment institutions like Coinbase Ventures and Blockchain Capital.

The project launched an airdrop event, which initially attracted a large number of participants. The airdrop was seen as an opportunity for users to get involved with the project at an early stage and potentially benefit from the future growth of the RED token.

The RedStone airdrop had a relatively significant community airdrop ratio of 10%. To participate, users were required to complete a series of tasks over an extended period. These tasks included activities such as mining in seasons S1 - S3, completing hundreds of tasks on Zealy, and participating in special events like the Spring Festival activities.

The project team had previously indicated that the points users accumulated from these tasks would be a key basis for future airdrops. This led users to believe that their efforts in completing these tasks would directly translate into receiving airdropped tokens.

However, when the airdrop query page went live on the evening of March 5, 2025, the community's sentiment took a drastic turn. It was revealed that having a high number of points from task completion was not sufficient to receive an airdrop. In fact, only users with specific roles in the RedStone Discord server were eligible to receive tokens.

Eligible roles included Vein Master, Deep Miner, Professor, and those who had participated in offline activities (IRL). Shockingly, less than 2% of the nearly 230,000 community members in the RedStone Discord had any of these roles. Among the more than 170,000 people on the leaderboard, only 2,296 addresses were eligible. In total, out of around 200,000 community members, only about 4,000 people met the conditions for airdrops, and many of them received only a few hundred tokens.

This revelation led to widespread anger and disappointment among the community. Social platforms were filled with complaints from users who had invested a significant amount of time and resources into completing the tasks, believing that they would be rewarded based on their efforts.

The RedStone airdrop event design has been labeled as "PUA" - style marketing for several reasons. PUA, or Pick - Up Artist, techniques often involve creating an illusion of success or reward, while actually setting up hidden barriers that prevent the majority from achieving it.

In the case of RedStone, the continuous release of tasks gave users the impression that as long as they were diligent enough, they could earn rewards. This created a sense of hope and investment in the project. However, the hidden requirement of having specific Discord roles meant that many ordinary users, despite their hard work, were excluded at the last moment. This is similar to PUA tactics where individuals are led on with false promises.

In contrast to RedStone's airdrop design, other projects in the industry typically focus on broader user participation in their distribution mechanisms. For example, in the dYdX airdrop activities, tens of thousands of participating and qualified users can generally obtain a certain number of governance tokens. Projects like Optimism have clear, fair, and transparent airdrop rules, aiming to include a large number of ecosystem users.

RedStone's "special role" threshold seems overly narrow compared to these industry norms. It not only fails to motivate long - term activity and trust within the entire community but also undermines the very purpose of airdrops, which is to attract and engage a wide range of users.

The RedStone airdrop debacle serves as a cautionary tale for both project teams and users in the cryptocurrency space. While project teams may attempt to implement sophisticated incentive mechanisms to ensure that core users receive a higher proportion of rewards, they must also consider the efforts and expectations of the majority of participants.

Airdrops are not just a promotional tool; they are also an important indicator of a project's governance transparency and the health of its ecosystem. The current controversy surrounding RedStone's airdrop has sounded an alarm for the entire industry. To build a sustainable and thriving ecosystem, projects need to establish fair, open, and reasonable incentive distribution mechanisms that make users feel valued for their participation. Otherwise, they risk facing community backlash and damaging their reputation in the long run.