[Dead] Keybase Account: Get Free XLM (Less than $20/Month for 3+ Months?)

Update 12/11/19: December will be the last month; December spacedrop was for ~355 XLM.

Update 11/16/2019: Looks like the distribution may take a few days, but it appears that the November Spacedrop is going out (~688 XLM, ~$49.81).  Next drop scheduled for December 15, 2019, tough to estimate the value … maybe half?

Update 10/16/2019: Keybase now says you can get in on the XLM giveaway (space drop) by downloading the Keybase App and receiving an SMS.

Will this happen? – I’m not sure, as they’ve already fooled us once (twice?), and the new requirements seem more exploitable then the previous halted promotion.   But potentially free money (crypto) with no KYC. The official statement is:

The Stellar Space Drop program is back on. You are still registered; **there is nothing for you to do.** The first distribution will happen November 15, and you should expect more Lumens every month.

**Why November 15?**

In case you missed it, we were forced to shut down registrations due to a swarm of bad actors. GitHub and HackerNews were both under attack and reached out to us. No one could then join. YOU squeaked in, though. So you’re in.

So: **we have spent the last month making it easier to participate**. Now your friends and family qualify. Even if they’re not programmers.

If you’d like to invite anyone:

• click “New chat” from your inbox
• invite them by phone number
• chat with them (encrypted!) while you both await November

And apologies for the delay. But 100 million Lumens will be going out shortly. You will get your share.

Update 09/16/2019: Keybase has halted eligibility of Hacker News and GitHub accounts for the promotion.  Assuming those who became eligible with Hacker News and GitHub accounts before 09/16/2019 will still be eligible for the promotion.

The Offer

Keybase Post | Stellar Post

Keybase (in partnership with Stellar) is giving away XLM monthly to authenticated (not KYC) Keybase accounts.

If you don’t have an existing Keybase account but do have an existing (registered before September 9, 2019) GitHub or Hacker News account you are still eligible for the promotion.  You can signup by installing the Keybase app (available on Apple and Android devices [and desktop operating systems]) and then within app prove your GitHub or Hacker News identity.

Keybase is described as a messaging platform where you can write securely to any twitter, reddit, facebook, github, and hacker news user.

The Fine Print

• Each unique natural person can participate in the airdrop just once.
• No individual recipient will get more than $500 USD worth of Lumens.
• This is from SDF, and neither we nor they accept financial responsibility for failed attempts to collect. If you lose access to your account or “reset” it, fail to register correctly, or even if we have a bug…adios wealth.
• Similarly, if there’s any bug in Keybase’s Stellar wallet – which is new – and you lose your Lumens, we accept no responsibility.
• We don’t control your private Stellar keys, so we really can’t help you.
• SDF reserves the right to stop sending Lumens early, with one month notice.
• If something outside Keybase’s or SDF’s control prevents SDF from executing this giveaway, either in total or for specific users, we are sorry in advance. But we accept no responsibility for that.
• Basically, don’t get mad at us if something goes wrong here. It’s a gift.
• We reserve the right to blacklist users, even after registering. If you appear to use a bot or multiple accounts to sign up for Keybase, we’ll blacklist you. Similarly, if you appear to use bot accounts on HN or Github, we’ll blacklist you.
• If we have any technical issues, downtime, or anything like that, we will most likely extend giveaway dates. Attacking Keybase’s meager servers won’t get you more cryptocurrency, it’ll only delay you and let more people in.
• The first month’s giveaway was special, because many of the recipients didn’t have Stellar wallets yet. If anyone from the first month _never_ activates their wallet (to accept their Lumens), the Lumens can be returned to SDF. We’ll likely do that after 6 months or so.

My Signup Experience

• I installed the Keybase app on my phone
• Opened the app and selected a user name, (skipped the phone number) [Update 2019-10-16 probably need to enter phone number to receive SMS], and then added an email
• I proved my GitHub user by following the directions (which involved committing a piece of code at GitHub)
• Clicked the Join the Airdrop banner in app [Update 2019-10-16: Not sure if this step is still required]
  • Which opened a new Keybase XLM wallet
  • Clicked see if you qualify (where I failed the “3 active devices or paper keys” check)
    • Through the hamburger icon -> Devices -> Add a device or paper key I was able to generate 2 paper keys
  • Clicked see if you qualify again
    • All check marks passed, I clicked “Become a lucky airdropee” (and now my Airdrop status says “You’re in”)

Our Verdict

If you don’t already have a Keybase account, the requirement to have a pre-existing GitHub or Hacker News account is sort of a bummer.  I’m just assuming a good chunk of the DoC audience also works (or hobbies) in technology.

It’s hard to get a good estimate on the actual value of the promotion.  The aggregate numbers sound big (2B XLM, 100M XLM/Month) but what you’ll actually get depends upon a number of factors:

• The Number of Users
  • It sounds like XLM will be evenly split among Keybase users,
  • which currently stands at 300K users per the Stellar announcement (though only a portion of those users are currently registered for the promotion)
    • 100M XLM/ 300K Users = 333.333 XLM/User (approximately $19.68 @ the current price of $0.059033)
  • But will current users 2x ($10/month), 4x ($5/month), …
• The Number of Months
  • May range from as few as 3 (guaranteed per the Stellar announcement footnote)
  • To as many as 20 (2B = 20 months @ 100M per month)
• The Price of Stellar (XLM)
  • Which will fluctuate against the USD
• Hard Value Cap
  • The Keybase offer fine print limits per user value to at most $500 (which would be $25/month if spread evenly over 20 months)

All that said, if you have a Coinbase Account (or other crypto exchange account) whatever you end up getting should be fairly easy to transfer out and liquidate for USD, or of course you can HODL.

I missed out on most of the previous Stellar airdrops (Bitcoin promo, Blockchain Wallet promo, …), but did get in on the Coinbase Deal.  I find it hard to pass on crypto promotions.

All the best!