Designing Fairer Crypto Launches
An Anti-Sniping and Anti-Rug-Pull Product Concept
A launchpad concept that combines holding rules, early-sale disincentives, and identity signals to reduce bot activity and flash dumps.
Problem statement
Decentralised launchpads struggle to deliver fair launches because automated sniper bots can buy large allocations in the first block and dump those tokens minutes later.
Why this is worth solving
Excerpt illustrating the effect of token sniper bots
Sniper-bot behaviour can distort a launch before genuine retail users have a fair chance to participate.
Excerpt with statistics about rug pulls and crypto scams
Launchpads can also be vulnerable to insider activity and rapidly withdrawn liquidity. Together, bot participation and flash dumping can trigger double-digit price crashes, frighten retail users, and force honest projects to over-incentivise liquidity simply to earn trust.
Solution directions
- Lock the first X blocks: A sniper may buy in the first hour but cannot sell immediately.
- Increase tax on early sales: Make flash dumping unprofitable.
- Add a cooldown: Require an address to hold tokens for at least N blocks before its first transfer; earlier attempts revert.
- Use identity signals: Connect with a service such as Passport and require a minimum score before an address can sell, making bot participation more difficult.
Success metrics
- Reduction in sniper-bot participation.
- Share of retail wallets holding for more than 24 hours after launch.
- Reduction in post-launch volatility, such as keeping a first-day crash below 10%.
- Increase in repeat projects choosing the launchpad.
Next steps
- GitHub-linked proof-of-work vesting.
- Discord AMAs inside the dashboard.
- DAO-based unlock voting.
- Zero-knowledge identity-based anti-bot gating.
