Original | Odaily Planet Daily
Author | Nan Zhi
The three kings of Layer 2, Starknet, ZKsync, and LayerZero, have all come to an end in 2023, and there are few remaining airdrop opportunities for large-scale public chains. The market’s attention is mainly focused on Monad, Scroll, Linea, and Berachain (and the upcoming Blast).
In this article, Odaily will introduce the basic information of Scroll, the latest loyalty program and its costs, as well as the opportunities for interacting with top protocols.
Before diving into the specifics, users with limited interaction experience need to understand the recent important trend – the boutique account, or in other words, the emphasis on the amount of funds in each address. Most new projects have adopted a points system based on the amount of funds, and the fund accumulation rules of ZKsync also reflect this trend. The era of obtaining airdrops through low-cost transactions and monthly activities is basically over. In the latest loyalty program launched by Scroll, the amount of funds has become the core factor. Therefore, the author suggests that users should focus on boutique accounts in their interaction strategies.
Introduction to Scroll
Scroll is the native zkEVM Layer 2 solution of Ethereum, which enables native compatibility with existing Ethereum applications and tools. Scroll has completed three rounds of financing, with the last round completed in March 2023, raising $50 million, with participation from Polychain and Sequoia China, among others.
For reference, the last round of financing for ZKsync was $200 million; LayerZero’s last round of financing was $120 million, with a valuation of $3 billion; Starknet’s last round of financing was $100 million, with a valuation of $8 billion.
Cross-Chain Funds
Whether to use the official cross-chain bridge was a factor in some previous Layer 2 airdrops. Therefore, it is recommended to use the official bridge for cross-chain transactions in the boutique account strategy.
When the median Gas Price on the Ethereum mainnet is 4.3 gwei, the actual costs for different paths are as follows:
-Withdrawing ETH from Binance to the mainnet costs 5 USDT, while withdrawing to Arbitrum and other Layer 2 networks costs about 0.1 USDT.
-Withdrawing ETH from OKX to the mainnet costs 1.38 USDT, while withdrawing to Arbitrum and other Layer 2 networks costs about 0.2 USDT.
-The cost of using the official cross-chain bridge is 1.8 USDT.
-Using Stargate to cross-chain from L2 to the Ethereum mainnet incurs a gas fee of 1.35 USDT + 0.025% for the cross-chain bridge fee.
-Using Orbiter to cross-chain from L2 to the Ethereum mainnet incurs a gas fee of 1.35 USDT + 0.05% for the cross-chain bridge fee.
-Using Stargate to cross-chain from L2 to Scroll incurs a gas fee of 0.25 USDT + 0.025% for the cross-chain bridge fee.
Therefore, depending on the original location of the funds, different cross-chain strategies should be adopted:
-If the funds are originally held on OKX, they can be directly withdrawn to the mainnet and then cross-chain using the official bridge.
-If the funds are originally held on Binance, it is recommended to transfer them to OKX and then repeat the above operation instead of cross-chaining from Binance to L2 and then to the mainnet.
-If the funds are originally held on-chain, it is recommended to use the economical mode (Economy) of Stargate, which takes about 4 minutes to cross-chain to the mainnet.
Scroll Sessions
Scroll Session One is the second round of the loyalty program launched by Scroll on June 22, 2024. According to the official announcement, this program aims to reward the community participating in the Scroll ecosystem with Scroll Marks (referred to as points in the following).
Basic Points – Cross-Chain Assets
In April, Scroll had previously launched Session Zero, where users could earn points by cross-chaining ETH and wstETH using the native cross-chain bridge or by cross-chaining STONE using LayerZero.
In Session One, after cross-chaining assets to Scroll using any cross-chain bridge, users can earn corresponding points based on their daily fund balance without any additional operations. Eligible assets include ETH, wstETH, STONE, USDC, USDT, wrsETH, and various assets on the Tranchess protocol. Users can follow the paths described in the previous section to operate.
Extra Points – Designated DEX/Lending Protocols
Providing liquidity to the designated DEX on Scroll and engaging in lending operations on the designated lending protocols will earn extra points.
There are a total of 6 qualified DEX, including Ambient Finance, Nuri, Izumi Finance, Syncswap, Oku Trade, and Zebra.
There are also 6 qualified lending protocols, including Aave, Rho Markets, LayerBank, Cog Finance, Compound, and Synonym. It is worth noting that borrowing once will earn the full amount of extra points, and continuous borrowing will not earn more points. By depositing and lending assets and leaving them in the wallet, users can earn additional points.
The launch of Scroll Session means that the interaction airdrop on Scroll has become a points system based on the amount of assets. Due to the linear distribution nature of the points, the strategy once again tilts towards boutique accounts.
Top Protocols
In previous Layer 2 airdrops, the number of interactions with different protocols was also a major consideration. Although Scroll has introduced a points system, it also involves multiple protocols. It is recommended to interact with several protocols and tokens in addition to earning points to meet any potential airdrop requirements.
This section will introduce the functions of several top projects. In addition to the following projects, users can choose other Session One projects set by Scroll to participate. Previously, there have been many cases of top projects being hacked or running away on the ZKsync network, so users need to pay extra attention to the security of the protocols.
Tranchess
Tranchess is a yield derivative protocol similar to Pendle, which allows the splitting of interest-bearing tokens into yield tokens and principal tokens. It currently supports STONE, SolvBTC, and ETH, with a TVL of nearly $300 million. Four assets under Tranchess, turPSTONE, staYSTONE, stoneQUEEN, and staYSTONE-STONE, can earn Scroll points.
(Note: Tranchess’s protocol token CHESS has been listed on Binance in 2021 and is one of the few tokens listed on Binance spot but without a contract. Its security is relatively guaranteed.)
Pencils Protocol
Pencils Protocol is the second-highest TVL protocol on Scroll and has various functions. Currently, users can focus on and participate in its Stake section, which allows users to stake tokens such as WETH, USDT, and USDC and earn points and returns from the protocol. However, it should be noted that the staking service of this protocol is not included in the list of extra points in Session One.
Ambient
Ambient is currently the highest TVL DEX on Scroll and is included in the list of extra points in Session One. In addition to earning extra points in Session One, providing liquidity on Ambient will also earn points from the protocol itself. Ambient provides both AMM and Perp trading.
Aave
Aave is a well-established lending protocol from Ethereum, which will not be elaborated here. Borrowing on Aave will earn extra points in Session One, and it has the best security. However, the supply on Scroll has a limit, and at the time of writing, the limit has been reached and no further deposits can be made. Aave will periodically increase the limit.
Conclusion
In addition to the mainstream trend of fund accumulation and the introduction of the points system on Scroll, the high gas fees on Scroll are also a major factor that users need to pay attention to. With a Gas Price of 4 gwei on the mainnet, each interaction still incurs a cost of 0.25 USDT. Low-tier accounts cannot earn enough Scroll Marks and are also prone to quickly deplete their ETH due to high gas fees. The era of boutique accounts as the main focus has arrived.
