The initial 64.5% were distributed to BTC holders who chose to participate, and in later stages also to Byte holders, in proportion to their BTC and Byte balances. However, by August of 2017 it became clear that this method fails to bring real adoption while quickly draining the undistributed funds, and the team began introducing other distribution methods to replace it, with most of these methods being tied to usage or contribution to Obyte ecosystem. The majority of the new methods, as well as the initial one, are tried for the first time, without prior experience, and are largely experimental, hence high rate of failures is to be expected.
Today, most of the distribution happens in exchange for contribution to Obyte, such as through grants, to team members for their time, to companies for the services they provide to Obyte, prizes for contest participants, etc.
Free distribution through various methods continues too, albeit at a slower pace.
Here is a summary of the main distribution methods as of March 2021. All except the last one are free. 770,677 GB are already distributed, which is 77.07% of the total supply of 1,000,000 GB.
