The Blockchain wallet plans a $125M airdrop of Stellar crypto to drive mainstream adoption

Blockchain, one of the world’s biggest crypto wallets,

plans to give away a vast amount of cryptocurrency in a bold move to scale the adoption of crypto to a more mainstream audience. Blockchain and the Stellar Development Foundation (stellar.org) will distribute $125 million worth of Stellar lumens [XLM] to Blockchain’s users. Blockchain is claiming this is the largest airdrop in the history of crypto, and potentially the largest consumer giveaway ever — and to most outside observers, it looks that way.

Critics of the move will, however, may lay the charge that it’s a cynical move akin to cheap marketing techniques. Whatever the case, most people would probably say they’d have quite liked someone to “give them a bitcoin” a few years ago… It remains to be seen, however, what effect it will actually have on the ground in regards to crypto adoption. Accessible to anyone with a Blockchain wallet, Blockchain says that the first batch of recipients will receive their lumens, Stellar’s native digital currency, this week — for free. The Stellar network has gained a reputation for scalability, with its lumen token enabling competitively quick, low-cost worldwide transactions. It has its critics however, and not every crypto fan out there will be impressed.

In a statement, Peter Smith, CEO at Blockchain, said: “At Blockchain, we’re committed to putting our users first. Providing exclusive access to the next generation of cryptoassets allows new and existing users alike to test, try, trade, and transact with new, trusted cryptoassets in a safe and easy way. We’re empowering our users with private keys, which allow them to go beyond just storing their crypto to actually using them. In turn, we can help build a bigger and more engaged crypto community, and drive network effects that make the ecosystem more useful and valuable for the many rather than the few.”

Stellar is Blockchain’s first airdrop partner following the launch of the company’s Airdrops Guiding Principles framework in October 2018. Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Stellar Development Foundation, said, “We believe that airdrops are central to creating a more inclusive digital economy. Giving away lumens [XLM] for free is an invitation to communities to design the services they need. Our hope is to eventually have global citizens own and use lumens, in both developing and developed economies. By working with Blockchain to increase the availability and active use of lumens on the network, leveraging their almost 30 million wallets, we will increase the network’s utility by many orders of magnitude.”

As part of the airdrop, Blockchain is also partnering with a number of organizations to further the adoption of lumens, including charity: water, Stanford d.school’s emerging tech initiative, code.org, and Network for Good who share the company’s vision for using this transformational technology to build a better future. Blockchain plans to reveal specific details of each initiative in the coming weeks. Carissa Carter, director of Teaching and Learning at Stanford d.school, said, “The strength of any network is derived from innovation. We are excited to join Blockchain on this airdrop to empower some of the most brilliant and creative minds to start experimenting and building on Stellar’s network.”

Article Produced By
Mike Butcher

Editor At Large

As a writer, editor, interviewer, moderator and columnist in the tech media world he covers everything the smallest tech startups and the largest tech giants. Lately, he’s been writing a lot about Blockchain and Crypto. Mike has been named one of the most influential people in European technology by various newspaper and magazines. He founded The Europas Awards, the non-profit Techfugees and has advised the UK government on tech startup policy. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2016 for services to the UK technology industry and journalism.

As well as being a long-time Writer, Broadcaster and Editor Mike is also co-founder of TechHub.com, a project to merge a thriving community with office space for fast-moving startups; co-founder of the UK’s Coadec.com lobbyist for startups; the non-profit TechVets for UK military veterans, and the UK event series ThePathfounder.com. Mike has written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. He is a former editor of New Media Age magazine, the leading new media weekly in the UK, and the European edition of The Industry Standard magazine.

In 2000 he was nominated as NetMedia’s European Internet Journalist of the Year. In 2004 he was voted ‘One of the 100 Innovators of the UK Internet Decade’ by GfK NOP, the fourth-largest custom research business in the world. In July 2008 he was put at No. 47 out of the Top 100 people in London’s creative industry by The Independent newspaper and The Hospital Club. In August 2008 TechCrunch Europe was awarded the best “Web 2.0 and business blog” in the UK, by the readers of Computer Weekly magazine. In 2009 it was named as one of the Top 10 blogs out of the UK. Also in 2009 Mike was named one of the Top 10 bloggers on Twitter in the UK. In October 2009 he was named one of the Top 50 most influential Britons in technology by The Daily Telegraph. In April 2010 he was in Wired UK’s Top 100 influencer list, in 2011, in 2012, (there was no Top 100 list in 2013), in 2014 and again in 2015. In April 2010 TechCrunch Europe was shortlisted in the Specialist Digital Publisher category of the prestigious UK-based Association of Online Publishers’ Digital Publishing Awards. In November 2010 he was named as one of London’s most influential people in New Media and “king of dotcom commentators” by The Evening Standard Newspaper. He has been listed as one of the Top 100 most influential people on Twitter in the UK. He was named in the TechNation200 Almanac. He has been named as one of “The 100 coolest people in UK tech” by Business Insider. He was named in the “Smith & Williamson Power 100”. In 2016 British GQ magazine named him one of the 100 Most Connected Men in the UK. He has spoken at the prestigious World Economic Forum, the Monaco Media Forum, Le Web, Web Summit and DLD among many other conferences. Mike is a regular commentator on the technology business, appearing on BBC News, Sky News, CNBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. Mike has advised the UK Prime Minister on tech startups, served on the Mayor of London’s Digital Advisory Board, the ‘Smart London’ Board and been a Technology Ambassador for London. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2016 for services to the UK technology industry and journalism. Mike’s personal blog is mbites.com, while he Tweets.