<h2>Intro</h2>
<p>It was 7:37pm New Years Eve when I got a Discord message "hey hey, getting a 500 error when choosing a twitter user to follow". I was 4 pints in celebrating with my girlfriend our first new years together. 0xTechno's partner wir was setting up the <a href="https://www.joinlist.me/toys-by-0xtechno">Toys joinlist page</a> but was unable to add his Twitter account for people to follow.</p>
<p>Only a phone, I opened up my database on Safari and tried to add his account manually. In that time 0xTechno had <a href="https://twitter.com/0xTechno/status/1609278206372376577">tweeted out a link to the joinlist page</a> - which now stands at over 125k views. I managed to add the account manually. But the replies on the tweet came flooding in. "fyi, its linking to the wrong twitter account lol", "You might wanna fix the follow req its currently directing us to somebody else". Shit. My fat fingers added the wrong account. Everyone thought the joinlist page was a scam.</p>
<p>I frantically tried to remove account manually while my girlfriend calmed me down. It wasn't letting me. Wir had to disable the whole Twitter requirement. What a mess.</p>
<p>Now the joinlist page was picking up steam. I checked the amount of requests to my API. 408,799. What? That can't be right. Then people started to message me "i think your page is getting botted heavy". That makes sense. But another problem.</p>
<p>This is the story of how we removed over 50% of bot accounts for 0xTechno's Toys project.</p>
<h2>Tools used</h2>
<p>This is the list of tools/services/methods we used to determine bots.</p>
<h3>Fingerprintjs</h3>
<p><a href="https://fingerprint.com/">Fingerprintjs</a> is a service which detects how unique your device is based on many attributes such as IP, Browser, and Fonts installed on your computer. It spits out a unique hash based on many inputs.</p>
<p>If a wallet is registered with the same hash, we know it's coming from the same device. We didn't want to punish people who registered twice from the same location, because this could be couples. The number we chose was 4. Because it's not very common 4 different people would enter at the same location.</p>
<h3>Sketchy emails</h3>
<p>Me and 0xTechno ran through the list manually and spotted some strange emails. One example was <code>{hash}@{unknown-domain}.xyz</code>. The pattern seems to be an 8 character hash, followed by the domain. Very sus. There were about 4 other domains with that we spotted this for. So we just removed any entries that fit this pattern.</p>
<h3>Multi-sig wallets</h3>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ssenaigor23">Igor Sena</a> reached out to me listing some wallets that were bot suspects. Specifically, wallets funded by a multi-sig contract. <a href="https://etherscan.io/tx/0xcd36f88bfe516abc7c862af13e6f69bb866b20ccf181aa3eef290e70b3527d34">Heres an example</a>. You'll notice that this wallet funded 95 other wallets. We removed all these addresses.</p>
<h3>No answers</h3>
<p>Very simple. We filtered out any entries that didn't answer the question to the raffle.</p>
<h3>Invalid emails</h3>
<p>Another simple one. People who registered with an invalid email were not eligble.</p>
<h3>Mintkit</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.mintkit.ai/">Mintkit</a> recently released an easy to use app which detects bots from a list of wallets. You upload the list, and they assign each wallet a tag such as Bot, Whale etc.. Tagging is done by the funding and wallet activity from the past 180 days.</p>
<h3>ChatGPT Answers</h3>
<p>Once I did my filtering, I sent the list over to 0xTechno. From a total 4249 entries, We got it down to 2297. Around 50% of bot accounts were removed. 0xTechno then wanted to go through this list, and do his own checking. One thing he did was to check answers for any ChatGPT type answers. One example was this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to collect Toys by 0xTechno because they are unique and creative, and represent an innovative approach to the traditional toy-making process. They combine traditional craftsmanship with modern 3D printing technology to create one-of-a-kind, limited-edition toys that are not only visually appealing but also highly functional and durable. Additionally, 0xTechno toys are made from sustainable materials, making them a great choice for eco-friendly shoppers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Once he did his checks, he then tweeted out the final list of 616.</p>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>Overall a great success from our first bot filtering. <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/toys-by-0xtechno">Toys are now trading at 2 ETH</a>, and trending no.1 on OpenSea.</p>
<p>Going forward I will be adding cloudflare protection, Google reCAPTCHA, and verification if projects were to opt in. Email verification, 2FA. The added barriers will deter most bot accounts.</p>
<p>If are starting your allowlist, <a href="https://www.joinlist.me/">try Joinlist for free</a></p>
<h2>Special thanks</h2>
<p>I want to thank <a href="https://twitter.com/0xTechno">0xTechno</a> for using Joinlist, Wir for reaching out and guiding me through his issues, <a href="https://twitter.com/ssenaigor23">Igor Sena</a> for his great advice on spotting multi-sig wallets, <a href="https://twitter.com/erkzh">Eric</a> for his advice on what to do next. And to my lovely girlfriend for being very patient and understanding while we were celebrating our new years together when the floodgates opened.</p>


How we removed 50% of bot accounts for 0xTechno Toys

<p><strong>TLDR</strong>: Joinlist is a free Premint alternative that saves you 1 ETH to start collecting wallets for your pre-sale. 
Click here to get started.</p>
<p>Premint is an allowlist management tool. When launching a collection, creators typically collected wallets on a Google Sheet spreadsheet which was extremely painful. Premint came along and made this process much easier. Automating tasks such as proof of ownership for an NFT, proof of minimum ETH balance, and requirements to follow your socials. Premint is a great tool, but it comes with a hefty price tag of 1 ETH to start collecting wallets. This is a lot of money for a lot of creators, especially if they are launching free collections.</p>
<p>But while Premint was the first to introduce the tools to help you manage your presale, it has some drawbacks. Most notably is the price. Getting started with Premint costs 1 ETH - a whopping $1,749.54 as of writing this.</p>
<p>The cost of Premint is the main reason creators are put off. That is probably the reason you are reading this article.</p>
<p>Luckily we have researched to come up with a list of free premint alternatives:</p>
<ul>
<li>Joinlist</li>
<li>Heymint</li>
<li>Mintparty</li>
<li>Hype</li>
</ul>
<p>We’ll jump into the features and pros &#x26; cons of each app. But first, let’s understand why you’d want a premint alternative.</p>
<h2>Why do you need a Premint Alternative?</h2>
<h3>The Price</h3>
<p>The price is the main reason why creators look for an alternative. The huge entry point of 1 ETH is simply too much to get started for your project's journey.</p>
<p>Premint allows you to create a project without paying. But you cannot start collecting wallets without paying for the Creator Key.</p>
<p>Creators simply don’t have the budget to pay this price in the early stages of their project. It’s a lot of money to pay for a tool that you may not even use in the future.</p>
<h3>No free trial to get started</h3>
<p>While Premint allows you to create a project for free in their dashboard, your community cannot enter your pre-sale.</p>
<p>This sleight of hand has stung many creators in the past. They spend a lot of time updating their project information, to find out later that they have to pay the costly $1,700 to start accepting entries.</p>
<h3>Only supports Ethereum</h3>
<p>Ethereum is a revolutionary technology which allows for programmable money. But comes with some problems; the speed of transactions can be slow and gas can be pricey. These problems have paved the way for new chains like Solana to emerge.</p>
<p>More and more creators are taking note of this trend, and are exploring their options and launching on a chain like Solana which focuses on speed and low gas costs.</p>
<p>That’s why an NFT allowlist tool like Premint, needs to support this growing trend - and not just support Ethereum.</p>
<h3>Complicated User Interface</h3>
<p>When jumping into the Premint dashboard to set up your project, you can be overwhelmed with the many text boxes and manual work you have to do to get set up.</p>
<p>For example, to add a collection to ensure users own a particular NFT, you have to;</p>
<ol>
<li>Find the address of your token. Looks something like this (0x…abc)</li>
<li>Input this address in an input field</li>
<li>Type the name of the token in another input field</li>
<li>Find the opensea URL for this collection</li>
<li>Add the URL to ANOTHER text box</li>
</ol>
<p>Wouldn’t it be nice if you could search for a collection, and this manual work is done for you in one click?</p>
<h3>No instant updates</h3>
<p>In today’s modern web world, users want their changes to reflect immediately. No waiting. No page refreshing. Just a seamless experience from hitting Save to seeing the changes rapidly.</p>
<p>If you expect this to happen in the Premint dashboard, you will be disappointed.</p>
<p>Saving the project description in Premint for example is painful. Once you have carefully crafted how you want to describe your project, you have to scroll to the bottom of the page, hit save, and wait a couple of seconds for the page to reload, then it takes you back to the dashboard.</p>
<p>What if you wanted to edit something after the description? E.g add your website link or add your project profile image.</p>
<p>The lack of thought behind the user interface introduces a painful user experience. As a user of the modern web, the tool should assist you, not go against you.</p>
<h2>4 Best Alternatives to Premint</h2>
<h3>Joinlist</h3>
<p>Joinlist is a free allowlist management tool with a focus on speed, design and ease of use.</p>
<p>Let’s jump into why Joinlist is the best free alternative to Premint:</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<p><strong>Accent colors</strong></p>
<p>Joinlist is a designer-focused tool - and it shows. You can customize the accent color of your project to match your brand.</p>
<p>Make your presale page your own by selecting an accent color that matches your brand.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/accent.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Sometimes you want to keep your registration page private. Or even create a riddle for your community. Joinlist allows you to do this easily with Password Protection.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.joinlist.me/changelog/2022-09-09-password-protection">Read more on the changelog about Password Protection</a></p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/password-protection.crop.mp4'} /></p>
<p>The Joinlist Embed Button enables you to share your page right on your website with a small snippet of code. This is a great way to get more signups.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/share.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Once your registration page ends, notify the winners of your raffle with a beautifully crafted email.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.joinlist.me/changelog/2022-09-02-automated-raffles">Read more on the changelog about Automated Raffles</a></p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/raffle.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Easily export the list of entries on your Joinlist page to begin your minting journey.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/export.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Ensure your community own certain token(s) to be eligible.</p>
<p>Make sure they also have the balance required for your mint. This is a great way to ensure your community is serious about your collection.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/ethereum.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Require users to follow your profile to enter your pre-sale.</p>
<p>Display a tweet you want members to engage with. This is a great way to get more engagement on your collection.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/twitter.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Ensure users are part of your server.</p>
<p>Guarantee members have a certain discord role.</p>
<p>Certify accounts are older than a certain date to prevent bots.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/discord.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Whitelist members on Solana.</p>
<p>Our Solana integration also supports mobile so users can seamlessly register on any device.</p>
<p>&#x3C;Video src={'/solana.sm.mp4'} /></p>
<p>Collaborate with other communities by making it a requirement to follow another Twitter account, or own a collaborator's NFT.</p>
<p>This is a great way to get more exposure for your project.</p>
<h4>Pros</h4>
<ul>
<li>Free</li>
<li>Feature-rich to get you started with collecting wallets</li>
<li>Extremely intuitive dashboard</li>
<li>Designer-focused registration pages</li>
<li>Supports many chains (Ethereum, Solana) and platforms (Twitter, discord). More on the way</li>
<li>Display the list of entries on your registration page</li>
<li>Multiple sharing options to give your page more exposure</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cons</h4>
<ul>
<li>No minimum Solana balance (yet!)</li>
<li>Not yet open to the public - 
Click here to get started.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Heymint</h3>
<p>Heymint is an NFT allowlist tool built by a small team. Heymint arose on the scene because they needed a tool to manage their presale, and they couldn’t find one that met their needs.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Require minimum SOL balance</li>
<li>Must own a certain NFT to be eligible for registration</li>
<li>Must follow multiple accounts on Twitter to be eligible</li>
<li>Discord integration to ensure users are in a server and have a role</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pros</h4>
<ul>
<li>Is free to use</li>
<li>Has a good team building the product</li>
<li>Ability to ask questions on the registration page</li>
<li>Has Password Protection built-in</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cons</h4>
<ul>
<li>Requires users to go through a long process to verify your identity</li>
<li>Requires you to follow their Twitter profile</li>
<li>No autocomplete feature to easy add Twitter profiles and collections for requirements</li>
<li>No customisation options to style your registration page</li>
</ul>
<h3>Mintparty</h3>
<p>Mintparty, like the other tools here, is an not allowlist tool. It provides you with the tooling to build your presale.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Supports multiple integrations such as Ethereum, Discord and Twitter</li>
<li>Export to CSV</li>
<li>Twitter requirements (follow, engage with a tweet)</li>
<li>Discord requirements (must be in server, must have a role)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pros</h4>
<ul>
<li>Is free to get started</li>
<li>Has a side-to-side view of the project details and the public registration page</li>
<li>Allows you to add custom fields on your registration page</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cons</h4>
<ul>
<li>No information on their freemium plan</li>
<li>The concept of creating a campaign can be confusing for new users</li>
<li>No ability to add customization to your registration page</li>
<li>No ability to add a password to your registration page</li>
</ul>
<h3>Hype</h3>
<p>Hype is an NFT allowlist tool. They support multiple chains and allow you to get started for free.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Export to CSV</li>
<li>Must be in Discord serve and have a role to register</li>
<li>Must follow a certain Twitter account to be eligible for registration</li>
<li>Minimum Discord account age</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pros</h4>
<ul>
<li>Is also free to get started</li>
<li>Has integrations such as Ethereum, Solana, Twitter and Discord</li>
<li>Can easily export entries to CSV</li>
<li>Email verification on the registration page</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cons</h4>
<ul>
<li>No discord bot</li>
<li>User Interface is hard to navigate</li>
<li>No ability to customize the public-facing registration page</li>
<li>Can be overwhelming with the number of input fields needed to fill out</li>
</ul>
<h2>Who is the best Premint Alternative?</h2>
<p>While premint is the leader in allowing listing for NFTs, it is far from perfect.</p>
<p>The price is the main reason why creators look for alternatives. And at 1 ETH, I don’t blame them. Premint provides all the tools to get started with collecting wallets for your presale, there are other options out there that do the same thing while being free.</p>
<p>Luckily you now have a list of free Premint alternatives to choose from.</p>
<p>Joinlist is a free NFT allowlist with a focus on design, simplicity, and speed. You now don’t have to break the bank to have a beautifully styled presale page.</p>
<p>By covering all the basic features Premint has, Joinlist is a strong contender. And with the free price tag, it’s an easy decision.</p>
<p>Take your allowlist game to the next level. We are currently in private beta, but we are opening up to the public soon.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.joinlist.me/login">Get started now</a></p>


Blog|Updates from the Joinlist team