The privacy-focused Layer-1 blockchain ecosystem Namada has announced the launch of an incentivized testnet that will reward participants with 3% of the total token supply. The incentive campaign, named Namada Shielded Expedition by the team, is a process initiated before the privacy protocol is set to go live on the mainnet in early 2024.
Namada Team Introduces Incentive Program
Namada’s testnet will allow participants, consisting of validators and users, to engage in a competitive event to test the network’s consensus algorithm, CometBFT, and its resistance to Sybil attacks. The team’s goal is to enable participants to experience features supporting privacy independent of assets prior to the mainnet version of the Namada ecosystem.
The team will organize an asteroid mining competition where testnet participants will be ranked based on the points they accumulate. Successful players in the game will be distributed 30 million NAM tokens, equivalent to 3% of the total one billion token supply. The Namada testnet is planned to be launched for user access on January 15 and the event will continue until the end of the month.
The testnet incentives were announced one week after Namada revealed a community airdrop event that entices researchers, developers, and investors in the Cosmos Hub and Osmosis blockchain ecosystem with 65 million NAM tokens, representing 6.5% of the total supply.
2024 to Be Marked by Airdrop Events
Namada stands out as a proof-of-stake Layer-1 blockchain protocol developed by the Anoma Foundation, slated for release in the first quarter of 2024. As part of the Cosmos ecosystem, the network aims to provide asset-independent multi-chain privacy using zero-knowledge proofs for the transfer of assets across different blockchain ecosystems.
In addition, the network will have a native Ethereum bridge to facilitate asset movement between networks. In May 2023, the Anoma Foundation provided a $25 million fund to develop its ecosystem, including Namada.
Recent surges in the cryptocurrency market have accelerated preparations for token launches, especially for platforms in the Web3 sector. Particularly, with many users expecting airdrop events, the Ethereum Layer-2 network Starknet and the cross-chain transaction platform LayerZero’s steps towards airdrops suggest that the year 2024 is anticipated to be the year of airdrops.