Today there was a Banano airdrop to Nano holders. There has been both excitement and confusion so the Daily Peel is here to save the day. We will cover these questions: - What does this even mean? - What is a rep, and why airdrop this way?
- Did I qualify for the airdrop?
- How do I claim it?
- edit: did not need to have nano in the wallet. Previous statement about requiring a balance above zero was incorrect.
What does this even mean?
Banano has airdropped coins to Nano holders who had their representative set to the following address: nano_1bananobjcrqugm87e8p3kxkhy7d1bzkty53n889iyunm83cp14rb9fin78p
Here is the original announcement from Banano Cofounder/Dictator Renesq:
What is a Rep?
The way Banano and Nano reaches consensus is through a process known as Open Representative Voting. This is different than the Proof of Work and Proof of Stake methods of most blockchains and cryptocurrencies. This is what allows Banano/Nano to be instant and feeless, and is also why there is no mining or staking required. Instead, people run nodes for the network, and others delegate their voting weight to those node runners (also known as representatives). Basically summarized, everyone picks someone running a node (a rep) to speak to the blockchain on their behalf. You can select/change that representative at any time for free. When you create a wallet you are assigned a default rep associated with that wallet. If you have not changed it yourself, you will still be on that default rep.
So why did Banano choose to Airdrop this way?
More Nodes/Reps with more diversified voting weight equals more decentralization (which is what we all want after all right? that's the goal). The Banano team runs a Nano node and back in April of 2019 there was an airdrop to Nano holders as both an educational tool, and to encourage people to branch out from the default wallet reps to the Banano one, further helping decentralize the network. It turns out there was still a considerable amount of people to this day faithfully delegating to the Banano Rep for their Nano Wallets (over a year and a half) so the Banano team wanted to reward their support.
Did I Qualify for the Airdrop?
If the Representative of your Nano wallet was set to nano_1bananobjcrqugm87e8p3kxkhy7d1bzkty53n889iyunm83cp14rb9fin78p, on February 12th and your Balance was above zero (correction: balance did not need to be above zero! you would have still received the minimum 1500 banano if your rep was set, even with no nano), then yes! Chances are, most people who are reading this would not have qualified, as this Banano rep has not really been in the forefront of conversation for well over a year. Congratulations to the faithful few who are around and were able to receive that! If you did not qualify, it never hurts to learn how to change your rep and take the next step in taking control of your currency, the way crypto is supposed to be. There is never a better time than now.
I Qualified, how do I claim the Airdrop?
The steps to claim are quite simple. If your wallet was indeed holding Nano and had the above address as their rep on Feb 12th - these are the steps to follow:
Retrieve the Mnemonic Phrase or Seed from your Nano wallet
If you qualified, the ban_versionofyouraddress will be holding the Banano from your airdrop. Simply withdraw them to a wallet of your choosing. They will be there automatically, there is no manual claiming process required.
Congratulations to those OG's who received the airdrop and thank you for helping contribute to a decentralized future.