Bitcoin Faucet is running dry

[Amso]

Bitcoin Faucet is at low 40s, it was under 40 before.

Is Bitcoin Faucet funded by donation alone?

Now that bitcoin is so valuable, people are not donating, i guess.

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[Ricochet]

Woah, that's odd.  It was at 150 a day or two ago when I checked out of curiosity.  Perhaps someone's been abusing it?

[bitdragon]

I just bought 55 coins through paypal a few minutes ago,
5 just went to the faucet

[stakhanov]

Maybe someone has broken the captcha? it seems very weak...

[ribuck]

I just sent him another 10.

But maybe it's time to reduce the payout to 0.03 coins.

[Binford 6100]

I just sent him another 10.

But maybe it's time to reduce the payout to 0.03 coins.

or 0.005 if the full precission patch causes the 0.3.21 to be released

OT: gavin could you, please, consider adding a link to http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/ on the line where you write about up to 30 minutes for the donations to appear? i thin the monitor also displays broadcasted transactions and does not wait for confirmations. faucet transactions look quite nice there p.ex.

[Gavin Andresen]

Thanks for the donations, everybody!

Catching up on questions:

Is the faucet supported entirely by donations?  Not entirely-- the captchas have generated about $100, which will go into refilling it.  It looks like captcha revenue is only covering about 1/4 of the cost of the coins, although the company that does the money-for-captchas is a startup looking for more advertisers.  Actually, if you want to advertise a bitcoin-related business you should talk to them... (they're adscaptcha.com)

Was somebody abusing the faucet?   Yep, somebody was exploiting a weakness in my IPv6-handling code.  I've fixed the weakness (the faucet is now much stricter about what it considers "different" IPv6 addresses), but I think I'm fighting a losing battle-- the next step will be to require you to login with a valid google account to get coins.  I hate to add another hoop to jump through...

Is it time to reduce the payout?  Maybe soon, but I'd rather wait until the next release is out and then reduce the payouts another factor of 10 (so 'standard' payout if balance was above 500BTC would be 0.05BTC, and 0.005 when it was running low).

Can I add a link to bitcoinmonitor.com?   Done.

[StevenC]

Yep, somebody was exploiting a weakness in my IPv6-handling code.  I've fixed the weakness (the faucet is now much stricter about what it considers "different" IPv6 addresses)

A /48 block of IPv6 addresses is very easily obtained;  anything less strict than that could be easily abused I should imagine.  I'd wary of restricting access to anything by IPv4 or IPv6 address at all;  anyone in a large DHCP pool or at a site with large IP assignment (like a university campus) will likely try to connect from many IPs or physical machines.

I noticed this transaction today which looks somewhat suggestive of someone abusing the faucet -- I guess the zero fee (below the default for >=4kB transaction?) means they also wanted to hold on to every penny they'd accumulated:

• http://blockexplorer.com/tx/d737c270d090a8f0b01b6ea333123017af9bb157b6dc12f5df38d05c6f8b89bc

As for changing the faucet 'payout', I don't see why it can't just just calculate a fixed fraction of whatever's available at the time, rounded, and then clamped between safe minimum/maximum values.  It shouldn't need much manual adjustment then.  Abuse of the pool would lower the payout, making it less worthwhile, but preserving funds to keep the faucet functional for users just wanting to get started on bitcoin and play around.  And the payout would react sensibly to changes in BTC value (because that would affect donations, and hence the available funds).

Also I was wonder if the faucet could offer a 'include transaction fee' option whereby a portion of the faucet payout would be used to pay a transaction fee.  Or eventually even make a very small fee compulsory, marking a shift away from free transactions.

[theymos]

Having an "include transaction fee" option (with explanation) would be useful to introduce newbies to the fee feature.

[gusti]

Thanks for the donations, everybody!

Catching up on questions:

Is the faucet supported entirely by donations?  Not entirely-- the captchas have generated about $100, which will go into refilling it.  It looks like captcha revenue is only covering about 1/4 of the cost of the coins, although the company that does the money-for-captchas is a startup looking for more advertisers.  Actually, if you want to advertise a bitcoin-related business you should talk to them... (they're adscaptcha.com)

Was somebody abusing the faucet?   Yep, somebody was exploiting a weakness in my IPv6-handling code.  I've fixed the weakness (the faucet is now much stricter about what it considers "different" IPv6 addresses), but I think I'm fighting a losing battle-- the next step will be to require you to login with a valid google account to get coins.  I hate to add another hoop to jump through...

Is it time to reduce the payout?  Maybe soon, but I'd rather wait until the next release is out and then reduce the payouts another factor of 10 (so 'standard' payout if balance was above 500BTC would be 0.05BTC, and 0.005 when it was running low).

Can I add a link to bitcoinmonitor.com?   Done.

Maybe a different approach can be used, like the benefitiary making some small tasks before receiving faucet, something like this :

- Register to this forum
- Post about bitcoin in another, general talk forum, embed the bitcoin video there.
- Post a link to that post here.
- Get a "faucet receive code" for this task.
- Get faucet btc.

btw, 20 btc just sent to the faucet 

[Anonymous]

http://witcoin.com/charity/The-Bitcoin-Faucet

Consider including the faucet in your witcoin activities so you automatically donate as you use the site.

[Inu]

I just downloaded the bitcoin client today. 4741khash/s, whatever that means. anyways I did the faucet thing and entered my address, but didn't recieve anything yet. I have a fairly fast gaming system and it's been about an hour since I started up the client. keep waiting?

[FreeMoney]

I just downloaded the bitcoin client today. 4741khash/s, whatever that means. anyways I did the faucet thing and entered my address, but didn't recieve anything yet. I have a fairly fast gaming system and it's been about an hour since I started up the client. keep waiting?

If the faucet said it sent them then the transaction will be included in a recent block. You are downloading the blocks from oldest to newest so you'll probably see it in a few hours.

After the initial download (~118,000 blocks) you just get new blocks as they come ~1/10 minutes.

[slush]

keep waiting?

Yes. Your client must show something like '117894 blocks' in status bar, then you'll see faucet transaction.

[Inu]

It was flying through the blocks until it got to 114688 then it just stopped. I didn't restart or touch anything.

[slush]

keep waiting?

yes

[FreeMoney]

It was flying through the blocks until it got to 114688 then it just stopped. I didn't restart or touch anything.

Does it still say 8 connections?

[Inu]

All good now. Just had to wait, I am impatient 

[khal]

4741khash/s, whatever that means.

Specialized programs can be used with your GPU. You'll have much better results.

[Herodes]

I think the Faucet payout could be reduced.

The point is to verify and test that transactions work. And for this, you do not need a large amount. I'd be happy with 0.0001. I went to the faucet and got my 0.05 bitcoins, later I transferred back 0.15 bitcoins.

The less the sum is, the less the incentive is for people to try and cheat their way.

Great service!