Intro

Today, approximately 4,000,000 STRD will be airdropped to the Cosmos community - that’s 4% of the total supply. A further 2.3% of the total supply is still in reserve for future airdrops.

Why is Stride giving away so much of its token for free? Because Stride truly aspires to be as decentralized as possible. Since STRD is a governance token, if it were concentrated in only a few hands then control of the protocol would be centralized. To avoid this, Stride’s tokenomics have been intentionally designed to widely distribute STRD. And the airdrop is an important part of this.

The Purpose of STRD

Before you get your STRD, let’s quickly go over what it’s useful for.

First, STRD is a governance token. Like other Cosmos chains, it’s used to vote on matters concerning the Stride blockchain. But it’s also used to vote on which host-chain validators Stride delegates to. For example, Stride currently has 430,000 ATOM that it needs to delegate to Cosmos Hub validators. Through on-chain governance, STRD holders get the final say in deciding which Cosmos Hub validators to delegate to. This gives STRD holders a great deal of power and responsibility. For details, see here.

Second, STRD can be staked, which secures the Stride blockchain. As compensation for the service of securing the chain, Stride pays out inflationary token rewards to stakers. But in addition, in the near future staked STRD may also receive all the revenue of Stride protocol, as compensation for securing the chain. A Stride governance proposal to this effect was recently submitted by a member of the Stride community, and is currently being voted on.

Airdrop Categories

Today’s airdrop can be broken into three categories. They are:

1. On-boarding airdrops

• Given to ATOM, OSMO, JUNO, and STARS stakers

2. Testnet reward airdrop

• Given to incentivized testnet participants

3. Rebate Program airdrop

• Given to all Stride depositors in September and October, to help compensate for missed staking rewards from unstaking token

More details about categories available here.

How to Claim your STRD - On-boarding Airdrop and Testnet Airdrop

The on-boarding airdrop and testnet reward airdrop are bundled together, while the Rebate Program airdrop must be claimed separately.

To claim bundled testnet airdrop and on-boarding airdrop:

1. Head over to app.stride.zone/airdrop

2. Connect your wallet. Once connected, the system will determine the eligibility of all the addresses in that wallet account, i.e. the Cosmos Hub address, the Osmosis address, and so on. It will also determine eligibility for the testnet rewards airdrop.

Within a wallet account, the amounts that each address is eligible for - and potentially the testnet airdrop - will be bundled together as one total airdrop amount.

3. Finally, complete a series of tasks to claim the amount of STRD.

To begin, 20% of the STRD amount is freely granted.

To claim the second 20%, users must stake the first 20% on the Stride blockchain.

Finally, to claim the final 60% users must liquid stake any amount of any token Stride supports.

The first 20% of STRD amount is liquid, while the other 80% vests linearly over three months.

How to Claim your STRD - Rebate Program‍‍

The method for claiming STRD from the Rebate Program is slightly different. Users must connect their wallet and click a button on the Stride web app to claim.

Claims will be processed periodically. All STRD given by the Rebate Program is liquid, does not vest, and does not require tasks to claim.

At this point, Rebate claims for the months for September and October are being accepted.

‍Airdrop Recycling

Any STRD that goes unclaimed after three months will be clawed back and redistributed. Essentially, this means that if a user isn’t interested in claiming his STRD, other users who are interested will get to claim it. More details here.

For context, 50% of the original OSMO airdrop back in 2021 went unclaimed - and that was during a raging bull market. It’s likely the STRD airdrop will have an even higher unclaim rate. To be clear, since unclaimed STRD will be clawed back and redistributed evenly to the original recipient sets, it means that you will get a chance to claim more STRD in three months.

Conclusion

After today’s airdrop, there remains 2,300,000 STRD for more airdrops to blockchains Stride on-boards in the future.

Also, remember that in three months unclaimed STRD will be clawed back and redistributed. At that point, users will get the chance to claim STRD that others chose not to claim.

Link to airdrop claim page. Have fun claiming!