On 10 August 2020, Flare Networks announced their plans to build a smart contract platform for XRP by leveraging on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The Flare Network, as it called, is touted as the world's first Turing complete Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) network.
Spark tokens will be required for operation of the Flare Network. In total, 100 billion Spark tokens will be created via a 1:1 utility fork of XRP. 25 billion tokens will be earmarked for Flare Networks Limited and 30 billion for Flare Foundation (a non-profit organisation). The remaining 45 billion tokens will be airdropped to XRP holders (excluding known Ripple Lab addresses).
At the time of this post, 3 exchanges have announced their support of the airdrop. XRP holders holding funds in non-supported exchanges or custodial wallets will need to transfer their funds to a self-custody wallet before the snapshot, which will take place on 12 December 2020.
XRP holders will have 6 months from the date of the snapshot to claim their Spark tokens before they are burned. Users of the supported exchanges will receive their tokens automatically while those using a self-custody wallet will need to manually claim their tokens. A tool is available for users of LEDGER Nano and XUMM wallets to easily prepare their accounts for the airdrop. It is developed by the founder of XRPL Labs who is not affiliated with Flare Networks. Users are advised to use the tool at their own risk.
To manually claim the Spark tokens, users must set their Flare address in the Message Key field on their XRP Ledger address. The detailed instructions can be found on Flare Networks' blog which I have reproduced below.
As of 2 September, there has been an 8% increase (59.21 million) in XRP holdings with 3,091 new XRP accounts created since the airdrop was announced (please refer to table below).
With 45 billion Spark tokens up for grabs, this may be a good time to pick up some XRP, join the airdrop and get some free tokens. At the time of this post, XRP is trading at USD0.257396, down from a 7 day high of USD0.294619.
If the Flare Network proves successful, the price of those free tokens could represent a golden opportunity for some juicy profit. Even if the project fails, it should not be hard to recoup the cost of the XRP.
That said, it is always wise to invest only what you are willing to lose.
Disclaimer: I am not and have never professed to be a professional trader or an investment expert. This article is purely for information purposes and readers should always exercise due caution when making any investments.
