LayerZero Labs Identifies 800,000 Potential Sybil Addresses in Public List

LayerZero Labs, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, on Sunday said that it has made public a list of 800,000 addresses flagged as created solely for the purpose of farming the project’s airdrop.

On May 18, LayerZero concluded its Sybil self-reporting phase. During this period, users had the opportunity to report their wallet addresses as Sybils and receive 15% of their planned token allocation if they did so within a 14-day window.

The 800,000 addresses account for 13% of the total six million addresses eligible for the airdrop.

In an X post, LayerZero explained that the “remaining 85%” would be returned to “qualified users."

LayerZero’s anti-Sybil campaign is one of the most aggressive efforts to identify and remove airdrop farmers at a time when the practice of using protocols to get token rewards in return has become a common practice in DeFi. The move has sparked some controversy, with some users arguing the line between legitimate trading and airdrop farming isn’t so clear-cut.

In the context of blockchain networks, Sybil attacks involve creating multiple fake accounts to fraudulently accumulate tokens or rewards intended for legitimate users. This tactic manipulates token distributions by appearing as several unique participants. The goal is to exploit decentralized systems that reward user activity, often through mechanisms like airdrops.

Initial analysis

Initially, the team at LayerZero had identified over 2 million addresses as potential Sybils. They then refined their criteria to minimize false positives, ensuring that legitimate users were not wrongly labeled.

The primary goal of this analysis was to identify and exclude "industrial Sybil clusters" from bounty hunting eligibility. These clusters are large groups of fake accounts created to manipulate token distributions.

According to LayerZero, "This list is preliminary. It aims to remove large clusters of addresses from bounty hunting eligibility, but should not be seen as definitive until the final report is published. For example, an address could be removed from the sybil list as we update methodology."

Bounty Hunting and Rewards

Participants interested in bounty hunting must report at least 20 addresses, outlining a clear methodology to prove they are sybils. Those who successfully report will receive 10% of the Sybil’s intended token allocation.

An important note from LayerZero’s X post clarified that: "All bounties go to the first eligible reporter of a given address."

The bounty hunting process started on May 18 and will continue until May 31. The final sybil list will be published afterward.

Meanwhile, LayerZero Labs announced on May 2 that it completed the first snapshot for an upcoming airdrop. Eligibility criteria and details remain undisclosed.

LayerZero adoption

Data from Messari shows that in the first quarter of 2024, LayerZero protocol hosted over $6.7 billion worth of cross-chain asset transfers, marking a 91% increase from the previous quarter.

Message traffic surged, with 29.6 million messages sent via LayerZero, reflecting a 60% quarterly increase. This period also saw a 93% rise in smart contract deployments on LayerZero, indicating growing developer adoption of the protocol.

In April 2023, LayerZero raised $120 million in a Series B funding round, valuing the company at $3 billion.