Faucet empty again?

[ripper234]

Last I heard the Faucet was being milked (its BTC was dropping like crazy), then it went down for repairs, now it's up and empty.
Can anyone update what's the actual status?
Was the last problem with it a botnet attack, or actual users trying to get a little bit of coin?

How much is it giving right now? If it's still 0.02 BTC (~ 40 cents), that's probably a bit too much and should be lowered.
I would be willing to donate to fill it a bit after this is explained (please join me and donate as well).

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[Gavin Andresen]

How much is it giving right now? If it's still 0.02 BTC (~ 40 cents), that's probably a bit too much and should be lowered.
I would be willing to donate to fill it a bit after this is explained (please join me and donate as well).

40 cents per visitor is definitely too much; I've set the Faucet to "down for maintenance" again, and will keep it that way until two things happen:

1. I change the amount awarded.
  and
2. bitcoin version 0.3.23 is released with lowered fees, so people can actually SPEND the bitcoins they get from the faucet.

[ripper234]

Great, thanks for the update - please update again when the faucet is back up and we can fill it up again.

[Rob P.]

I'm also guessing the faucet wasn't filling as fast as it was draining.  It's donation driven and at $20/BTC no one is going to ship it any coins.

[Bitcoin_Eagle]

I dont understand why there are fees anyway.  Who gets the fee for the transactions?

[triforcelink]

I dont understand why there are fees anyway.  Who gets the fee for the transactions?

The bitcoin miners get the fees. Ultimately, when bitcoins reach their 21 million mark, the only incentive people will have to keep mining are the fees that people include in their transactions. Including fees into your transaction allows them to be given priority during the processing stage.

[ripper234]

Read the FAQ/wiki, it's explained in much detail.

[jibjabz]

If I send a tx fee of .01 bitcoins how much would this affect processing time? Standard is around 20 minutes? Would it go through in just a couple minutes?

[ripper234]

Alright, 0.23 is officially out. Let's get that Faucet up, I'd like to donate.
The Faucet is an important rally point to people new to bitcoin.
Note that in the last two weeks (large value crash), it was down.