Blur founder Pacman responded to community worries about Blast being a Ponzi scheme, citing the allegedly amazing profits it gives customers, in a post on the X platform. According to Pacman, MakerDAO and Lido supply Blast with the first returns. MakerDAO’s profits come from on-chain US Treasury bonds, which are essential to the US economy’s operation, whereas Lido’s rewards are generated from ETH staking returns, which are a component of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. These gains are essential to both off-chain and on-chain economies, and they are not unsustainable. The platform’s decision to make these returns the “default value” for all users—thereby democratising high returns and giving consumers access to previously hidden returns—is what accounts for Blast’s high returns.
Pacman adds that Blast’s incentive system for invitations is not a novel one. Enabling as many early donors as possible to receive L2 returns in order to grow the on-chain economy is Blast’s mission. Blast would be nothing without a community. Contributions to L2 might take many different forms: developing the underlying protocol, building L2-based apps, or simply using L2. Blast offers invitation prizes because it believes that users who bring friends on board add genuine value and should be rewarded for their efforts in making Blast a successful L2.