The future of Ethereum scaling is about making all chains work together seamlessly. That’s the Espresso vision! The blockchain infrastructure protocol focused on shared sequencing and cross-chain composability.
The goal was simple but powerful! A brand new world where users can interact with applications across different chains without even thinking about switching networks.
One of the biggest challenges for the growing rollup ecosystem is how transactions are ordered and finalized across multiple chains. Each rollup typically operates with its own sequencer therefore fragmentation!
Espresso is building a foundational infrastructure layer that helps Ethereum Layer-2 rollups coordinate more efficiently. The shared sequencer dream got over me... until TGE day!
Was fully bullish on the $ESP announcements, and when the checker went live I was buzzing. Used the tools, tested many chains and interacted with so many Espresso partners!
By coordinating how transactions are processed across chains, the protocol enables smoother cross-chain interactions and better composability between applications living on different Layer-2 networks.
Espresso tackles this by introducing a shared sequencer layer designed to improve both interoperability and efficiency between rollups. But they failed to deliver a good airdrop... at least for me!
Everyone was able to see whether they qualified for the airdrop, and in my case, I was pleasantly surprised to find that two of my wallets were eligible. Done the check and minted my Proof of Humanity!
I managed to reach 31 points by simply re-verifying my X account, Discord, and linking my GitHub history, which turned out to be enough to pass the requirement.
Unfortunately, things turned out to be pretty shameless on TGE day. I was eligible on both my main wallet and an alt that I rarely used for DeFi and other activity... but claimed only one share!
I was able to claim my secondary allocation, but when it came to my main wallet it suddenly showed up as not eligible. We’re not talking about some inactive wallet.
This was a wallet with onchain activity across more than 40 chains and interactions with over 10 Espresso ecosystem partners that were included in the reward pool.
I opened a Discord ticket and spent days chasing updates, only to eventually be told that my wallet had been marked as eligible incorrectly. If that’s how eligibility is handled, then honestly ESP can dump to zero for all I care.
I sold my bag and I’m not looking back. Swapped 3547 $ESP for $250 worth of $ETH and called the day! I still think about the magnitude of the main wallet eligibility!
Now here's the moon-math for a failed airdrop! If I got 3,547 $ESP for just $250 worth of $ETH on the wallet I rarely used, there’s no doubt my main wallet would have been at least 5x that.
We’re talking about a missed four-figure airdrop thanks to some ridiculous glitch. Like… seriously, WTF? At least there’s a silver lining to the story and more $ESP heading my way!
I know I’ll be getting more $ESP through the ERA Drops, which reward holders of $ERA in the Caldera ecosystem. But let’s be real... the moment those tokens hit my wallet they’re getting sold.
No sentimental HODLing here. If glitches are allowed to steal my primary allocation, I’m not letting these extras sit and hope for a miracle. Once a project disappoints me ... it's game over!
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