In order to compete with other protocols, Uniswap opted to airdrop 5.2 million UNI to all previous protocol users and Sushiswap decided to airdrop 2 million SUSHI to all previous protocol users, attracting more users and more liquidity to their protocols—increasing TVL. Those who held their tokens were true Diamond Handers 💎. The price of UNI increased by 1305% and SUSHI increased by 2244% over the course of six months 🚀.

Is it time for L2s to do the same? 👇

TLDR

• We expect L2s to ship their tokens in 2022-2023.
• ZkSync is the only L2 that confirmed there will be a token. Arbitrium, Optimism and StarkWare did not confirm that there will be a token but regardless of that, we expect them to ship.
• The token will act as incentive for growth and liquidity.
• Bridging to become “potentially” eligible for an airdrop will cost between $100-$150 to deposit funds from L1 to L2 network and to transact with each protocol.

Disclaimer: Not financial nor investment advice. Any capital-related decisions you make is your full responsibility and only you are accountable for the results.

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Note: Scroll to the bottom for the latest update!

Wen L2 tokens?

Arbitrium, Optimism, StarkWare and zkSync— The Future of Layer 2.

These notable L2s are token-less and have established themselves as front-runners in the L2 race. With Billions of Dollars in Total Value Locked and growing in popularity by the day. We anticipate they will launch tokens somewhere in the future in 2022-2023.

We believe that in order to compete with alternative L1s (Ethereum, BNB Chain, Terra, Solana, etc..), L2s will need to heavily rely on airdrops. The token will be the main source of attraction for each L2. No better marketing than price going up.

Why L2s need tokens?

The majority of these L2s have a functional ecosystem. New and existing dApps are migrating to Rollups, resulting in increased liquidity and TVL. A token is the missing piece that is required for full decentralization.

• The token will act as an incentive for validators to secure the network through staking.
• To decentralize, DAO governance tokens will be issued with the right to impose proposals and vote on them.
• Incentive for fraud/validity proof generators—implies to both Optimistic and ZK Rollups.
• Tokens will be granted to those that contribute to the ecosystem's and community's growth.

Video tutorials

Requirements:

• A Web3 Wallet that supports Ethereum mainnet such as MetaMask.
• ETH deposited in your MetaMask, anywhere from $100-$150. Gas fees will cost around $50-$100 when bridging from L1 to L2 depending on gas fees on Ethereum throughout that day and the rest of the ETH is needed to transact on each protocol.

Notes: Airdrops are not guaranteed, therefore we're approaching it as a low risk, high reward scenario. This is only worthwhile if the gas fees consumed make up less than 0.1% of portfolio. Estimate per bridge: $50-$100

It is important to make sure that you have extra ETH in your Web3 Wallet. For example if you had 0.012 ETH ($30) in your Web3 Wallet and you deposited 0.012 ETH from L1 to L2 then the transaction won’t go through because you need to cover some expenses in ETH for gas fees. So the right approach would be to deposit 0.0004 ETH ($10) and leave the other 0.008 ETH (20$) to pay for gas fees.

Arbitrium

1. Go to https://bridge.arbitrum.io/
2. Deposit ETH from Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrium mainnet.
3. Once your deposit has been confirmed, add Arbitrium network to your Web3 Wallet by selecting add L2 network on the top right of the page.
4. Go to https://www.sushi.com/ , make sure you’re connected to the Arbitrium network and not Ethereum mainnet and then swap some ETH for another token of your choice.

Optimism

1. Go to https://optimistic.etherscan.io/ and click add OP network on the bottom right of the page.
2. Go to https://www.optimism.io/. Make sure you’re connected to Ethereum network and deposit some ETH from L1 to L2.
3. Once your ETH deposit has been confirmed, head over to https://uniswap.org/ and make sure you switch to the Optimistic Ethereum network and swap some ETH for a token of your choice.

zkSync

1. Go to https://wallet.zksync.io/
2. Deposit ETH from L1 to L2.
3. Once your deposit has been confirmed on the L2. Head over to https://trade.zigzag.exchange/?market=ETH-USDC&network=zksync and execute a trade.

StarkWare Ecosystem

Immutable X (for StarkWare airdrop)

1. Go to https://www.immutable.com/ and deposit ETH from L1 to L2.
2. Funds can take up to an hour to appear on Immutable X. Click Marketplace and buy whatever NFT you like (NFTs can take up to 30 mins to appear in your inventory).

dYdX (for StarkWare airdrop)

1. Go to https://dydx.exchange/ .
2. Connect your Web3 Wallet and deposit ETH from Ethereum mainnet to dYdX.
3. Once your ETH has been deposited to dYdX after 10 confirmations, execute a trade.
4. You need at least 0.01 ETH to be able to trade ETH, therefore you can deposit USDC instead and make sure you have enough ETH in your Web3 Wallet to pay for gas fees (dYdX is the most expensive, $20-$40 per deposit).

Final Words

Layer 2s enable anyone to Pay less than a $1 for swapping tokens on Uniswap rather than paying $15 dollars on average when using Ethereum mainnet (assuming gas fees were low that day). Once L2 tokens are issued, users would just withdraw their funds back to the L2 network instead of bridging back over to Ethereum— saving more money because withdrawals back to Ethereum from L2 to L1 are costly. L2s will provide a unique and better user experience which will make Ethereum more accessible for everyone.

Layer 2s are one of the most urgently needed solutions in Crypto right now. L2s address critical challenges ranging from Ethereum scalability to trustless bridges and new scalable ecosystems that will adopt more DeFi usage. Now that you're all aware of "L2 solutions" and the most well-known L2s, we anticipate these L2s to be valued at $10 billion+ in Market Cap placing them among the top 30 Tokens, outperforming most other Crypto Assets once launched.

We hope you've enjoyed this series, and we'll see you again soon to cover the “New Chains” once L2 tokens are released.

Updates

We nailed Optimism! Arbitrum, StarkWare and zkSync did not do an airdrop yet.

Optimism did their airdrop according to 6 specific criterions. Every user had to meet one criterion to be eligible.

The eligibility criteria for the OP airdrop were the following:

• Used an OP bridge prior to June 23, 2021, or used Optimism projects more than once between June 23, 2021 and March 25, 2022.
• Came back to use OP dApps in four different weeks between June 23, 2021 and March 25, 2022.
• Active participant for governance on L1.
• Multi-sig signers- control over large pools of capital and key protocol functions.
• Used bridges while being regularly active on L1.

What does it mean to us? Well, this gives us a better understanding of how might the other L2s (Arbitrum, StarkWare and zkSync) do their airdrop. This way, we can approach the other L2s in a different manner which will make us more eligible for future airdrops- higher chance.

We anticipate the other L2s to follow the same approach to prevent airdrop hunters. L2s want to reward active users in the community and not just anyone who used the network once.

Some tips we anticipate being useful to meet the eligibility criteria for future L2 airdrops. These are just assumptions, so they are not exactly to be followed. You can use every L2 according to your own preference.

• Bridge more than once and at least 0.01 ETH to L2 from L1.
• Do more than one transaction on L2 dApps- example, for Arbitrum, do a swap on Sushiswap and GMX, going back and forth on a certain day.
• Leave funds in your wallet- do not leave your wallet empty. Make sure your wallet (L2 address) is funded. Whether it’s ETH or another asset, it's to demonstrate that you're active on the network on a regular basis and won't just use the network once.

The bottom line is to stay regularly active on L1 and L2. Whether you’re bridging from L1 to L2, using a dApp on L2 or withdrawing your funds back to L1.

This approach will be more costly so consider risk/reward for airdrops as nothing is certain.