{"id":30011,"date":"2020-10-13T11:37:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T08:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=30011"},"modified":"2025-08-27T20:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:07:11","slug":"opinion-governance-token-airdrops-do-not-threaten-defi-decentralisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/opinion-governance-token-airdrops-do-not-threaten-defi-decentralisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Governance-token airdrops do not threaten DeFi decentralisation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Uniswap decentralised exchange&#8217;s governance token airdrop is a good example of rewarding users for participating in early testing of the project. This view was expressed to ForkLog by the evangelist <a class=\\\"tracking_link\\\" href=\\\"https:\/\/waves.tech\/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noopener noreferrer\\\">Waves Technologies<\/a>, co-founder of the Neutrino and Gravity protocols, Alexey Pupyshev.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>On September 17, Uniswap <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/uniswap-launches-uni-governance-token\">released<\/a> the governance token UNI. A few days later the exchange <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/uniswap-distributed-113-17-million-uni-tokens-among-users\">conducted<\/a> a governance-token airdrop: 184,000 users received 113.17 million UNI.<\/p>\n<p>In total, Uniswap will issue 1 billion governance tokens. Over four years, the project&#8217;s community will receive 60% of the UNI issuance.<\/p>\n<p>Uniswap&#8217;s actions have sparked a debate in the crypto industry. Market participants disliked that large holders received a significant slice of UNI.<\/p>\n<p>Alexey Pupyshev highlights the critics&#8217; arguments in favour of the Uniswap airdrop:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>high concentration of UNI among a small number of users could lead to centralisation of the exchange;<\/li>\n<li>token holders will use them for speculation, and not for governance of the project.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In Pupyshev&#8217;s view, these concerns are unfounded. It will not be possible to completely eliminate the risk of centralisation of the platform, but it can be minimised.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Theoretically, a person or company could obtain a &#8216;majority&#8217; stake of governance tokens through a thousand accounts. An active community, in which users publicly announce the tokens they have received, would help avoid such a scenario,&#8221; says Pupyshev.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Alexey notes that this is exactly what happened in the case of Uniswap. Large UNI holders have disclosed their governance tokens and shared how they plan to use them.<\/p>\n<p>Pupyshev notes that a large share of UNI has gone to large players.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Users had been staking substantial sums for months and risking significant money. It is fair to reward them with governance tokens,&#8221; says he.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Pupyshev believes that large players will not speculate on UNI&#8217;s price. They view the tokens as a tool to influence the platform&#8217;s development.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;With governance tokens, a player with a multi-million crypto portfolio can secure more favourable trading terms,&#8221; says Pupyshev.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Alexey believes that for ordinary UNI holders it&#8217;s more of a speculative instrument. But even they can participate in governance if they delegate their votes to large members of the community.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier ForkLog <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/waves-and-fantom-strike-partnership-to-grow-a-gravity-based-defi-ecosystem\">reported<\/a> on the Waves and Fantom partnership to develop a DeFi ecosystem based on the Gravity protocol.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to Forklog news at <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/forklog\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\\\"> Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An airdrop of Uniswap&#8217;s governance tokens is a good example of rewarding users for participating in early testing of the project. This view was expressed to ForkLog by Waves Technologies evangelist, co-founder of the Neutrino and Gravity protocols, Alexey Pupyshev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"2","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1093,1138],"class_list":["post-30011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-defi","tag-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"18","promo_type":"2","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30013,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30011\/revisions\/30013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}