Blast announces foundation for protocol governance ahead of airdrop

Blast, an Ethereum Layer 2 network created by the founder of the disruptive NFT marketplace Blur, said Monday that it is creating a foundation to help govern the protocol.

The announcement, made via Blast's X account , comes two days before the protocol's token airdrop, which is set for later this week.

"Until now this account and website was managed by Arcade Research, a Blast development company," according to the post. "As part of the transition towards a decentralized governance structure, this Twitter, the website, and governance of the Blast protocol are being transitioned to foundation control."

Blast said the foundation is being "created to support the community in achieving the Blast Vision, which will be shared publicly on June 26," according to a post .

Blast tokens will be divided into different categories, although the designations remain unclear. According to a breakdown of Blast tokens posted to X on Sunday, per their division into different wallet addresses, there could be as many as four to five categories.

Perhaps Blur farmers will receive tokens, the post speculated.

The Blast project has announced its intention to allocate half of the airdrop to developers through Blast Gold, while the other half will be distributed to early users through Blast Points based on their wallet and dapp balances , according to a note.

“50% of the Blast Airdrop is allocated to Blast Points,” the project has said, adding that users’ wallets will earn points automatically for every block based on their balances. For dapps, Blast Gold is meant to incentivize additional dapp growth. “This means that Dapps should give 100% of any Gold they earn to their users,” the project stated.

Blur founder behind Blast

Blast was developed by Tieshun Roquerre, founder of the Blur NFT marketplace. The Layer 2 protocol entered early access in November 2023. Its total value locked exceeded $2 billion earlier this year, according to  data  from DefiLlama.

Blast-based games have recently experienced added popularity. The crypto trading card game "Fantasy" launched on Blast's mainnet in April after a successful testnet phase. Recently, the protocol entered the top 10 platforms by daily fee generation.

Disclaimer: Larry Cermak, CEO of The Block, is an angel investor in Blast.