5 btc for free; the luckiest people on earth

[Sioni]

Title sounds funny but for lack of words, that is all I could come up with coz they are really the luckiest people on earth at least from my own perspective.
I heard back in 2010, Gavin Andresen famously launched the original Bitcoin faucet that handed out 5 btc to folks for solving a captcha. WHAT!!! 5 btc just like that for free!

That is the biggest airdrop ever and I wish I knew about bitcoin as at that time, but I was busy studying a stupid course in college that haven't made me half 1/10 of btc price today. If you used the faucet, that is a literal a time machine moment if you kept those coins.

I also heard Coinbase handed out free coins to folks through it learning programs years ago, Im sure this has been sunsetted along time ago.

Sincerely, it the biggest luck, almost magical to earn your first satoshi without spending a dime.

Question:

Are there folks here who got the 5 btc from Andresen’s faucet?
If you are part of folks in the first question, did you hold the btc or you have sold?
Lastly are there still platform today that give out free btc?

[Ojima-ojo]

Mate! way back in 2010, the price of Bitcoin is not as high as this, back then Bitcoin was worth a few cents so most fork's really didn't take it seriously and even those early lucky guys to get those Bitcoin airdrops and faucet are not different from the typical bounty hunters of this days.

They will always sell their coins when the price is worth something tangible, those guys that got those free Bitcoin have sold all of they Bitcoin long ago, no they are regret mode, because they never know that Bitcoin will get as high as this in value.

[NurseHub]

How many of the folks still have the 5BTC bitcoin untouched or in the wallet till date? that is the first question and how made the guys who solve the captcha luck?

No one is luck in terms of bitcoin everyone worked for it, back then bitcoin was only worth that pay you would get today if you solved a captcha or participate in a giveaway.

And is the Bitcoin Pizza not a big surprise too that it was sold for such an amount, yet the few faucet you mentioned are just a little to the whole of the give away that happend back then.

Remember don't compare the price then and now because you will feel like people where luck to find bitcoin early meanwhile even if you had the chance you would have still sold and enjoy it since then till now that the price is different

[Ultegra134]

Come on dude, what are you even talking about. Faucets were giving out tremendous amount of Bitcoin back in the early days, because it wasn't worth anything. What are you expecting, to have a faucet handing Bitcoin for free right now? There are a few, but the most you'll get is a satoshi per hour. The majority of people who accumulated during that period sold immediately after they were worth something, thus no one will hold since then.

[promise444c5]

it was way less in value then, so 5 btc then @2010 wasn’t worth upto 2~3$ i guess.. It wasn’t some  big amount then unless if we go with the value in 2011 which would be worth $100+ @around the ATH value.

Lastly are there still platform today that give out free btc?

No..if you eventually find  any, then it would be dust upon dust rewards..
Nobody is going to give you any free, tangible amount of BTC unless you work for it. There’s still time to stack some sats for now, so focus on that instead of dwelling on the past.
Hunting for free BTC won’t work..why not channel that effort into something that can help you earn and buy it instead..

[peter0425]

Lastly are there still platform today that give out free btc?

No. If you aren’t willing to give away bitcoins for free, then no one else is either. Because bitcoin is very valuable and now worth thousands of dollars that no one can afford to just give away. It’s hard now to obtain btc compared to before so we’ll have to work harder for us who weren’t lucky to be early.

[logfiles]

The price of 1 Bitcoin back in 2010 was below $0.04 most of the time. If we use the $0.04 price, then selling 5 BTC would result into $0.2. That is the equivalent in dollar values that the faucet giving.

If a tall anyone HOFled, then that is greeted, but I am pretty should most sold as soon as bitcoin rose slightly in price.

[EFS]

I missed the faucet that gave 5 BTC, but I used many of the ones that came out later. In the early days, faucets were quite popular and you could collect coins quickly. But you have to evaluate that within the spirit of the time. Bitcoin's price was ridiculously low back then. Bitcoin was very new and it was unknown whether it would succeed or not. Those who believed in it didn't bother with faucets, they directly invested in Bitcoin and held their coins for many years.

[BitMaxz]

No one knew that BTC would reach this high, and actually you couldn't find someone in my country to sell my BTC if I were the one who had that BTC at that time.
5 BTC was pretty cheap at that time, and honestly you could mine 50 BTC per block with your CPU or PC. It is way better than solving a captcha.

If I had that amount of BTC when the price pumped to $100 each, I'm sure it would be attractive. I'm not going to hold it because I don't know if I am going to see $100 again. So it's sold at an early stage because you receive it free, and you don't have a long-term perspective on BTC, and no one knows that BTC would hit more than $100k. If I just knew, I might hold it longer, but it is more attractive to sell it if you see your holdings become real money.

[Bd officer]

Are there folks here who got the 5 btc from Andresen’s faucet?
If you are part of folks in the first question, did you hold the btc or you have sold?
Lastly are there still platform today that give out free btc?

Those who got 5 btc for free in 2010, maybe they sold their btc as the price increased a bit, because in 2010 no one knew that bitcoin would ever be worth $100k. Although I was not so lucky, because I learned about bitcoin very late.
If everyone thought bitcoin was so valuable in the past, then no one would have paid so many bitcoins to buy 2 pizzas.
And now you will not get any btc for free, because bitcoin is now a very valuable asset, which no one is willing to give for free.

[tread93]

Come on dude, what are you even talking about. Faucets were giving out tremendous amount of Bitcoin back in the early days, because it wasn't worth anything. What are you expecting, to have a faucet handing Bitcoin for free right now? There are a few, but the most you'll get is a satoshi per hour. The majority of people who accumulated during that period sold immediately after they were worth something, thus no one will hold since then.

Yeah im sure most people did but there are probably a number of cases where the people actually did hold on and keep copies of their keys and completely forget about jt, but they were extremely organized, probably Japanese and maybe even knew Satoshi himself 😉

[MAAManda]

Are there folks here who got the 5 btc from Andresen’s faucet?

Image Source: Bitcointalk

You can find the topic about that faucet here, @Gavin Andresen himself as the OP. It was a long time ago & I think only the lucky early Bitcoiners were able to participate as faucet claimers. At least 10 users engaged in the topic that same year before the reward was finally nerfed to 0,02 Bitcoin (BTC) per claim. Here's a list of those users (including our Godfather & the pizza guy):

Code:

Laszlo
Lachesis
HostFat
wobber
Satoshi
virtualcoin
jimbobway
Insti
EricJ2190
BitcoinFX

Lastly are there still platform today that give out free btc?

The last one I knew about was FreeBitco.in, which was also a Bitcoin (BTC) faucet I last used a few years ago. However, FreeBitco.in & their representative reputation are now in shambles, as they're suspected of being a scam, with numerous withdrawals pending for weeks.

[Darker45]

Not necessarily the luckiest. Bitcoin was so cheap back then that's why it was freely given away. Our very own theymos once sold 160BTC for $0.003 each. Why exert effort and solve a captcha and get only 5BTC when you can just spend 48 cents and get 160 coins, right? Sirius also sold 5,050 BTC for only $5.02. That's savings you can easily get from your piggy bank.

They're the luckiest only if they didn't sell, not when it grew 100 times, not when it grew 1,000 times, even 10,000 times, and so on. They're the luckiest only if they survived the hodling challenge. At that time, it's a world harder than getting it cheap.

[Apocollapse]

Well you can also be a part of those "luckiest people on earth", if you claim faucet and collect to reach 1000 satoshis, you can hold that and you will thank yourself in the future since your 1000 satoshis worth a lot.

It's the same like those users in the past, BTC was very cheap back then, having 5 BTC won't mean much.

What you should do now is to not underestimate 1000 satoshis.

[X-ray]

Even the faucet that follows that after it goes nerfed were very profitable if being held until now.

I still remember faucets were giving big amount of BTC which could be worth around $5k per claim if converted today.

There are many people who did the faucet, but I doubt many of them are diamond hands.

[Pandorak]

First of all, it must be realised that no one really knows what will happen in the future. In this context, those who obtained 5 $BTC as you mentioned would find it highly unlikely to still be holding onto it today. Selling when the price had risen several hundred per cent from its original value was a good move for them; no one could have predicted that the price would reach its current level. Even the few who were aware of its future potential would never have imagined it could reach such heights. It is highly likely that those who still hold onto it are simply people who have lost access to the Bitcoin they once owned.

[Text]

haha I totally feel this hearing about those early Bitcoin faucet days really feels like a missed time machine moment. Imagine getting 5 BTC for just solving a captcha back then it probably felt like play money but today it’s the kind of story you tell your grandkids. I wasn’t around for Gavin Andresen’s faucet either but I’ve read that a lot of people who did get those early coins either lost them when hard drives crashed or sold them way too early, can’t blame them though, hindsight is 20/20! Still I think the spirit’s the same, earning that first satoshi through effort not purchase just feels special.

[TokenTikas]

I missed the faucet that gave 5 BTC, but I used many of the ones that came out later. In the early days, faucets were quite popular and you could collect coins quickly. But you have to evaluate that within the spirit of the time. Bitcoin's price was ridiculously low back then. Bitcoin was very new and it was unknown whether it would succeed or not. Those who believed in it didn't bother with faucets, they directly invested in Bitcoin and held their coins for many years.

To be honest, it was even harder to hold onto 5 BTC back then as easy as it was to get it. Many people sold it as soon as the price increased because no one could have imagined that it would be so expensive one day. So those who held onto BTC back then were not only lucky but they have come this far today through patience and faith. And those who are accumulating small Satoshis now are also part of the future. Today's small steps can be big tomorrow, but it seems that no one held onto BTC like that back then. No one like that is seen anymore, everyone just says, "If I had understood at that time, I would have held onto Bitcoin." If anyone is holding onto it, then the current time can be called the golden age for them. We regret that we were not able to hold onto it.

[Fiatless]

If you are part of folks in the first question, did you hold the btc or you have sold?
Lastly are there still platform today that give out free btc?

Many never believed Bitcoin would be successful. So immediately the price came up a little, many sold because they thought it would fail. If they knew it would get to this extent, the majority would have held it. No platform gives free Bitcoin anymore. You either buy, earn or mine it. It is meaningless to keep discussing what cannot be changed. There are still opportunities to accumulate now. Many people might call people who buy currency currently lucky when the price hits the moon in the future.      

[FinneysTrueVision]

I wasn’t early enough to get 5 BTC from faucets. I do remember doing surveys to earn my first few cents in Bitcoin. In total, I think I accumulated over 0.1 BTC. I’ve also seen some early signature campaign threads on Bitcointalk, and it is kind of mind blowing the amount of BTC people were getting paid. I don’t know how long those campaigns lasted and how often rates were adjusted but I can imagine that those who saved up their earnings might have increased their net worth by a decent amount.