Guide on Earning deBridge Points and Improving Airdrop Eligibility

How to Earn deBridge Points

Users can earn deBridge points by bridging assets and taking note of the DLN fees, referring others, and by interacting with deBridge's integration partners. 

Key Takeaways

• The deBridge protocol is a cross-chain messaging protocol that connects various blockchains and transfers both simple messages and complex data structures. 

• In 2021, deBridge successfully raised $5.5 million in a funding round led by ParaFi Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, GSR, Crypto.com, and IOSG Ventures.

• With the launch of the deBridge Points program, users can interact with the deBridge protocol to earn points for a future token airdrop.

deBridge is a high-performance and secure interoperability layer for Web3 that executes decentralized transfers of arbitrary messages and value between blockchains. Essentially, it acts as a cross-chain messaging protocol and allows users and developers to transfer both simple messages and complex data structures across different blockchains. This provides developers with plenty of opportunities to build complex cross-chain solutions such as multi-chain applications, cross-chain lending, automated cross-chain arbitraging services, and NFT bridges.

The validation of cross-chain transactions is performed by a network of independent validators who are elected by and work for deBridge governance. Validators maintain the blockchain infrastructure by running a deBridge node to sign all transactions that pass through deBridge smart contracts in different blockchains.

deBridge’s architecture is made up of two main layers – the Protocol Layer and the Infrastructure Layer – which work in tandem to ensure secure and efficient cross-chain transfers. The Protocol Layer is a set of smart contracts deployed in every blockchain deBridge supports and is responsible for asset management, fees, and validators through deBridge governance. On the other hand, the Infrastructure Layer is off-chain and a set of validators who operate a deBridge node alongside full nodes are responsible for off-chain validation of cross-chain transactions.

Having this two layer architecture achieves several purposes including decentralization that enhances security and trust, scalability for unlimited throughput and high-performance cross-chain transactions, as well as verifiable and open transactions whereby details of any transfer through deBridge’s infrastructure is accessible by all users.

deBridge supports a wide array of ecosystems such as Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Solana, and Optimism. On top of that, deBridge is being used by several applications including Synapse, Perpetual Protocol, 1inch network, Jupiter, and Neon EVM. 

deBridge was initially presented as a project at the Spring 2021 Chainlink Virtual Hackathon. deBridge – built by Anastasia Kondaurova, Alex Smirnov, and Yaroslav Artyukh – was crowned as the grand prize winner and received $8,000. Shortly after, deBridge successfully raised $5.5 million in a funding round led by ParaFi Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, GSR, Crypto.com, IOSG Ventures, and many others. Just 10 months after winning the Chainlink Global Hackathon, deBridge mainnet was launched. 

On 9 April 2024, deBridge announced the launch of deBridge Points as part of the project’s efforts to recognize the contributions of users. Early supporters will be rewarded retroactively while new users who actively contribute will receive these points moving forward. The points program will let stakeholders, partners, integrators, and users earn deBridge points based on the value and fees they provide to the deBridge ecosystem. The deBridge Points program will conclude at the launch of the deBridge token. Therefore, now is as good a time as any to start earning your deBridge points!

Do take note that at the time of writing, the deBridge team has not made any official announcements for when the token airdrop will take place or what the exact qualifying criteria are. Proceeding with the steps below is not guaranteed to result in receiving airdropped tokens. 

Step 1: Get Solflare Wallet (Optional)

Getting a Solflare wallet is an optional step because it is not necessary to participate. However, do take into consideration that deBridge app users that are using a Solflare Wallet will receive a 1.1x multiplier on their points. If you choose to proceed with this step, be sure that you have assets on the Solana chain that can be used to fund this wallet.

First, visit https://solflare.com/ and click Access wallet in the top right corner.

Then choose to Create a new Solflare wallet.

Write down your recovery phrase somewhere safe and offline such as by pen in a notebook that you can keep securely. If you lose your recovery phrase, you lose access to your wallet.

After writing it down, proceed to the next step where you will confirm your recovery phrase by manually typing it in word by word.

Once done, your Solflare wallet is ready to connect to deBridge.

Step 2: Make Cross-Chain Transfers

Making cross-chain transfers is the primary method for earning deBridge points. Every $1 paid in fees will give you 100 points. The fees that earn you points are not gas fees but instead are DLN fees which go to deBridge.

Head to https://app.debridge.finance/deswap and Connect Wallet in the top right corner.

Choose which wallet you want to connect, such as the Solflare wallet that is available as a web wallet.

However, in this example we will be proceeding with MetaMask.

Between the two images below, you can see that the amount of assets you bridge does not impact your points earned. Rather it is the DLN fee you need to pay. 

When planning your transactions, take into consideration the gas fees on different chains and also how bridging $10 can get you approximately the same number of points as $200.

Step 3: Refer Others

You can earn 25% of the points successfully earned by your referrals. For example, if your referral earns 100 points then you get 25 points.

In the top right corner, go to Refer. On the referral page, you can also see your points rank, total points, and referral points. 

You will need to choose a chain to generate your referral link. The referral code is assigned by the smart contract in Polygon and is initialized by other chains on deBridge through cross-chain messaging. 

Hit Generate to see the details of how much you will need to pay in fees for the invitation link. In this example, we generated it on Arbitrum and paid 0.001 ETH in fees. Confirm the transaction in your wallet.

After your link is generated, you can copy it to share with others. You will also see more statistics on your referrals such as total users, trade volume, and referral points accrued.

Step 4: Interact with Integration Partners (Optional)

Projects that have integrated deBridge’s cross-chain infrastructure will also provide you with deBridge points. Some examples are Jupiter, Solflare Wallet, Perpetual Protocol, and more. 

We recommend looking at deBridge’s X (previously known as Twitter) account at https://twitter.com/deBridgeFinance to see which projects are utilizing deBridge and providing more opportunities to earn points. You can also browse through https://debridge.finance/blog/ to read up more on the numerous integration partners and decide which others you would want to interact with. 

Do take into consideration that each project will let you earn points in different ways. For example, with Zeta Markets you would need to create and bridge funds to your Zeta margin account. Meanwhile, you could also create a Backpack wallet to connect with deBridge and bridge your funds in order to earn points.

Sidenote

Past loyalty is also being rewarded retroactively, with multipliers for different tiers that are based on a specific time period for wallet interaction. For example, wallets in Tier 1 interacted with deBridge between 17 February 2022 - 15 June 2023 and will receive a 3x multiplier on past activity for this date range as well as 1.5x multiplier on current activities. The table below outlines the different tiers, date range, and multiplier. As shown in step two above, the wallet being used in this example is receiving a 1.1x multiplier on current activities because it interacted with deBridge during the Tier 3 date range.

Conclusion

The deBridge protocol is a bridging solution that connects various blockchains and allows users to bridge assets through cross-chain asset transfers. Having a two layer architecture that utilizes the Protocol Layer and the Infrastructure Layer ensures that decentralization is accessible both on-chain and off-chain. The protocol has recently announced the launch of its deBridge Points program, giving users the opportunity to earn points for a future token airdrop.