I want good faucets to survive, I think they're a good intro for newbies and we can do some interesting stuff with them. However, I've been running a couple for a few weeks now for various reasons, one of which was to understand the ways in which people try to cheat them so I could write up a guide on how to lock them down. So, I've been letting the bad guys run amok for a little while in various different ways to see what's going on and how it affects me before locking them out, and it's obvious that bots are a huge problem. So, for the last hour or two I've been watching to see how these are being used and watching what other faucets these guys are hitting as it's most likely they're not actually hitting any of those faucets innocently around the same time their bot tries mine.
The faucets I run are part experiment, part research, part ad, and partly just a way to give a little extra to the guys who've signed up for the main site (I pay out to randoms every time someone collects) so I'm not too concerned about these guys hitting me, but the
broader site can't function without healthy faucets, and the amount of fraudulent traffic hitting these must massively outweighs any money coming in from their ads. I'm concerned that if it's allowed to continue, the guys on this list are going to be pushed under.
Here is the list of other faucets the bots seem to be hitting. If your faucet is on the list please get in touch. I'm not going to demand money for information or anything like that, I just need time to write up a complete guide before I go "here you go, world!" and release it for everybody, but I know this stuff must be harming your bottom line right now (over 80% of my payouts were to bots until a couple of hours ago) so if you get in touch I'll help you out right away.
Bad-boys-bitcoin
billiardbtc
Bitcoinator
bitcoinfreeonline.info
bitframe.co.in
btc-kit.name
BTCs4Free.com
Chicken Faucet
coinerfaucet
CryptoBTCs
cryptofree
ElenaBitcoin
Estonia Faucet
Faucet Crypt
Faucet God
Free Bitcoin Home
Jaz BTC Faucet
My Funny Farm
Purplehome bitcoin
Rapid Bitcoin
Satoshi Fiesta
satoshisfaucet
suiza-bitcoins.com
Super-Bitcoins
Tracecoinfaucet
Valley-bitcoin
wallabycoin
Winer-btc
Note: I got this list from one specific countermeasure I employed, so I can't say if the other protections I've worked into mine already would also apply to you. But if you've never given any consideration as to how to reduce fraudulent activity on your faucets then you really need to speak up.
I dont own a faucet, nor do I use them. They seem to me to be a way to introduce people... Especially young people to the world of digital currency (albeit in small amounts) - but still a way for people not familiar with Bitcoin to "own" some.
I'm curious however. You say bots kill / bankrupt faucets. Shouldnt a faucets business model be profitable regardless of payout amount or frequency? I would imagine the goal of owning a faucet is attracting faucet users - which would click, and be credit a small amount of BTC.
So my question is what does it matter if its a human or a bot someone designed? The faucet owners are paid by advertisers for impressions or click throughs. Does it matter if the impressions are fed to a real person or not?
I realize of course this is a huge waste of ad dollars to the advertisers... So prevention would and should be a priority to provide the advertisers with an ROI on their ad dollars spent. But I dont understand how a faucet would be any more or less profitable whether a human saw the impression or a bot. The impression, and payouts would be the same.
The way you phrase it is less payouts, less captchas solved = better for faucet owner.
This sounds flawed in terms of a profitable business model.
Cheers,
Strato
