- The Fees.wtf airdrop has been mocked over the costs associated with claiming it
- The free WTF tokens could only be redeemed after unlocking, which came at a high cost, and with a huge circulating supply
- The irony of spending huge gas fees on a project based around gas fees was not lost on the community
Fees.wtf, a site that shows Ethereum users how much they have spent on gas fees, has prompted scorn from the cryptocurrency community over the airdrop for its new token. The airdrop, for fees.wtf’s WTF token, was supposed to act as a sort of unofficial refund for Ethereum users, with a recipient’s WTF allocation based on their gas spending. However, the massive supply and the use of referral links to boost them, plus the costs associated with collecting the airdrop (which, of course, comes in the form of gas), have led to the gesture backfiring.
Wtf.fees Token Launch Comes with a Catch
Wtf.fees launched in 2019 and is something of a mixed blessing – it shows Ethereum users just how much money they have spent on Ethereum transactions, which is useful information, but at the same time it shows Ethereum users just how much money they have spent on Ethereum transactions, which can come as a terrible shock.
The wtf.fees site says that the WTF token has a number of functions, including access to a pro version, something to do with NFTs (naturally), rewards, and more, with the airdrop open to anyone who has ever spent gas fees on Ethereum transactions.
The airdrop was initially greeted with joy, as most airdrops are, but it wasn’t until people started claiming them that the issues began:
An airdrop where users are paying 0.01E for their allocation on top of a 0.1% transfer fee? pic.twitter.com/tHVq8KvvJz
— harry.eth (citizen#{19,100}) (@sniko_) January 13, 2022
I am getting under 9k tokens, there are 1.6 billion claimable. There is no way the tokens will be worth claiming with gas fees. And I am probably in top 20%. pic.twitter.com/aknvY9G1ig
— hgtp://Goombah of Kongstellation (@ItTakesElevenBD) January 13, 2022
Airdrop Fee Issues Nothing New
Of course, the main issue was the fact that in claiming their fees.wtf airdrop, which was tied to the user’s gas fees, the user had to spend gas to redeem them, and this was before they were able to trade them on the likes of Uniswap. As a result, it soon became obvious that the game was simply not worth the candle:
It’s tempting, @feeswtf, very tempting, but I think I’ll pass. $wtf pic.twitter.com/4y99kZJOYX
— Mark Hunter (@Twentynothing00) January 14, 2022
Such issues have plagued the DeFi space since Ethereum’s network costs went stratospheric, and often means that the costs of collecting the free tokens as in the case of the fees.wtf airdrop leaves users out of pocket compared to not claiming them.
