Namada Unveils RPGF Airdrop of NAM Tokens Rewarding Researchers, Developers, and Stakers

In a groundbreaking move, Namada, a protocol specializing in asset-agnostic, multichain privacy solutions, has announced the initiation of its Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RPGF) program. The program involves the allocation of 6.5% of the total supply (65M) of NAM, Namada’s staking, governance, and transaction fee token, to recognize and reward contributors in the fields of privacy, zero-knowledge technology, and more.

Acknowledging the invaluable contributions of developers and researchers to public and open-source projects, a substantial portion of the NAM allocation is dedicated to those who have played a crucial role in the development of the Zcash, Rust, ZKP, Privacy, and Interchain tech ecosystems.

Rewarding to Pioneering Contributors

The RPGF round encompasses various categories of contributors, including developers of key Zcash infrastructure, cryptographic libraries, ZIPs, and Rust dependencies pivotal for Namada’s development. Contributors to zero-knowledge (ZK) protocols, proving systems, cryptography solutions, decentralized privacy protocols, as well as those contributing to ZK learning resources and etheresear.ch in ZK-related topics, are eligible for the RPGF distribution.

Additionally, the RPGF round aims to reward those contributing to research and development efforts in consensus, bridge design, interoperability, and public goods funding. To qualify as a public contributor, researchers must have submitted at least two commits before November 30 to specified GitHub repositories or posted on the etheresear.ch forum in relevant sections.

Depending on the level of activity, contributors with 10-20 commits will be eligible for a higher allocation of NAM tokens. Other allocations in the RPGF airdrop include rewards for Gitcoin contributors involved in ZK tech and crypto advocacy, participants in the Namada Trusted Setup, stakers in Osmosis and Cosmos, and holders of BadKids NFTs.

Snapshots were taken on November 1 for staking and November 14 for NFT holders. Distribution statistics reveal a diverse group of contributors, including 7,094 researchers and developers, 191,715 on-chain accounts and Bad Kids, and 2510 contributors in the Trusted Setup. Accounts eligible for the NAM RPGF have until December 28, 2024, to submit their genesis Namada account on rpgfdrop.namada.net and claim their allocation.

Christopher Goes, co-founder of Namada, emphasized the importance of supporting public goods, stating, “If we want to live in a flourishing world of public goods, we must design and use economic systems which support them not only in rhetoric but also in material compensation. Namada depends upon many public goods which have come before, and this RPGF drop is part of our attempt to give some ownership back to the creators and supporters of those goods and do our part in realizing such a world.”

The RPGF claim precedes the eagerly anticipated launch of the Namada mainnet in early 2024. The mainnet promises fully shielded transactions for cross-chain assets with a shared anonymity set. The NAM token will play a pivotal role in on-chain governance, facilitating further Public Goods Funding, and serving as a means of payment for utilizing the cross-chain shielded asset protocol.

Namada, as the first chain built on the Anoma protocol, stands out for its innovative Multi-Asset Shielded Pool (MASP), providing Zcash-level privacy for all assets bridged to Namada. This groundbreaking approach ensures reliable privacy even for lesser-known assets, making it more accessible to a broader audience within the crypto community.