Unclaimed Airdrop: A Deal That Hears Everyone
This has been one of the most engaged discussions this forum has hosted. 300+ views, 50+ engagements (the highest on the forum), and a lively debate across X, Telegram, Discord and Bluesky. That alone tells us something: the community wants a say in what happens to these tokens. That’s the CTO working.
So let me bring it together, and put a concrete proposal on the table.
First, where the community actually stands.
Setting aside the burn-vs-deploy debate, one thing is near-universal: 98% of respondents want these tokens given a deliberate, intentional fate, not left to drift undirected. That’s the real mandate here. The disagreement was only ever about the mechanism.
On the mechanism, a clear majority leaned toward a burn. But I’ve listened to every angle raised, on the forum and off it, and my own position has moved.
I’ll be honest: I opened this arguing to burn them all. I’ve since heard strong, good-faith cases from people I respect, for keeping tokens in the community’s hands, for funding builders, for honouring commitments. So I’m not proposing what I walked in with. I’m proposing what I believe genuinely caters to the most people. It won’t be perfect. No compromise is. But it hears everyone out, and that’s the point.
The Proposal (a hybrid):
Pending the audit the Council has already flagged, and with all figures conditional on it, I propose the unclaimed allocation is directed as follows:
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25% — Burn.
Honours the clear majority who voted for it. On the “this breaks a promise” concern: the airdrop page says unclaimed tokens return to the community bucket, and this proposal honours that. 75% stays firmly in community hands. The 25% burn isn’t tokens leaving for an outside interest, it’s the community applying a portion of its own allocation for the benefit of every holder. That’s a decision the community is entitled to make.
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~20% — Council & Operations budget.
The reality is these tokens are already partly funding council and bounty payments. This formalises that, gives the Council a transparent working budget, and keeps the project running. No surprises, fully accounted for.
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~35% — Targeted bounties & ecosystem grants.
The largest share, because it’s what the most voices converged on. A disciplined, MAGIC/CCS-style program, gated behind the audit and proper quality checks, so we fund real contribution and avoid the “grant-milking” that’s sunk other ecosystems. This is how we actually grow Tari.
One idea worth the Council keeping in mind here: a YAT → Ootle migration incentive, rewarding YAT holders who bridge from ETH onto the Tari L2. It would seed early Ootle activity and bring an existing community onto the network. Raised by YAT holders, and a natural fit once the Ootle is live. Not a committed allocation, just flagged as a strong candidate for how part of this bucket could be deployed.
- ~20% — Strategic reserve.
Held for liquidity and listing opportunities, the direction ~22% of the vote pointed to, and a recurring ask from holders wanting Tari on a top-tier venue. Deployed only through a future, specific, ratified proposal.
Nothing here is final until the accounting is in. These are ratios, not amounts.
Two things to clarify alongside the audit: how a burn interacts with the tail emission and the throttle to 21B (if the effect is only symbolic, that share redirects to the other buckets), and how we execute the burn transparently and without bottlenecks. We decide with the facts in front of us.
On process:
The X poll was a temperature check, not a verdict. I want to be direct about that, because it’s a fair critique. This decision belongs here, on the forum, ratified properly, then taken to the Council. So once we’ve refined this together, I’ll put it to a formal forum vote. If it passes, it goes to the Council with a clear community mandate behind it.
A request to the Council:
Don’t auto-discredit anything. Follow the community mandate, that’s the whole premise of a CTO. The Council should be the enabler, not the gatekeeper. Let’s have a productive back and forth and make a deal that works for everyone.
Let’s refine it, vote on it, and give these tokens the deliberate fate the community is asking for.
Okz