In 2015, faucets are bad for bitcoin

[Lorenzo]

I first started seriously getting into BTC in early 2014 when the price of BTC was much higher and adoption was similar to today. Faucets did help me understand the very basics and even after browsing posts here and reading introductory articles, it's still a useful experience to get to know and understand how to receive payments, set up your first wallet, copy and paste your BTC address, go on Blockchain.info to see your coins come into your address and watching the confirmations go up, etc.

I once did some calculations a while ago and found out that a typical faucet that is used typically (i.e. no fancy bots or anything) will earn about 10-20 cents per week. Even before I did the calculations, I knew that I wasn't going to be getting rich off faucets so after I became familiar with Bitcoin and how it works, I signed up on LocalBitcoins and made my first small BTC purchase there.

Meh, nobody can really expect to make anything from faucets anymore. They're mainly to let new people mess around with tiny amounts of bitcoin so they can get an idea of how it works

Exactly, and they would be better of to just buy some bits for a few dollars to experiment with it.

Many exchanges have minimum deposit limits and they tend to be higher for international users. Sellers on LocalBitcoins usually have minimum deposit limits too. e.g. the only seller in my country who is online right now has a limit of $50 although there is another seller who has a $20 limit but he's not online right now.

Well, you can make money with faucets, by running faucet websites, or by advertising them and collect referral commission, if you have an interested audience and big enough you can make good money from faucets.

I once heard somewhere that having lots of referrals is pretty much the only way to get a nice income from a faucet site (other than being the owner of a large faucet site).

[L]

Well, you can make money with faucets, by running faucet websites, or by advertising them and collect referral commission, if you have an interested audience and big enough you can make good money from faucets.

I once heard somewhere that having lots of referrals is pretty much the only way to get a nice income from a faucet site (other than being the owner of a large faucet site).

Yes, you really need a lot of referrals, from my experience, thousands to make it worthwhile.

Here's a topic I found some time ago: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=635185.0

[maku]

Well, you can make money with faucets, by running faucet websites, or by advertising them and collect referral commission, if you have an interested audience and big enough you can make good money from faucets.

I once heard somewhere that having lots of referrals is pretty much the only way to get a nice income from a faucet site (other than being the owner of a large faucet site).

Yes, you really need a lot of referrals, from my experience, thousands to make it worthwhile.

Here's a topic I found some time ago: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=635185.0

I have been only on receiving end of faucets to test them out. I can give you an answer. Without TONS of  referrals and I mean it, literally hundreds. You won't get much, only some dust. I've seen some faucet/ponzi mix out there and with some investing they can bring you money, of course they are risky as hell.

[Berau]

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.

People should know themselves that they shouldn't waste time on faucet.

If they do, I don't see any harm because IMO it encourages people to use bitcoins, and that's one way they can get their first coins.

[MAsterV]

Faucets allow people to test out bitcoin, and get started.

TBH, i use to gather bitcoin through faucets. Then i realized it no point so with the bitcoins i collected about 0.001 BTC.. I traded it for doge and made a faucet which makes me bitcoins and gives out doge.

[coinableS]

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.

[Bizmark13]

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.

Wrong !!! There are faucets in FIAT world as well. They are called PTC site.

Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_to_click

They're very similar but they're not exactly the same. In order to get any money from PTC sites, you have to actually click on the ads in addition to solving captchas. Hence why they're called "pay to click". With a faucet, the ads are simply displayed on the top, bottom, and sides of the page and all you need to do is solve the captcha. You don't have to click on the ads.

Well, you can make money with faucets, by running faucet websites, or by advertising them and collect referral commission, if you have an interested audience and big enough you can make good money from faucets.

I once heard somewhere that having lots of referrals is pretty much the only way to get a nice income from a faucet site (other than being the owner of a large faucet site).

Yes, you really need a lot of referrals, from my experience, thousands to make it worthwhile.

Here's a topic I found some time ago: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=635185.0

Wow. That's amazing. He has almost 14,000 referrals and earns close to 1 BTC per 5 months. And that was when the price of BTC was much higher than today too. Nowadays that would be 2-3 BTC per month since Freebitco.in adjusts payouts depending on the BTC/USD exchange rate. That's pure passive profit right there. Getting that amount of referrals isn't easy though unless you have a popular blog or something.

[ranlo]

Faucets give people bitcoin to experiment with.

This right here. A lot of people want to learn how the new technology works. Would I put up $1k and risk losing it all because I don't know what's going on? No. Would I visit some faucets for a day, learn how the payment system works, and then experiment with sending payments? Sure. It's risk-free and won't financially cripple me (or otherwise require personal identification to get the BTC).

Look at it as it is: a beginner's method to get involved.

[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.

[wadili89]

accoring to me there is no any risk to BTC from facuts (not that you will make any money from facuts) i do bealive its waste of time at the end what you gonna do is 5$ a month maybe

[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.

[Berau]

accoring to me there is no any risk to BTC from facuts (not that you will make any money from facuts) i do bealive its waste of time at the end what you gonna do is 5$ a month maybe

No one that has already bought bitcoins. Like I have already noted before, beginners who has never purchased bitcoins before wouldn't take the risk and rather prefer to get them for free, whatever it costs them. They have plenty of time.

[Zoomer]

I would have to agree with them being bad for bitcoin and for the persons mental health lol It is a waste of time for anyone who is not a newbie just getting started in bitcoin and learning which it does a good job at in my opinion so they will not go anywhere soon

[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.

[ranlo]

I would have to agree with them being bad for bitcoin and for the persons mental health lol It is a waste of time for anyone who is not a newbie just getting started in bitcoin and learning which it does a good job at in my opinion so they will not go anywhere soon

Bad for mental health? Really? The worst part about comments like this is that back when faucets gave .1 BTC and up *per claim* (as in 2.4+ BTC a day was possible per faucet) people claimed the same thing because they were valueless.

I have the feeling in the next 5 years people are going to cry about how they didn't do faucets back in the day (now). If you had started a few years ago, you could have been earning hundreds of BTC a week off less than an hour of work. Not so worthless now, is it?

[coinableS]

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.

[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.

If you want to relate it to games... trials have been around since software was first invented, and long before things like Bitcoin were ever thought of. Shareware is another form. This is almost exactly what faucets offer, though there is a tangible benefit (in that you can use the funds to purchase something).

[Bizmark13]

I would have to agree with them being bad for bitcoin and for the persons mental health lol It is a waste of time for anyone who is not a newbie just getting started in bitcoin and learning which it does a good job at in my opinion so they will not go anywhere soon

Bad for mental health? Really? The worst part about comments like this is that back when faucets gave .1 BTC and up *per claim* (as in 2.4+ BTC a day was possible per faucet) people claimed the same thing because they were valueless.

I have the feeling in the next 5 years people are going to cry about how they didn't do faucets back in the day (now). If you had started a few years ago, you could have been earning hundreds of BTC a week off less than an hour of work. Not so worthless now, is it?

Not necessarily. The jump from a 4 million dollar market cap in early 2011 to a 4 billion dollar one today (x1,000) is far easier than the jump from a 4 billion dollar market cap to a 4 trillion dollar one. Someone who had the luck or foresight to hit the faucets back in early 2011 would have made an enormous profit since every dollar earned would be worth 1,000 dollars today. 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.

[coinableS]

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.

If you want to relate it to games... trials have been around since software was first invented, and long before things like Bitcoin were ever thought of. Shareware is another form. This is almost exactly what faucets offer, though there is a tangible benefit (in that you can use the funds to purchase something).

Trials are open to a select few, faucets are open to everyone. What I was referring to was the faucet games, where you earn tiny amounts of bitcoin for playing.

[ranlo]

I would have to agree with them being bad for bitcoin and for the persons mental health lol It is a waste of time for anyone who is not a newbie just getting started in bitcoin and learning which it does a good job at in my opinion so they will not go anywhere soon

Bad for mental health? Really? The worst part about comments like this is that back when faucets gave .1 BTC and up *per claim* (as in 2.4+ BTC a day was possible per faucet) people claimed the same thing because they were valueless.

I have the feeling in the next 5 years people are going to cry about how they didn't do faucets back in the day (now). If you had started a few years ago, you could have been earning hundreds of BTC a week off less than an hour of work. Not so worthless now, is it?

Not necessarily. The jump from a 4 million dollar market cap in early 2011 to a 4 billion dollar one today (x1,000) is far easier than the jump from a 4 billion dollar market cap to a 4 trillion dollar one. Someone who had the luck or foresight to hit the faucets back in early 2011 would have made an enormous profit since every dollar earned would be worth 1,000 dollars today. 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.

At the rate inflation is heading in, this might not be so far off. Many countries are facing huge issues due to debt-based economies, and inflation is increasing at rapid rates.