- ShapeShift has officially announced that it will swap its centralized setup for a decentralized DAO format
- The exchange, which formed in 2014, will transition over the coming months
- A huge FOX token airdrop will be given to all past users…if they can find their wallets
ShapeShift, the cryptocurrency exchange that celebrated its seventh birthday two weeks ago, has announced that it is to leave its current identity behind and switch to a DAO model in 2022. The popular exchange, launched in 2014 by Erik Voorhees, will continue in a decentralized manner with holders of the exchange’s FOX overseeing the project on a community-run basis. ShapeShift has said that a FOX token airdrop will be made to every past user, equating to 340 million tokens, in what will turnout to be the biggest airdrop in history.
ShapeShift Has a Place in Crypto History
ShapeShift was one of cryptocurrency’s best known exchanges for many years, thanks in many ways to Vorhees being a spokesman for the cryptocurrency movement, appearing in the 2016 documentary Banking on Bitcoin as he tried to guide ShapeShift through the rigmarole of attaining a New York BitLicense. ShapeShift eventually left New York in 2016.
After seven years as a centralized service, Vorhees and co have realized that the future of cryptocurrency is decentralized and have begun “dissolving our corporate structure, evolving into a community-owned and governed crypto platform.” These changes will, according to the announcement, “bring ShapeShift further in line with the true vision of immutable, decentralized finance”, with ShapeShift becoming a DAO.
FOX Airdrop WIll be Huge…If You Still Have Your Wallet
Vorhees himself took to Medium to explain the ethos behind the move, saying that“Decentralization has become not only a viable organizational strategy, but the essential model for enabling the borderless, immutable financial system for which so many of us passionately advocate.” The process really began last year, he says, and explained that it will unfold “over some months”.
As part of the move, ShapeShift will hand out the company’s proprietary FOX tokens to every user who has ever engaged in the platform, although those who used the platform in its early years will probably have lost access to the wallets they used at the time. The FOX token has jumped from $0.28 to $0.84 at the time of writing on the back of the news.
ShapeShift’s decision is another example of the growth of the decentralized aspect of cryptocurrency at a time when regulators are clamping down on centralized entities.
