Embiggen, The Interest Token You Probably Missed, Is About To End Its Airdrop

OpenRelay, an order book service for decentralized exchanges, has announced that it is ending the airdrop for its little-known token, Embiggen (MBGN). The token derives its name from a popular Simpsons episode in which two new words were coined: “embiggen” and “cromulent.” In case you haven’t guessed, the token isn’t entirely serious. As OpenRelay explains:

“The Embiggen Token is mostly a proof-of-concept. The tokens aren’t backed by any kind of collateral, or even empty promises that they’ll someday be useful for something (maybe we’ll do something fun for MBGN holders in the future, but as it stands what you see is what you get).”

That means that the Embiggen token doesn’t carry any value. Similar to testnet tokens, Embiggen was created to demonstrate how a particular technology might work. As the name “embiggen” might suggest, the token gains interest while it is held in one’s wallet—a function that might eventually become a mainstream feature in other coins.

OpenRelay began the Embiggen airdrop in June, and that airdrop is scheduled to end at midnight on January 1st. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of tokens are unclaimed. When the original blog post was published, users held 40,000 of the 1.082 billion MBGN tokens that are in existence. Most of the non-circulating coins will be locked away in a smart contract, although OpenRelay will set aside “a fraction” of the coins for the future.

Despite the fact that Embiggen doesn’t carry any value, it has provided OpenRelay with plenty of utility. The token has been used to build and test several exchange-related tools and processes over the past year. Notably, OpenRelay used Embiggen tokens to demonstrate that decentralized exchanges and trackers were reporting false trading data in October.

In short, Embiggen allowed OpenRelay to learn to deal with realistic trading activity without the hassle of using tokens that have real-world value. In light of recent debates over the 0x token, which has market value but few real uses, Embiggen proves that not every project needs a token with value. Those who hold Embiggen, meanwhile, can enjoy the satisfaction of participating in DEX development without having spent a penny.

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