Bitcoin Forum

Is there an exchange rate for testnet bitcoin. I did some search but couldn't find one?
in other words, does test bitcoins has value?

No, why should it have any value?

I can see that the testnet are quite busy:
http://tbtc.blockr.io/block/list/

would seem to hold more value than some of the alts

when btc goes well nova....

test net btc will likely be traded......

what alt? not certainly those in the first top 10-20, unless you're not talking about marketcap

Why not?
If one person wants to buy and another person wants to sell?

It's mostly used for testing and dev can easily reset it. There are plenty of faucet which gives out free testnet coins for testing. It's pretty much free.

If we were to go by that rule, everything would have value (dead coins too?). You can find a fool to buy pretty much anything if advertised properly.

There's also this.

Reset the running network with clients, modes and miners? ;D Are you joking?
It is not "easily"

it already happend that testnet-coins gained value but every time the testnet was resetted.

How can they have monetary value without being on an exchange? Was there some shifty exchange that had a bitcoin testnet market? It would come as no surprise to me considering some of the utterly crap alts on the worst exchanges. A reset bitcoin testnet network would probably last longer than most of their networks. Some of them are dead within a week.

Well you can exchange them for bitcoin if you find a person willing to do the trade. Mostly I've seen people give away free testnet coins to anyone who wants them. But they are pretty much worthless. I guess they would be a little bit more expensive as time progresses, since testnets block halving occurs just like bitcoins and testnet coins would be hard to come by in the distant future.

Source (http://tpbit.blogspot.pt/2013/11/on-subject-of-altcoins.html)

This is basically it :)

Haha I bet there will be all bunch of people that will now go and hit the faucets after seeing this thread and all this by hoping that one day even the test net bitcoins will have a value!

Heck I didn't even know that test net faucets do exist!

They exist?
What would be the point of that? I bet it'll take pretty long time before testnet coins are allowed on any exchange. However when decentralized exchanges launch I see people actually trading testnet coins.

Apparently they do. Read through the thread above.

I guess that they serve as a purpose to get the test coins so you can test new features, or even just sending and receiving of the bitcoins for the newbies.

Yes about the trading. But as someone has said above, test net coins have already had some value in the past but then the whole test net was reset and they have lost their value!

And then they won't be able to spend then once the testnet is reset. This has already happened twice in the past. We are already on the third version of the testnet. The point of the testnet is for testing only, not for actually trading and actually having value. It is for technical  development without actually wasting money. No one will care if you lose a free testnet bitcoins while testing something, but you will definitely care if you lose a few mainnet bitcoins due to a faulty program that you are testing.

Here is a good testnet faucet: http://tpfaucet.appspot.com

If i remember correctly, the reason why the testnet was reset, was exactly because people started trading testnet coins... So when they start having a value, the testnet will probably be reset once more...

As unamis76 already quoted, testnet coins are useful as long as they are worthless, because that means you can get them without much effort, use them to test your software, send them using weird new transaction types without fear of losing anything valuable.
As soon as people start trading them and start emptying testnet faucets, they lose their usefulness because it will be harder to get some, and developers are forced to think twice before using them in some test or experiment.

Just leave them alone. If you want to play with them, get some from a faucet (or mine some if you have a USB miner), send them to a different wallet of yours, return them to the faucet, whatever.
But don't buy or sell them for real BTC.

Onkel Paul

Testnet bitcoins? Hmm, why would it contain value in the first place when everyone can produce millions of it without having a sweat?

Actually, producing millions of them in the shared testnet isn't so easy. You can do that when you run your own testnet, of course, and for most software tests that should suffice, but I think the "official" testnet still offers some additional uses.

Onkel Paul

Actually, I don't think it would be very hard to do that on the actual testnet. The total hashrate on the testnet of only a few THs. You could get a few miners and essentially take over the mining on the testnet.

Taking over the mining on the testnet network has no use to the person doing it. It would be more profitable for him to use those miners to mine real bitcoins.

But the argument still stands: someone can produce millions without even sweating for it if he has a couple of TH/s at hand. The thing is, it would be on a loss, given that testnet bitcoins wouldn't be valued in any way.

Someone can produce. You can not.

OK. I will buy 5 millions of testbtc for 10 btc.
Are you ready to ship them tomorrow?

Tesnet has no value because was made for testing, no for trading it. If you need some to make some tests on your app or wallet, provably you can buy some to other developer, but there is no exchange.

That's not an argument. Often, things are used in a different way than they are supposed to.
Humans can speculate on anything. Testnet bitcoins are no different than bitcoins.
If you can speculate on one, you can speculate on the other.

True, but if you actually read the thread, you would know that their sole purpose of testing is enforced. If testnet coins start having value and are used for things other than testing, then the entire testnet network will be reset. This has already been done in the past as we are already on the third iteration of the testnet.

Lie

If it is reset often then it would be a crazy idea to speculate on it but it could be seen as a game for speculator that love HYIP and ponzi schemes.
I already seen some exchange thread. Testnet bitcoins must have a value, even a small value so it would be possible (but crazy as a ponzi) to speculate between resets.

No they don't have value and if you find someone who sells them; then he's a scammer.
Also testnet's height is almost double of the current bc. http://tbtc.blockr.io

I am not claiming anything. I did a search on the forum and found trading threads of testnet bitcoins.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5914.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=196000.0

Usually there are no seller of testnet bitcoins, it is mostly people that want to buy big quantities at once that create those threads.

Sometimes, they get testnet bitcoins for free : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1010120.0

But I guess it depend of the quantity the need.

4.5 years ago created...


1.5 years ago created, because they needed a high amount of coins.


There is a faucet that spits out 25 tBTC for the first claim. I still have 25 tBTC for show on my phone. If anyone needs a high amount, they can just ask in the appropriate section and Im pretty sure they will easily get 100+ tBTC without paying a single satoshi.

I have never heard about this coin seems to be altcoin or just a coin for testing as i have seen somewhere in thread it can be reseted. Quite nobe on altcoin also while searching don't find any exchanger for testnet.

Are we talking about testnet coins or alts    ;D

it was a joke but funny and just a reminder to be careful

when chosing ur alt,

I just ran across this thread and I have to verify, these coins are there for the purpose of testing newly designed sites?  If so, why are there faucets which you can collect them and what is the point of collecting them?   Thanks for answering the questions in advance.

Testnet bitcoins never should have any value. How something so unstable can be even considered as legit asset?
Developers can create and destroy testnet bitcoin as they please, they are not mined therefore can't be viewed as viable cryptocurrency.

The point of testnet is to test new software that uses bitcoin without actually using anything of value. It is also used for experimenting with the network. It prevents people from losing money while they are experimenting.

The point if faucets is to distribute testnet coins so that people can use them for testing. Generally people should and will return the testnet coins to the faucet so that others can use them too.

Testnet coins are mined. There are virtually the same as bitcoin except that the difficulty automatically adjusts to the minimum when it has been a set time (don't remember what) had passed without a block being found.

Can you paste some links to such faucets please?

Because only the best things in life are free   :D

-> https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet#Faucets

Just let me know your address and I can send you some as well. What are you testing btw?