There was a special surprise this Christmas eve for anyone who transacted on OpenSea, the largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. All those who transacted on the platform before December 23 became eligible for a free ethereum-based token called $SOS. The number of tokens they could claim was directly proportional to the money they had spent on OpenSea. Around 2,40,000 people had claimed this token by the next day and the price of $SOS zoomed to over 1,000 percent in value.
This Christmas treat was the initiative of a new decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), called the OpenDAO.
But what the heck is OpenDAO and why did it distribute free tokens? We will answer this and other questions, but before we begin, let's be clear that OpenDAO has nothing to do with a stablecoin minting protocol by the same name.
What is OpenDAO?
The OpenDAO project was developed to honour the NFT industry and the participants who have invested in it. Its goal, as per the OpenDAO website, is "to pay tribute, to protect, to promote" the NFT community.
It focuses on NFT creators, connoisseurs, and the OpenSea marketplace that facilitates their exchange. To achieve this, the project launched a dedicated $SOS token and distributed it into the crypto wallets of all NFT investors on OpenSea, through an 'airdrop'.
The OpenDAO airdrop was not merely a free deposit of tokens for existing NFT owners, but a method of compensating scam victims on OpenSea. In doing so, OpenDAO also encouraged artists and other creators to bring out their best work. The distribution of the $SOS tokens in over 2,40,000 wallets led to a sharp appreciation in the token’s value, which acted as a means of funding for the OpenDAO project.
DAOs allow all stakeholders of its community to participate in votes that incorporate changes/upgrades. This structure ensures a democratic method of governance where even an average blockchain user can be a part of developmental/non-developmental decisions. DAOs' governance finds extensive use in decentralised finance (DeFi) applications that remove the presence of a central governing body.
Who is the creator of the OpenDAO $SOS tokens?
While it is true that the OpenDAO project intends to reward OpenSea users, the NFT marketplace has tweeted that it is neither their brainchild nor are they associated with it. Currently, there is no face to the core creator of the OpenDAO project, who goes by the alias @9x9x9eth, according to the project's Twitter bio.
The contributor claims to be working for OpenDAO without remuneration. The crypto wallet of @9x9x9eth currently has $800,000 worth of $SOS tokens as well as $10 million worth of AAVE XSUSHI tokens.
Can you buy $SOS tokens?
People who have transacted in NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace before December 23 are the only ones entitled to the $SOS token. Users who wish to claim the $SOS token must link their crypto wallets to the OpenDAO website. (MetaMask, WalletConnect, and CoinBase are the only ones supported so far).
OpenSea users have until June 30, 2022, to claim the tokens. The number of tokens allotted to users is directly proportional to the amount of money invested in NFT transactions on OpenSea.
What happens to the unclaimed $SOS tokens?
At the time of this writing, 39.55 trillion $SOS tokens had already been claimed out of the hard-capped 100 trillion tokens.
OpenDAO has said that only 50 percent of the total supply will be airdropped. About 20 percent of the remaining 50 percent will be used to provide incentives for staking and 10 percent will be given as a reward to liquidity providers. OpenDAO will keep the balance 20 percent. All the unclaimed $SOS will go to OpenDAO.
Also read: Storyboard18 | 2022 - Definitely, Maybe: Year of creators, NFTs, DEI and sustainable brands
Staking is a process in which blockchain users pledge crypto assets (in this case the $SOS token) towards the development of the blockchain. By doing so, they become transaction data validators (or miners) and thus get rewarded in cryptocurrency for devoting their computing power to the blockchain.
OpenDAO has also said that its 20 percent share will be used to compensate those who lost money in crypto scams while transacting on OpenSea.
What is the current value of the $SOS token?
The $SOS token was trading at $0.000005687, a whopping 744 percent increase since its launch on December 24. The market capitalisation of the $SOS token has already touched $229 million.
(Edited by : Vijay Anand)
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