Camp Network's Airdrop Mystery: Why Early Users Face a Paradoxical 'Pay-to-Claim' Model

Camp Network’s mainnet launch on August 22 was supposed to be a celebration for months of testnet participants. Instead, it became the poster child for how airdrops can go wrong. The L1 project, which raised $30 million to tackle AI copyright issues, introduced a token distribution mechanism so restrictive that it left the community asking one question: are we being rewarded or punished?

The Eligibility Puzzle Nobody Saw Coming

Out of 6 million wallets interacting with Camp Network’s testnet, only 40,000 qualified for airdrops. That’s roughly 0.67% — a number that shocked the ‘haircut party’ (the term for users who dedicate time to testnet participation hoping for meaningful token rewards).

The math gets worse when you look at the active wallets in the Summit Series. While approximately 280,000 accounts engaged deeply with the ecosystem, the airdrop gates left most of them empty-handed. The community’s frustration stemmed from a simple fact: grinding through “multiple task interactions” yielded nothing for the vast majority, unless they had previously minted an NFT or referred enough friends.

The Registration Fee That Almost Broke Trust

Here’s where Camp Network stumbled hard. Those fortunate enough to clear the eligibility threshold faced yet another hurdle: a 0.0025 ETH registration fee (roughly $10) just to claim their tokens.

This made Camp Network the first mainstream L1 to charge users for the privilege of collecting their own airdrop. The backlash was swift and brutal. Within hours of community outcry, the team reversed course, cancelled the fee, and promised full refunds — a decision that inadvertently confirmed how tone-deaf the original policy was.

KYC Walls and Geographic Exclusion

Even after passing the eligibility and fee gauntlets, users encountered strict identity verification requirements. Camera verification combined with VPN blocking and country-based restrictions meant international participants faced systematic exclusion from claiming their rewards. This didn’t just alienate users; it raised questions about the project’s vision of being a global protocol.

The Paradox: Buy Before You Can Claim

Perhaps the most absurd twist came at token generation. Early claimers received their CAMP allocation, but only 20% unlocked at TGE. To access tokens and pay for the gas fees required to finalize their airdrop claim, users had to… buy CAMP on an exchange first.

The irony was compounded by the fact that some exchanges listing CAMP still couldn’t process withdrawals, making the entire process a catch-22: you need CAMP to claim CAMP, but you can’t get CAMP from certain platforms to do so.

With CAMP currently trading at $0.01 and only a 20% unlock at launch, the actual value many received was negligible — barely enough to cover transaction costs, let alone justify the effort.

Why This Matters Beyond Camp Network

Camp Network’s airdrop structure exposed a growing problem in token launches: misaligned incentives between projects and communities. When claiming a reward becomes harder than earning it, something is fundamentally broken.

Whether you’re bullish or bearish on CAMP, the lesson is clear: before committing resources to any airdrop, understand the full claims mechanism, verify KYC requirements apply to your region, and don’t assume early engagement guarantees fair distribution.