During the recent bear market, DeFi protocols have discovered a new mechanism to build excitement around their product and potential upcoming token launches by introducing “points”. Points are very much like loyalty rewards that users of the protocol accrue for various actions ranging from simply using the protocol, to connecting socials, to referring other users. It is assumed that these points are a placeholder for an eventual token allocation upon launch of the protocol token.
In comparison to other growth incentives employed by protocols, the point-meta allows for very explicit incentivization of user actions as well as remove doubt regarding a possible reward for user activity. But since points are not tokens 1:1 the protocol keeps the distribution mechanism of the token allocation until the airdrop is executed. For example: some protocols choose to reward users linearly → more points, more tokens, others choose a minimum allocation or reward lower point scores proportionally higher (on a per point calculation).