#338: dGEN1 - A physical device (and airdrop magnet) for Ethereum

dGEN1 is open for preorders

Today the ethOS team introduced the dGEN1, an onchain ‘every-day carry’ for the Ethereum ecosystem.

The device is built by Freedom Factory, a team that created ethOS mobile operating system and shipped the first physical phone with access to the Ethereum ecosystem directly integrated.

The dGEN1 isn’t meant to replace your phone, but instead is a dedicated device for your onchain dealings on ETH. There’s a ‘system-level’ wallet associated with the device, making it easier to access different dApps more easily, and physical features that complement the actions we make on the blockchain.

It’s priced at 0.2 ETH (~$520) and also accepts payments in $DEGEN and fiat via credit card.

As exciting as the device may be for some folks, what actually got me interested is their partnership, referral, and incentive strategy to increase their chances of a successful launch.

Referrals

dGEN1’s referral approach is a standard give/get. Buyers can enter a referral code and get a 5% (.01 ETH) discount, and referrers earn 5% for the referral. The referral window is open until December 31st (which is presumably when the presale window closes?), and referrers can claim their referral rewards after that date.

Pretty standard as referrals and rewards are table stakes for any product or platform launch these days.

Their post-purchase flow is a bit buggy, so I couldn’t grab my referral code, but if you’re thinking of buying one, use my friend atown’s referral code (U1Mzc5).

Partnerships

As I poked into what the dGEN1 was all about, I noticed that it wasn’t all just individuals sharing their ref links. Multiple memecoin communities joined in on the fun with custom 5% off referral codes.

This is a nice win-win-win tactic where:

the buyer gets a 5% discount
the memecoin gets the 5% referral reward, which will (hopefully) go to the treasury for other purposes, or as some form of reward for their community
Freedom Factory gets additional credibility and distribution muscle

Incentives

This was the component that made me dig deeper.

Thanks to the Solana Saga phone that sold out last year and their second phone, the Seeker, onchain physical devices have become airdrop magnets.

They are significantly harder to sybil, indicate that the holder/user/wallet is of higher quality (at least by net worth or disposable income because these devices cost hundreds of dollars), and are owned by users who likely conduct more onchain activity. Jesse, leader of all things Base, captures this point well.

As a result, any community/product/memecoin would be interested in targeting this segment of users. And that’s exactly what happened for folks who purchased a Solana Saga Genesis. Nearly a year later, the airdrops received are still worth a pretty penny. And Solana Seeker holders have been rewarded handsomely for preordering a device that hasn’t even come out yet.

Thanks to Solana Mobile setting the tone, other physical onchain devices have seen demand in part from the potential of these incentives. Aptos partnered with Jambo to release the JamboPhone, Sui launched the SuiPlay0x1, and Solana unveiled the PSG1 gaming device.

This expectation from the dGEN1 is no different, regardless of whether the intention is more out of interest for the device and capabilities or anticipation of some financial outcome (I’d say I’m 80/20 😉, for research purposes!).

In dGEN1’s case however, they’re putting the incentives front and center. Less than two hours after the initial announcement, the dGEN1 account shared this:

6 hours in, it seems that several other communities have participated as well.

Halfway (several scrolls) down the Freedom Factory page, we see this:

So instead of airdrops being an implied reward for preordering a physical device, we see them being promoted as an explicit reward. To me, it almost feels like a dynamic delayed rebate, which makes me feel…I’m not sure how to describe it precisely. But it feels fun.

It’s sorta like having a lotto ticket that has a guaranteed prize, so it’s worth something, but you’re not sure how much it’s worth yet because the prize pool is:

shared with other participants who can still join in until January 1st, 2025
funded by external parties, many who haven’t participated yet
based on a basket of tokens that can go up or down

And this creates a positive loop (at least that’s the goal):

What’s nice about this model is that there’s a degree of baked-in equilibrium. If the airdrop pool grows significantly and the $/holder gets too high, more people will purchase and the $ per holder will decrease in response.

dGEN1 is on Day 1 of preorders, so it’s too early to tell what will happen, especially since there are so many factors at play here. That said, I think we’re observing the emergence of a new incentive model that has been tested through Solana Mobile and is being proactively retested by Freedom Factory.

But please, don’t do this lol.

Did you purchase the dGEN1 with atown’s 5% discount code, U1Mzc5? If not, you have to share or subscribe 😈

165 Web3 marketing keynotes

My friend Paul Martin shared with me a great resource that created. A comprehensive catalog of marketing talks from conferences over the past few years. It’s categorized by topic, year, speaker, event, etc. for your searching pleasure.