LayerZero drops deadline for sybil farmers to “self-report”

Omnichain protocol LayerZero released on Friday a two-week ultimatum for sybil farmers to self-report their addresses and receive 15% of their intended allocation during its airdrop token distribution. However, Chainlink community liaison Zach Rynes expressed his displeasure towards this move.

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LayerZero to punish sybil farmers

In a Friday X post, LayerZero protocol ordered sybil farmers to self-report their addresses before May 17. The omnichain protocol also provided clear examples of what it terms sybil activity. This follows the protocol's recent decision to reward free tokens to durable users.

LayerZero made the post on its X account on Friday. It emphasized the importance of streamlining the distribution of tokens, claiming that "it is in the protocol's  best interest to distribute tokens to durable users—not sybil farmers."

A blog post made on the protocol's Medium account details the information regarding the self-report and what they refer to as sybil farming. Chief among the criteria is "if you are a single entity with tens, hundreds, or thousands of addresses participating in industrial farming."

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The post further states that those who comply and self-report their sybil addresses will receive 15% of their allocation with "no questions asked." However, those who refuse to self-report their addresses within the given two weeks' notice will receive nothing.

Plans to fish out the non-compliant sybil farmers include an open bounty where users who give detailed reports of sybil activity will receive 10% of the sybil's intended allocation.

Chainlink community liaison Chainlink Zach Rynes reacted to the post by explaining how LayerZero has constantly benefitted from airdrop farming for years and now has a problem with sybil farmers when they need to drop a token.

He further stated that LayerZero's action towards these farmers "just seems a bit hypocritical." He buttressed the need for farmers and mentioned that LayerZero is framing airdrop farming as a negative activity.

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"You have control over the eligibility criteria, that's how you control for this variable," said Zach. "This is just conflating two very different ways of engaging in airdrop farming."