In 2015, faucets are bad for bitcoin

[coinableS]

In order for the same to happen for people using faucets today, Bitcoin would need to replace approximately 1/5 of all the fiat in the world.

Good thing bitcoin is more than a fiat replacement. We have something better than banks and governments.  We have a community of people who are working together to see bitcoin succeed. 

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[Berau]

I have to agree with OP. I dislike faucets, they don't help the bitcoin ecosystem at all. They're just a haven for ads and captchas so the website owner can try to make a few bucks on advertising. "click this button once every hour and you might make 10 cents if you do it every hour, 24 hours a day for few weeks". What a joke.

Beginners will happily do that. Who would risk money into something that isn't guaranteed by anyone and with a entirely new concept?

And may I ask why it doesn't help the bitcoin ecosystem? IMO it attracts more people into the bitcoin system, and it rewards the faucet owners.

As a side note, it also directly benefits the miners, by offering more transactions and fees, which leads to stronger incentives to mine.

Exactly, faucets are a part of the bitcoin ecosystem.

I doubt anyone would join if we take this facility away. And that results in bitcoin prices dropping, and miners dumping their coins.

Respectfully, I disagree. The price would not be affected at all if faucets went away. I got started by buying $20 worth and playing with it, not a very risky investment. However, in favor of your argument, I can see how faucets can attract more people to the bitcoin ecosystem. No one has ever heard of playing a game and getting free money in return until bitcoin faucets came around... So I retract my statement that they offer nothing, but they don't offer much IMO.

Problem is first time people don't want to buy. They would rather spend their time in front of a computer screen than going to the bank.

But I respect your opinion, as you respect mine.

[rayhan]

faucet just worth for newbie in bitcoin world i think. but not a few people who have long know bitcoin still play faucet too

[ranlo]

I have to agree with OP. I dislike faucets, they don't help the bitcoin ecosystem at all. They're just a haven for ads and captchas so the website owner can try to make a few bucks on advertising. "click this button once every hour and you might make 10 cents if you do it every hour, 24 hours a day for few weeks". What a joke.

Beginners will happily do that. Who would risk money into something that isn't guaranteed by anyone and with a entirely new concept?

And may I ask why it doesn't help the bitcoin ecosystem? IMO it attracts more people into the bitcoin system, and it rewards the faucet owners.

As a side note, it also directly benefits the miners, by offering more transactions and fees, which leads to stronger incentives to mine.

Exactly, faucets are a part of the bitcoin ecosystem.

I doubt anyone would join if we take this facility away. And that results in bitcoin prices dropping, and miners dumping their coins.

Respectfully, I disagree. The price would not be affected at all if faucets went away. I got started by buying $20 worth and playing with it, not a very risky investment. However, in favor of your argument, I can see how faucets can attract more people to the bitcoin ecosystem. No one has ever heard of playing a game and getting free money in return until bitcoin faucets came around... So I retract my statement that they offer nothing, but they don't offer much IMO.

Problem is first time people don't want to buy. They would rather spend their time in front of a computer screen than going to the bank.

But I respect your opinion, as you respect mine.

This is because to a lot of people, Bitcoin is still "funny money" or "Internet money." I know a lot of people that are familiar with it and have been since 2013, yet nearly every one of them uses Bitcoin as a joke, making remarks all the time about how it's a scam, it's a ponzi, etc. For people like this, getting in for free gives that "feel" that they aren't risking anything (though we could argue that time is money).

[Nerazzura]

When BTC started, nobody had any and it was worthless, so it was right to give away thousands of BTC to make it popular. All that has changed. Now that BTC's worth something, now that companies are building on BTC, now that serious business transactions are made with bitcoin, it's about time for faucets to adapt.

BTC is real. It's money, and you've got to work to earn some. I hope all faucets will disappear in 2015. Faucets are hurting bitcoin by making some people believing you can get it while doing nothing sitting in your home. No, BTC isn't like that, and it shouldn't be any easier to get than any fiat currency. Even for small amounts.

not everyone can immediately understand bitcoin. everything gradually .and there are degrees respectively. with faucet at least they could be encouraged.

[Fernandez]

Its neither bad nor good. Some farm them trying to earn something while the owners make some ad money. I doubt anyone serious uses them as the rewards are pathetic.

[chmod755]

BTC is real. It's money, and you've got to work to earn some. I hope all faucets will disappear in 2015. Faucets are hurting bitcoin by making some people believing you can get it while doing nothing sitting in your home. No, BTC isn't like that, and it shouldn't be any easier to get than any fiat currency. Even for small amounts.

It's not really worth visiting those faucets now. Better find some small tasks to earn BTC

(I was operating a bitcoin faucet in early 2013)

[sakira]

faucet only to the person who first introduced bitcoin. My experience when I first played bitcoin yes rely faucet, but the result is not much. and the longer my knowledge increased, I finally left the faucet

[Q7]

Faucets are hurting bitcoin by making some people believing you can get it while doing nothing sitting in your home.

Well initially it might give the wrong impression but soon enough the person will realize that they are not making anything at all because it is merely there for them to try out how the system works. For example whatever dust payment earned, a large portion will eventually gets returned back to the network and they will realize what they have done so far leads to nothing. Time for them to buy if they think they are now convinced in the system. Depends on how you look at it.

[jacktheking]

Faucets are hurting bitcoin by making some people believing you can get it while doing nothing sitting in your home.

Well initially it might give the wrong impression but soon enough the person will realize that they are not making anything at all because it is merely there for them to try out how the system works. For example whatever dust payment earned, a large portion will eventually gets returned back to the network and they will realize what they have done so far leads to nothing. Time for them to buy if they think they are now convinced in the system. Depends on how you look at it.

Agree. At first, people might thought that faucets can make them a living. However, as time goes by.. they know what a 'faucet' really is. I'm one of those who still use faucets despite they give me 'dust' money.

[countryfree]

Faucets give people bitcoin to experiment with.

No. Not anymore. You don't experiment BTC with faucets. You experiment faucets. Nothing else.

Check this:
https://blockchain.info/address/1JQ82D4k5e7ciiLtUKX4Rkgbuwuqdqnqhc

That was more than 2 years ago, and that was real. The guy was giving away more than one BTC a day. Today, one faucet will only give its users a few satoshis. So few that they won't be able to transfer it to their own wallet, because the sum is below the minimum allowed for a transfer. So a newbie will have to stick using faucets for several days to get above that, only to discover that the fee to transfer all that dust will eat it entirely. Is this a nice way to learn about BTC?

Faucets were certainly useful, maybe up to 2013, but now, they should close for BTC'sake.

[futureofbitcoin]

What exactly is the damage faucets do? All you've shown is your dislike for faucets, which is fair, but you haven't given any convincing reason of why or how it's bad for bitcoin. It isn't.

[futureofbitcoin]

Faucet is not worth time & enegry, but it needed to introduce newbie to understand bitcoin
But, after they realize faucet is not worth. They would search better way to earn bitcoin like gambling with faucet / do signature campaign

I think only owner of faucet & miner are the one who get profit from faucet

gambling is not a good way to earn anything. I agree faucets are not worth the time for people in developed nations, but it doesn't make it bad for bitcoin

[suman66]

faucets like moonbitcoin or 777bitcoin are earning very large amount daily simple they are 10 btc per day

but their is no reason that faucets are bad effect to the price of bitcoins but they are giving some money to the new user who want to earn some free bitcoins

[calci]

Faucet is not worth time & enegry, but it needed to introduce newbie to understand bitcoin
But, after they realize faucet is not worth. They would search better way to earn bitcoin like gambling with faucet / do signature campaign

I think only owner of faucet & miner are the one who get profit from faucet

gambling is not a good way to earn anything. I agree faucets are not worth the time for people in developed nations, but it doesn't make it bad for bitcoin

Yes  its definitely not bad. Its rather good for people who are new to bitcoin, and want just small amounts to play around with bitcoin and try it out.

[sandy47bt]

Faucet is not worth time & enegry, but it needed to introduce newbie to understand bitcoin
But, after they realize faucet is not worth. They would search better way to earn bitcoin like gambling with faucet / do signature campaign

I think only owner of faucet & miner are the one who get profit from faucet

gambling is not a good way to earn anything. I agree faucets are not worth the time for people in developed nations, but it doesn't make it bad for bitcoin

Yes  its definitely not bad. Its rather good for people who are new to bitcoin, and want just small amounts to play around with bitcoin and try it out.

I have seen some newbies from my country do it, some of them able to make a lot of bitcoin (0.01BTC to 1BTC) just from gambling with faucet
But, some of them become greedy & lose all

Anyway, faucet is not worth your time

[calci]

Faucet is not worth time & enegry, but it needed to introduce newbie to understand bitcoin
But, after they realize faucet is not worth. They would search better way to earn bitcoin like gambling with faucet / do signature campaign

I think only owner of faucet & miner are the one who get profit from faucet

gambling is not a good way to earn anything. I agree faucets are not worth the time for people in developed nations, but it doesn't make it bad for bitcoin

Yes  its definitely not bad. Its rather good for people who are new to bitcoin, and want just small amounts to play around with bitcoin and try it out.

[galbros]

I think faucets are even more important now.  New users need some bitcoins to experiment with and encourage them to learn about how to use it.  Early on they could get some coins by mining but now that is impossible.

It is unfortunate that bots can exploit the faucets as I think they help our community grow.

[countryfree]

There may be something even worse than faucets, and that's signature campaigns below posts on this forum. I'm using them, so I can't criticize much, but it's sad to see people writing new posts obviously without reading what's been said already.

Anyway, my case is solid. I gave 2 arguments why faucets are bad for BTC, and nobody so far have proved them wrong.

[ranlo]

There may be something even worse than faucets, and that's signature campaigns below posts on this forum. I'm using them, so I can't criticize much, but it's sad to see people writing new posts obviously without reading what's been said already.

Anyway, my case is solid. I gave 2 arguments why faucets are bad for BTC, and nobody so far have proved them wrong.

The signature campaigns wouldn't be an issue if the people running them would actually evaluate posts. Instead, they promote this idea that everyone should spam as much as possible to earn the most they can.

What they should be doing is:

1) Evaluating posts for quality
2) Removing low-quality posts from the payouts
3) Increasing pay for legitimate posts

This would boost forum post quality, increase earnings for those that aren't abusing the system, and still result in savings for whoever is running the campaigns.

The sad part is nobody wants to do this, and the forums are degrading more and more daily because of it.