# Don’t just chase points: what’s really worth watching in these 3 early projects today

Today, check **Nowa Finance, ZenaLabs, Kaito Aura**: one begins cracking down on multi-wallet volume farming, one explains the Season 1 scoring formula clearly, and one open-sources a browser extension after a privacy controversy.

What’s worth watching now isn’t because new “free tasks” have appeared, but because the rules, anti-cheat measures, and data boundaries have all undergone verifiable changes in the past few days.

The maximum risk is also different: Nowa is tied to witches, Zena is paid multipliers and small-sample data, and Kaito involves expanded permissions and behavioral data collection.

## Nowa Finance: The leaderboard is shifting from “looking at transaction volume” to “looking at behavior sources”

**Quick take: ** On August 23, the official banned 10 wallets, clearly stating that binding multiple addresses to different social identities and aggregating Devnet funds before amplifying transaction volume is considered违规 (violations); this explains the future filtering direction even more than newly added tasks.

**Why now: ** This audit covers addresses that have been long occupying the top ranks since August 5. The official also distinguishes between the primary manipulating wallets and the wallets responsible for routing funds, meaning detection may look not only at how many times a single address is used, but also at funding relationships and identity linkages. For anyone still on the leaderboard, today the priority should be to re-check your account structure—not to keep stacking meaningless transaction volume.

**Metrics worth tracking:**

- After banned addresses are removed, whether the top-of-leaderboard transaction volume drops noticeably;

- Whether the official publishes more detailed rules for relationship detection, appeals, and reward settlement;

- Whether real product behaviors—such as Spot, BNPL, and Vault—gradually replace pure volume farming.

**Pitfalls I’ll avoid:** Don’t collect test funds from multiple wallets into the main wallet, and don’t treat third-party aggregated exchange ratios as the final rule. Devnet costs are low, but that doesn’t mean batch operations have no eligibility cost.

## ZenaLabs: The rules are very specific, but “early” and “reliable” are not the same thing

**Quick take: ** Season 1 has clearly stated that only CLAIMED points count toward proportional calculations at season end. Real cost is determined together by session activity, consecutive days, claiming fees, and NFT thresholds.

**Why now: ** From August 22–23, the official continuously disclosed point flows, snapshot definitions, and multipliers: points first enter the unclaimed balance, and only after paying small fees do they become claimed; consecutive periods of 3, 7, 14, 30, and 90 days correspond to increasing multipliers, and missed sign-ins reset the counters. The project also reported that user counts and the number of completed sessions are both still small. That makes the rules easier to observe, but it also means the data lacks external verification.

**Metrics worth tracking:**

- Whether active users and the number of completed sessions increase consistently, not just because of official posts;

- The share of already-claimed points, and whether the Season end date and snapshot time are publicly disclosed;

- The real points efficiency for users without NFTs, and whether it’s sufficient to support a low-cost experience.

**Pitfalls I’ll avoid:** I won’t assume high value just because there are fewer participants, and I won’t buy NFTs for multipliers. Claiming fees may look low, but frequent operations, consecutive check-ins, and time spent focusing are the main costs. Verify the accounting and the contracts first, then decide whether to continue.

## Kaito Aura: Open source is progress, but it’s not the end of privacy concerns

**Quick take: ** Pulse was open-sourced on August 21 and started integrating external platform behaviors into Aura. It’s more like a verifiable reputation experiment than a confirmed empty investment qualification.

**Why now: ** On August 20, the official announced that Pulse can be used to verify Axis referrals and that they count toward the relevant multiplier; the next day it expanded the code publicly and submitted an updated store build. Meanwhile, the community’s technical review has focused on serious questions about telemetry, device fingerprinting, data retention, and whether the store version matches the source code. Today’s key judgment isn’t “what the score can be exchanged for,” but whether you’re willing to trade behavioral data for a reputation layer that’s still being iterated.

**Metrics worth tracking:**

- Whether the actual store version can be matched to the open-source code;

- Whether there are independent security audits and clear data deletion/retention policies;

- How many real applications Aura is integrated with, and whether the relationship between points and verifiable contributions remains stable.

**Pitfalls I’ll avoid:** Don’t test directly in a browser environment that has your main wallet, transaction accounts, and sensitive sessions loaded, and don’t automatically interpret Aura as the next round of token entitlements. Open source improves transparency, but how the backend handles the data still needs separate verification.

## A collectible decision-making framework

When you encounter a new integration or an early project, filter it in four steps: **first find the hard nodes from the past 7 days, then verify whether the points fall under a clear definition, calculate the three categories of costs—capital, time, and privacy—and finally check whether the project publishes anti-cheat rules and the boundaries for appeals.** Projects that have “lots of tasks” but lack snapshot definitions, product retention, or rule enforcement should have a lower priority. The more specific the rules are, the more you should also check whether they hide costs through multipliers, permissions, or identity linkages.