1/ Blast just announced its fourth gold distribution. 

Where is the gold going, and how is the 
@Blast_L2
 team using it to build the ecosystem it wants?  

I analyzed all four gold distributions to find out, so you don't have to

Let's dig in👇

2/ First, what is Blast gold, and why is it interesting?

Blast gold is an incentive meant to reward dapps for building on Blast

Dapps that receive gold are expected to distribute it back to their users. 50% of the total Blast airdrop will be allocated to gold holders

Learning crypto at Electric Capital
Former investor at Princeton endowment
NYC maxi 

3/Unlike previous point farming incentives, Blast gold rewards dapps directly and users only indirectly

It is a novel approach to ecosystem building

By pointing gold incentives at dapps instead of users, Blast can direct how its ecosystem grows/behaves via its incentive program

4/ Blast uses a four-part formula for gold:

  -Category weight (wt): what kind of dapp is it?
  -Blast native wt: how loyal is it?
  -Dapp wt: how well is it doing?
  -Incentive wt: is it rewarding users?

Blast can dial up these wts for dapps it wants to grow, or dial them down

5/ The largest factor in gold allocation is dapp wt

Dapps that attract users, embrace Blast's ethos, and avoid hacks can receive a 1x, 5x, 10x, or even 15x multiplier

Straight forward enough. Dapps that do well, and increase Blast's mindshare and reputation get more gold

6/ Category wt is the second biggest gold factor

Blast can (and has!) changed wts between distributions.

Since distribution #1, spot dexes+socialfi wts have pumped

Most other category wts went down

Spot dexes now get a 3x multiplier over lending & gamblefi; socialfi gets 2.5x

7/ The impact of category wt is real.

Spot dexes and socialfi dapps have each captured ~20% of total gold distributed to date. 

Gamefi and perp dexes have captured ~15% each

Other categories like lending, gamblefi, and NFT infra have faired less well

8/ In fact, category weight is the true kingmaker for gold distributions

Dapps that do equally well but are in different categories can have (and have had) vastly different gold outcomes. Even if all other gold formula weights are the same

9/ For example...

In the latest distribution, Juice Finance earned a platinum dapp wt (15x) multiplier alongside Thurster and Fantasty Top, but received 60-70% less gold

Juice also received less gold than socialfi dapp District1, which earned a lower (10x) multiplier

10/ This makes category wt a powerful lever for Blast as it builds its ecosystem

If Blast wants to scale up a type of dapp, they can drive up that category's wt

Because gold eventually flows to users, more gold in a category helps supercharge rewards to users, driving retention

11/ More gold for category wt winners also helps attract new users

Blast farmers, seeing high gold allocations for a category, are incentivized to use those dapps to earn gold for themselves

More users = more traction. More traction = higher dapp wt, creating a flywheel

12/ So why has Blast driven gold + users to the categories it has?

Spot dexes help bootstrap liquidity and are core infrastructure for any ecosystem

Socialfi and gamefi have captured the meta and drive attention

Boosting these categories helps Blast scale its ecosystem

13/ It's still early, but Blast's gold strategy seems to be working

Gold is just one tool in Blast's belt. Stay tuned for a deep dive into Jackpot

I also expect we'll see more creative incentives from the Blast team after next month's airdrop. 

Until then, we wait and see