How to create an airdrop using the Aragon App and Coinvise
An airdrop is when you send a certain amount of governance tokens to wallet addresses because you want to encourage those addresses to participate in your DAO’s governance. You might choose wallet addresses that have performed an action you want to incentivize, like interacting with your protocol.
Airdrops are a fast way to distribute a a governance token and kickstart a community. In this guide, we’ll describe how to airdrop governance tokens for a DAO built on the Aragon App using Coinvise.
“Recurring airdrops pave the way for a more equitable ownership distribution, creating a system where value is allocated qualitatively and reputation accrues organically."
—Coinvise
There are two major steps to creating an airdrop:
- Create a DAO in the Aragon App and mint all the tokens to your wallet.
- Create a wallet drop in Coinvise and distribute the tokens to other wallets.
After the airdrop, to see the new members listed on the community page in your DAO, they need to interact with it at least once. You can create a proposal and ask the new members to vote in the DAO so that they appear as DAO members.
Now, we’ll cover how to create an airdrop step-by-step!
Mint tokens to your wallet: New DAOs
1: Go to app.aragon.org and click “Create a DAO”
Click “Create a DAO,” which will give you a preview of steps to expect. Then, click “Build your DAO” to continue on to the next step.
If you already have a DAO, skip down to the header that says "Existing DAOs" and start there.
2: Choose your blockchain
Select the blockchain you want to mint your token on. Coinvise supports Ethereum and Polygon, and will be on Base soon.
3: Set name, logo, and description
Set the branding details for your DAO, giving it a unique personality so members can recognize it.
4: Choose token holders and mint all the tokens you want to use for the airdrop to your personal wallet
For your governance, select token holders and add the information about your token. Then, mint all the tokens you want to use for the airdrop to your personal wallet address. You will use Coinvise to distribute those tokens later.
You can mint more tokens later with a vote.
5: Choose governance settings
Keep in mind that some new members might be surprised to receive an airdrop or might not realize for awhile. So, it could take new members a bit of time to get involved. You might want to keep them low to start—you can always change these thresholds later with a vote.
6: Check that all settings are correct
Double check that all the settings you added are correct. The only setting you can’t change later are the chain you deploy on and the token you mint. However, you can always mint more tokens later.
7: Deploy your DAO
Pay the gas fee associated with the chain you chose.
Now, your DAO is live! It’s time to head over to Coinvise to create the airdrop. Skip down to step 8 to finish your airdrop.
Mint tokens to your wallet: Existing DAOs
1: Start from your DAO dashboard and click "New Proposal."
You will need to create a proposal to mint more governance tokens to your wallet.
2: Write a proposal to mint new governance tokens to your personal wallet (not the DAO address)
You need to mint the number of governance tokens you want to use in the airdrop to your wallet. It cannot be the DAO's address because you need to connect your wallet to Coinvise in later steps.
3: Initiate the vote
Add the start and end date for your vote.
4: Click "Add action" and "mint tokens"
This is the onchain action that will be executable if the vote passes.
5: Paste in your wallet address and choose how many tokens to mint to it
All the tokens used in the airdrop need to be minted to your personal wallet.
6: Review and publish the proposal
Check over the proposal to make sure everything's correct. Then publish it by signing a transaction.
7: Wait for members to vote. If the proposal passes, you can execute the action to mint the tokens.
The proposal needs to pass first. If enough members vote "yes," then the action becomes executable. Any wallet can click "Execute now" on the bottom of the proposal to execute the onchain action. Once the action is executed, the tokens will be minted to your wallet!
Now that the new governance tokens are in your wallet, you can head over to Coinvise to start the airdrop!
Create the Airdrop: All DAOs
8: Go to coinvise.co. Under the “Create” tab click “Wallet Drop.”
Go to coinvise.co and connect your wallet with the same chain you created your DAO on.
Hover over the tab that says “Create” and click “Wallet Drop.”
9: Under “Select Token,” paste in your token’s address.
This opens a workflow. First, you need to paste in your token's wallet address.
You can get this address from the block explorer for the chain you chose. For example, if you minted your token on Polygon, go to Polygon Scan and paste in your wallet address to the search bar. Click the “ERC-20” tab and find the token you minted. Click that token and then you’ll see the token’s contract address, which you can copy/paste into Coinvise.
Paste in the address.
10: Add a title for your airdrop and click “Next.”
Consider creating a title that will help you distinguish this airdrop, such as adding the date or a detailed description, in case you do another one later.
11: Add the wallet addresses for your airdrop recipients and the amount of tokens each should receive
You can manually paste in the addresses and add the number of tokens they should receive by separating them with a comma. You can also upload a CSV file.
Or, you can use one of their plugins to find wallet addresses a different way.
They allow you to do things like add all the wallets that….
- Hold a certain NFT
- Voted in a snapshot proposal
- Hold a certain POAP
This makes it possible to start a DAO community in tons of different ways, using onchain data.
As you add more addresses, the module on the bottom will update to show you how many addresses total and how many tokens you are airdropping.
12: Sign two transactions: one to approve the token and another to send it
Wait a moment for the tokens to send. Be aware that the interface might not update with a green check, and if you click “Send Tokens” again it will send the same amount twice.
13: The token is sent! Check the transaction for confirmation
For new token holders to appear in your DAO, they will need to interact with the DAO at least once. One way to do this is by creating a proposal in the Aragon App. Then, they can cast votes and appear as members in the DAO on the Community page.
Get started on the Aragon App today!
Launch your DAO and create an airdrop on the Aragon App today! It takes less than 10 minutes to launch your DAO and start experimenting with governance.
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