Avail, Blockchain Data Availability Project, Sketches Out Eligibility for Token Airdrop

Avail, a closely watched blockchain data-availability project currently running on a test network, is sketching out the eligibility criteria for a token airdrop – a move that would follow in the footsteps of the rival data project Celestia, whose own token has gained a market capitalization of more than $1 billion.

A screenshot of a document describing the eligibility criteria for the airdrop was posted on the social-media platform X by the user @Bitcoineo, and Avail’s public-relations team flagged the tweet to CoinDesk, describing it as a “leak.”

A project spokesperson said that the Avail team was not available to make a statement on Friday.

The screenshot of the eligibility requirements suggests that users of layer-2 rollups, like Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, zkSync and Starknet, as well as ecosystem developers and Polygon PoS stakers, could receive the AVAIL token.

Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, also expressed excitement about the airdrop for the Polygon community, in his own post on X.

Avail used to be part of Polygon, but was spun out in March 2023. Anurag Arjun, the founder of Avail, was a co-founder of Polygon.

Avail’s airdrop comes as its competitors in the data availability space are gaining momentum – part of the trend of “modular” blockchains, where functionality previously was only available on “monolithic” blockchains like Ethereum are now being broken out as separate plug-in modules.

Celestia, another data availability (DA) solution, had its TIA airdrop in November 2023, and the token already has a circulating market capitalization of $1.8 billion.EigenLayer, with its own in-house DA solution EigenDA, went live earlier this week with the project on the Ethereum blockchain, though officials have not confirmed plans for a token.