Ethereum scaling solution zkSync has faced criticism over the lack of anti-Sybil measures for its ZK token airdrop. Industry experts believe the airdrop could be compromised by Sybil attacks, potentially leading to unfair token distribution and market instability.

A Sybil attack in this context occurs when an entity creates multiple wallets to unfairly claim airdropped tokens, concentrating tokens in the hands of a few and disrupting even distribution.

On June 11, zkSync announced plans to airdrop nearly 3.68 billion of its native tokens to the community, representing 17.5% of the total supply of 21 billion tokens. A total of 695,232 wallets were deemed eligible for this drop, with a cap of 100,000 tokens per wallet.

To mitigate Sybil attacks, zkSync revealed seven eligibility criteria for the airdrop. These criteria included interacting with 10 smart contracts, trading 10 ERC-20 tokens, or depositing liquidity into a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, among others.

However, according to Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran, the airdrop was not “well-planned.” Cochran claims the eligibility criteria are easy for farmers to meet by using scripts and bots to automate the process. In contrast, regular users might only interact with a few dapps and hold fewer tokens since the project is relatively new. As a result, they might not fulfill airdrop requirements as thoroughly as “farmers.”

“The eligibility criteria are very easy for farmers to meet by utilizing scripts and bots to automate the process,” Cochran said.

Cochran’s concerns were echoed by the Sybil-tracking account “Sybil Horror 6.” According to data from LayerZero Labs, 135 million ZK tokens could be lost to wallets identified as Sybil addresses, which are likely controlled by individuals or entities exploiting the airdrop.

Polygon information security chief Mudit Gupta also criticized the airdrop, calling it the “most farmable and farmed airdrop ever.” He highlighted the lack of Sybil filtering, noting that anyone familiar with the criteria could have easily exploited it.

Amid the scrutiny, analytics firm Nansen stated that it did not perform anti-Sybil checks or advise on the airdrop allocation. However, the project was reportedly alerted about specific wallet segments, including “whales and known scammers.” Some users criticized Nansen for its lack of diligence.

“Everyone knows you had this information at your fingertips and you expect people to believe you chose not to act on it?” a user commented.

Interestingly, Ignas, another prominent crypto researcher, pointed out an excerpt from zkSync’s airdrop announcement, where the project claims it purposefully chose not to apply strict Sybil criteria. “Sybil detection often cuts out real users with arbitrary filters,” zkSync wrote.

zkSync has not yet addressed any of the claims. Stay updated with the latest cryptocurrency news on Global Crypto News.

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