4 ♠ · Strategy · Draft
Merkle Airdrop
A free token giveaway where each eligible address claims its own share by proving it is on the list.
How it works
The DAO sets criteria for who qualifies, such as past users of a protocol or members of a community. It takes a snapshot of eligible addresses and their amounts. The list is compressed into a Merkle tree, and only the tree's root, a single hash, is stored in the claim contract. Each address later submits a short proof that it belongs to the list. The contract checks the proof against the root and releases the tokens. The claimer pays the transaction fee, so the DAO avoids sending thousands of transfers.
Use it when
- You want to hand governance tokens to past users without paying for every transfer.
- Distribute to a large, fixed list of addresses and let each one opt in.
Watch out for
- Airdrop farmers: people spin up many wallets to meet the criteria and dump the tokens.
- Many recipients never claim, and the unclaimed balance sits in the contract.
Example
Uniswap. Uniswap gave 400 UNI to every address that had used the exchange before September 2020, claimed through a Merkle proof contract.