Community-driven crypto projects still thriving despite headwinds

cointelegraph.com:

The highly anticipated launch and airdrop of Arbitrum's native governance token ARB took place on March 23, creating a buzz around the layer-2 protocol as hundreds of thousands of eligible users and DAOs tried to claim the token. Overwhelming user demand led the airdrop claim page to crash shortly after its launch, displaying 404 and 429 errors for over an hour, Cointelegraph reported. 

Since Arbitrum was one of the largest blockchain projects without a token, the hype around its drop was expected. Nevertheless, it exemplifies how community-driven projects in the space can still thrive, despite competitors, technical challenges, market downturns and regulatory uncertainty.

Wen? Now. ‍ pic.twitter.com/CysJ9nPP3Z

Arbitrum wasn't the first - and certainly won't be the last - project to mobilize massive audiences. In February, the token distribution of the layer-1 protocol Core DAO followed a similar engagement recipe, with 1.2 million tokens airdropped to individual users. Even before its mainnet launch, the project established in 2021 had over 1.6 million Twitter followers and over 215,000 Discord members.

"From the start, community ownership and inclusion was a major goal," Core DAO contributor Brendon Sedo told Cointelegraph. "Transparency is another key for our community. Too many projects keep the curtain closed on their progress and development. We’ve made it a priority to distribute information across a variety of platforms."

Related: Arbitrum’s ARB token signifies the start of airdrop season — Here are 5 to look out for

Core's blockchain runs on a combined Proof-of-Work and Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism known as Satoshi Plus. Its airdrop was carried out in partnership with the Satoshi App, an