What is a snapshot?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 4 min
In short
A snapshot records the state of a chain at a chosen moment, and is used to decide airdrop eligibility or voting weight. It is normally taken at a specific block height, so buying afterwards does not count. The timing is not always announced in advance, and buying in after an announcement often falls outside it.
Key points
- Recording balances or activity at a specific block height
- Used for airdrop eligibility and voting weight
- Buying after the block does not qualify
- The timing is not always announced beforehand
Definition
A record of balances and activity as of a particular block height, used to fix airdrop eligibility, governance voting weight or asset allocation at a fork.
Because a chain's state is fixed at each block, any block height can be replayed to reconstruct every address's balance. Snapshots exploit that: the same result can be recomputed at any time afterwards.
There are three common uses. Airdrops use them to determine who qualifies and for how much. Governance votes use the holdings at the moment voting opened, which blunts the tactic of borrowing tokens just before a vote. And after a fork, holdings at the split determine allocations on the new chain.
For users, the timing is what matters. Snapshots are frequently taken without notice and announced afterwards, so buying in once you hear about it does not qualify. Where a voting snapshot is scheduled in advance, you generally need to hold in your own address at that moment — coins left on an exchange may not count.
Watch out for
- · 'Buy before the snapshot' pitches have no basis unless the timing is confirmed
- · Balances left on an exchange may not be counted
- · Eligibility is the team's call — a balance does not guarantee inclusion