Has the act of '毛' (lu mao) really died out?
This question has been asked too many times lately, to the point where I've become too lazy to give an emotional answer.
If I had to respond in one sentence, I would say:
'Lu mao' hasn't died, but it is no longer a channel for 'ordinary people to get rich while lying down.'
What many people miss is not 'lu mao' itself, but that extremely loose period —
when projects would rush to get users, data, and stories as soon as they launched,
airdrops were given out as if they cost nothing, the rules were rough, and the selection was almost zero.
But you need to understand one thing:
that was not the norm; that was the 'money-throwing phase' in the capital cycle.
From the perspective of project parties and exchanges, airdrops have never been a benefit, but rather the lowest cost and most efficient way to acquire new users.
With a bit of tokens, you get users, wallet numbers, interaction volume, and topic relevance,
in essence, it's no different from how internet companies burn subsidies and give out coupons.
It’s just that now, this model has been recalculated.
In the early days, it was 'give out a bit more, let's get people in first';
now it has changed to 'only those who truly have value can receive that portion.'
So you'll find that the rules have started to become complex, the thresholds have started to rise,
actions have been segmented, cycles have been prolonged,
even the term 'lu mao' itself is being deliberately removed.
This is not because projects have become kinder,
but because blindly issuing tokens no longer solves problems, but instead creates trouble.
If you understand 'lu mao' as:
just clicking around, waiting for an overnight turnaround —
then it has indeed ended.
But if you see it as a way to:
use time, information disparity, and execution power to exchange for early pricing rights,
then it has never disappeared; it has simply transformed from a 'retail frenzy' into a 'game for the patient.'
What has truly been eliminated is not the act of 'lu mao',
but those who only want results but are unwilling to bear the costs of the process.
