LayerZero spots 800k sybil addresses in airdrop scheme

Interoperability giant LayerZero’s ongoing self-reporting effort to combat Sybil attacks has uncovered more than 800,000 sybil addresses.

According to LayerZero, the self-reporting process was accompanied by a rigorous analysis conducted in collaboration with risk management platform Chaos Labs and blockchain analysis firm Nansen.

Sybil’s self-reporting phase is now over. Each self-reported address will receive 15% of the intended token allocation, with the remaining 85% going back to qualified users.

Between Sybil’s self-report and LayerZero’s analysis, @chaos_labsAnd @nansen_ai803,093… pic.twitter.com/wH9eFcMWV5

— LayerZero Labs (@LayerZero_Labs) May 18, 2024

After review, the platform announced that it identified 803,093 addresses as potential Sybil users who created multiple fake accounts to claim more rewards from an airdrop.

In early May, LayerZero revealed a snapshot of the ZRO token airdrop, which was first announced in December 2023. Shortly after the airdrop teaser, LayerZero Labs co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino expressed concerns about the company’s employees participating in the airdrop.

On May 7, Pellegrino announced on X that all LayerZero employees were banned from participating in the airdrop, calling it a “fireable offense.”

Something will be made public about this, every LayerZero lab employee is 100% restricted from making requests and has no eligibility – this would be a fireable offense and has been made known internally for some time and always has been

— Bryan Pellegrino (臭企鹅) (@PrimordialAA) May 7, 2024

Additionally, following the May 1 snapshot, LayerZero began actively identifying Sybil actors. As part of the Sybil-hunting initiative, LayerZero implemented a self-reporting mechanism, allowing addresses suspected of Sybil behavior to come forward.

Each self-reported address is set to receive 15% of the intended token allocation, with the remaining 85% being redistributed among qualified users. This strategic deployment was intended to encourage honest reporting while protecting the ecosystem from exploitative behavior.

More than 2 million addresses were initially flagged as potential Sybil. However, to ensure accuracy and minimize false positives, stricter criteria were applied and the list was narrowed to 803,093 addresses.

According to LayerZero, the results from this phase are preliminary to primarily exclude large clusters of addresses from being eligible for bounty hunting. The platform also stated that the findings were not conclusive. He noted that as the methodology evolves, some addresses may be re-evaluated and potentially removed from the Sybil list.

The next phase, called Sybil Bounty Hunting, starts on May 18. At this stage, LayerZero will invite the community to participate in determining Sybil addresses with a clear set of requirements: bounty hunters must report at least 20 addresses supported by a system. A transparent and robust methodology.

Successful reports will earn participants a reward of 10% of Sybil’s intended token allocation, which will be awarded exclusively to the first eligible reporter of each address.

The platform emphasized that in order to ensure clarity and consistency for participants, the initial list in the self-reporting phase will not be updated during the bounty hunting process.