Adetunji Oluwafemi
As Nigeria’s economy continues to hit hard, several survival mechanisms that require less or no effort in making money are devised by its people, as a means of navigating the economy’s hardship. One of these devised mechanisms which is quite dominant amongst students and youths is earning free money simply by performing some non-compulsory tasks on smartphones, this is known as “Airdrop” popularly called “tap-tap-tap”.
How does tap-tap-tap work?
An airdrop is the distribution of tokens to player’s wallets by performing some specific daily tasks on their smartphones. These tokens will then be traded on top exchanges where players can either sell or hold them in their exchange wallets. Airdrops come from cryptocurrency, a digital currency based on the cryptographic system.
According to its players, airdrops got its nickname “tap-tap-tap” solely from the activities usually performed by them such as mining of coins/gold as the case may be. This coin or gold mining activity then requires their continuous tapping of some part of their smartphone’s screen, whether on a designated desktop app or on Telegram.
Some airdrops according to its players usually last for weeks, months and sometimes years of mining before the players, often called miners, can get their tokens. Some airdrops require its players to invest their own money to boost their rewards, while some don’t.
Airdrops was said to always begin with “launching” where players would get to know about a particular airdrop being launched. After which “mining” follows. This is prior to the final stage “listing”. Players would be asked to connect their exchange wallets which will enable them to trade their rewards after listing.
Some of the most popular airdrops include NotCoin, Tapswap, $Dog, Hamster Kombat, Major, Tomarket, X-Empire, MemeFi, to mention a few.
Oyeniran Victor while sharing his experience with our correspondence stated that he has been in space for 6-years now. “It all began in 2018 during my NCE days when a friend referred me to an airdrop called “Cold Ice”. Airdrop was indeed a blessing to me then, because the money I made through it was used to sort out my financial constraints then
After a few times, I stopped due to my tight schedules. Recently, when airdrops became the order of the day again, I joined the trend and it has been of great support to me financially. Nonetheless, I’d advise everyone to be extra careful because of its high tendency to failure” Victor says
Ojelade Emmanuel (Ojex) while speaking with our correspondence stated that his crypto journey began in January 2024 when airdrops hadn’t been too loud as it has become now. His friend’s younger brother notified him of a few airdrops such as “Notcoin, Ember and some other mine-to-earn projects” which he had made more than half-a-million, from via his phone.
He added that he believed in the popular saying that “nothing lasts forever” so he has invested some of the funds earned from airdrop into his studies, workshop, and some other projects he felt would still flourish in the future.
On the flip side, Ojex also mentioned some of the ways airdrops have affected him negatively such as, spending too much time on some projects which doesn’t allow him to study well as supposed. “In fact, some airdrops after wasting much time and energy on them still give little or no rewards” Otex shared.
Otex’s greatest achievement in the crypto world is the financial support he has gotten from the space, plus the community he’s been able to penetrate and make a name for himself as he now leads his personal crypto trading community that he controls.
Moving away from this, Otex said he learned more about how to make money utilizing social media via an airdrop called “TapSwap”. He added that it was quite disheartening that, “a lot of people who participated in the TapSwap project do not understand the app might easily be one of the best things to happen to them only if they pay attention to the opportunity it avails them.
“Tap-tap is not a get quick rich platform, this is where many make costly mistake but most people are just looking for a quick buck and nothing else” Otex explained
The platform enlightened users on a lot of ways they can make good money if done well. This is done majorly be the videos shared on the platform. Unfortunately, most traders are simply looking for codes and refuse to pay attention to lessons in their videos”. Ojex says
Omotola Rojugbokan also shared her experience “I was introduced to airdrop in 2022 by one of my course mates. The airdrop I started with was ”Pi and Core” even though I don’t really benefit from it. So far, I’ve only benefited from Hamstar Kombat and Catizen”. Omotola said. She also continued “I’ve never regretted engaging in airdrops because I’ve gained good knowledge about the Crypto world”
According to Omotola “I must admit my worst experience so far is linking to the wrong address and also not seeing my airdrop after so much effort just because I was a novice. This is quite frustrating, in fact, if you can’t endure or have enough patience, it is better to stay away from crypto “.
Jeremiah, a crypto trader recalled his huge loss in the crypto trading business in 2021. This great loss made him change his career into being a software engineer.
Despite the loss, which he said every trader out there can relate to, he’s still much in crypto space. Only now it is a side hustle not the gig focus
Adding to this. Jeremiah said “I no longer trade, but just buys and keeps coins, and whenever it appreciates, I sell off”. In his final remark, Jeremiah advised “ airdrop miners should first take time to understand the risks attached before diving in out of greed”.
Airdrops have been a good survival mechanism and financial support for some people, while it has also failed many who had expected much from it. Nevertheless, one should be sensitive with their dealings with it, because it can affect one financially, mentally and psychologically.
