zkSync Faces Challenges During ZK Token Airdrop

The launch of the ZK token airdrop by Ethereum scaling solution zkSync has encountered technical difficulties, causing frustration among its users. Early Monday, the zkSync team reported on Twitter that their network was under heavy load, leading to degraded performance in some RPC services. As of now, there has been no confirmation that these issues have been resolved.

Despite these setbacks, the governing community, ZK Nation, announced that 45% of the airdropped tokens had been claimed by over 225,000 wallets. The community light-heartedly commented on the situation with a tweet: “It’s a Monday, don’t you have to work?”

The team spent much of the weekend addressing concerns from community members on Twitter and updating its FAQ section regarding the use of Sybil detection to determine eligibility for the airdrop. Sybil attacks involve a single user creating multiple accounts to gain disproportionate influence.

Some users have criticized the detection methods, claiming they allowed questionable wallets to participate in the airdrop. However, ZK Nation defended their approach, stating that they aimed to avoid being overly strict and potentially excluding legitimate users.

The sophisticated tactics of certain Sybil attackers include funding accounts from various distinct exchange addresses, avoiding interaction among accounts, using randomized transaction amounts, and employing software to mimic human behavior patterns, including project-specific activities like using zkSync paymasters.

This first phase of the airdrop, concluding on January 3, 2025, targets a diverse group including zkSync Era users, ZK Quest participants, security researchers, and contributors across various platforms such as GitHub, Crypto The Game, and holders of specific NFTs like Pudgy Penguin and Milady Maker.

The second wave of the airdrop begins on June 24, extending eligibility to contributors to zkSync native projects and the protocol guild. GitHub contributors need to link their usernames to a crypto wallet address to claim their ZK tokens.

Meanwhile, Binance has also experienced technical difficulties as it prepares to list the ZK token. The exchange has postponed the listing until these issues are resolved, although ZK is already trading on other platforms, witnessing a price drop of 23% to $0.2413 since its launch.

Binance plans to list ZK trading pairs with Bitcoin, Tether, First Digital USD, and the Turkish Lyra, clarifying that the listed TRY refers to the fiat currency, not the Try.Finance’s TRY token.

Additionally, Binance has announced a giveaway of up to 10.5 million ZK tokens to 52,000 users who have completed at least 50 transactions on the zkSync Era L2 platform, excluding self-transfers. This move is part of an effort to address community concerns about the fairness of the ZK token distribution, particularly around the safeguards against Sybil attacks.