In 2015, faucets are bad for bitcoin

[futureofbitcoin]

While I agree with this, we could also stretch it out to say that using coupons is a waste of time, that waiting for freebies is a waste, doing mail in rebates is a waste, etc. In all of these cases, you could be spending your time on something more valuable. The whole point is to have a relaxed method of earning (or saving), rather than doing "normal" work.

In my experience, you might get 10-20 cents per week from a faucet. Even using your analogy, I would say that spending a week to get a coupon that saves you 10 or 20 cents is not a good use of your time.

That being said, I'm guilty of using faucets myself although I just stick with Freebitco.in these days. They might have some limited value for paying transaction fees if you manage to save up enough and withdraw all of it at once, but I still think they're a waste of time.

False. Those pennies could be worth hundreds of dollars if it's held onto for a long period of time. 1 -  10 bitcoins used to be given out by faucets when bitcoin was first released.

It's an interesting theoretical exercise but nobody really knows if Bitcoin will reach $1 million or not and the question of whether or not it's a good idea to use faucets is debatable even if you are fairly certain that the BTC price will reach stratospheric levels. I posted an old topic about this very subject almost a year ago and the responses I got were pretty interesting:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=720087

It's also unlikely that Bitcoin will be experiencing the same rate of growth that it had in 2009-2013. As I mentioned previously, going from a $4 million market cap to a $4 billion one is fairly easy. Going from a $4 billion market cap to a $4 trillion one is bloody hard. So you might have to wait decades before your 300 satoshis is enough to buy even a soda.

It's not about wasting time. It's kind of fun doing faucets liek freebitcoin. You roll and hope you get something other than the minimum. And when you do, you feel happy.

Just because it might not be the highest paying thing ever, doesn't make it bad for bitcoin.

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[rexxarofmoknathal]

Yeah, you could make quite a bit if you're super super lucky 

Plus some faucets like mybitmine are becoming more like games rather than just pure faucets, so some of these are becoming more fun to mess around with. Why not entice new users with them

[freedomno1]

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.

Actually in most cases ppl not getting paid for "doing nothing sitting in your home". They are watching big bunch of adds every time they go to a faucet site, therefore generating revenue for the faucet owner.

Pretty much considering that they need to visit the faucet maybe 20 to 30 times before they can claim its mostly free ads
In addition they might forget for a month or two and need to start all over if it resets
So pretty much a tiny revenue generator for its owner.

[ranlo]

Yeah, you could make quite a bit if you're super super lucky 

Plus some faucets like mybitmine are becoming more like games rather than just pure faucets, so some of these are becoming more fun to mess around with. Why not entice new users with them

I think the movement towards more game-based faucets is going to become the norm. They are more than just entering captchas, can allow players to gamble (or play for a chance to win more), and just break away from the normalcy we deal with now. And that's a great thing. I do think we have a lot of ways to go in terms of revolutionizing the faucets, though, for user retention and enjoyment.

[bitfilliates]

This is definitely not true.

For beginners, as everyone here has pointed out, they don't want to risk their money with something that they can't feel, can't touch and is an entirely new concept to them. If we get rid of all the faucets, then beginners will be required to buy the bitcoins on their first attempt, which is something they probably aren't willing to do. People who do use faucets regularly as an established user, is either wasting their time(which is their own decision and we should respect that) or they are genuinely making a lot of money through referrals.

And, I don't see any harm in having a few faucet sites. They don't make the bitcoin prices go lower. Most people don't use them. It's not your problem that people are wasting their time on these sites and these sites are rewarding other cryptocurrency holders, i.e. the faucet owners.

[zee11224]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

[fr4nkthetank]

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.

you are wrong.  faucets encourage adoption, which is good.  amounts to get in faucets are fractions of fractions of a penny

[manselr]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

Nope, as someone mentioned, beginners benefit by getting some free satoshi to play with, plus people living in Africa will benefit too. They will big time too from sig campaigns, given their english is competent.

[Omikifuse]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

Nope, as someone mentioned, beginners benefit by getting some free satoshi to play with, plus people living in Africa will benefit too. They will big time too from sig campaigns, given their english is competent.

there are signature campaigns for newbies that pay 1k satoshi/post or so.

How long would take to faucet 1k Satoshi(I guess more than the time required to write 1 post)

[dothebeats]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

Nope, as someone mentioned, beginners benefit by getting some free satoshi to play with, plus people living in Africa will benefit too. They will big time too from sig campaigns, given their english is competent.

there are signature campaigns for newbies that pay 1k satoshi/post or so.

How long would take to faucet 1k Satoshi(I guess more than the time required to write 1 post)

Not that low! Maybe 100 satoshis per post, and those campaigns were very evident in 2014. Idk if there are still campaigns accepting newbies that offer better incentives than those of existing faucets.

[ranlo]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

Nope, as someone mentioned, beginners benefit by getting some free satoshi to play with, plus people living in Africa will benefit too. They will big time too from sig campaigns, given their english is competent.

there are signature campaigns for newbies that pay 1k satoshi/post or so.

How long would take to faucet 1k Satoshi(I guess more than the time required to write 1 post)

Not that low! Maybe 100 satoshis per post, and those campaigns were very evident in 2014. Idk if there are still campaigns accepting newbies that offer better incentives than those of existing faucets.

There's not, because people would just create new accounts, spam until they get caught/banned, put the money they earned aside, and repeat the process. Not to mention newbies are really limited on signatures, which kills the flair.

[bitcoin4eva]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

Nope, as someone mentioned, beginners benefit by getting some free satoshi to play with, plus people living in Africa will benefit too. They will big time too from sig campaigns, given their english is competent.

there are signature campaigns for newbies that pay 1k satoshi/post or so.

How long would take to faucet 1k Satoshi(I guess more than the time required to write 1 post)

Not that low! Maybe 100 satoshis per post, and those campaigns were very evident in 2014. Idk if there are still campaigns accepting newbies that offer better incentives than those of existing faucets.

There's not, because people would just create new accounts, spam until they get caught/banned, put the money they earned aside, and repeat the process. Not to mention newbies are really limited on signatures, which kills the flair.

Dont forget that some of the signature campaigns have a limit for how many posts/week/month the user will get credited for.

[oblivi]

My friend who is clueless about computers and finances got his first coins thanks to faucets and managed to make 0.1 out of gambling and altcoin trading, so dont understimate it.

[ranlo]

In 2015, faucets are not bad but 100% DEAD for bitcoin

Nope, as someone mentioned, beginners benefit by getting some free satoshi to play with, plus people living in Africa will benefit too. They will big time too from sig campaigns, given their english is competent.

there are signature campaigns for newbies that pay 1k satoshi/post or so.

How long would take to faucet 1k Satoshi(I guess more than the time required to write 1 post)

Not that low! Maybe 100 satoshis per post, and those campaigns were very evident in 2014. Idk if there are still campaigns accepting newbies that offer better incentives than those of existing faucets.

There's not, because people would just create new accounts, spam until they get caught/banned, put the money they earned aside, and repeat the process. Not to mention newbies are really limited on signatures, which kills the flair.

Dont forget that some of the signature campaigns have a limit for how many posts/week/month the user will get credited for.

The limits are really worthless, when you think about it. You can buy and sell accounts on the forums. So if you want to go outside that limit, buy more accounts, max. out their limits, and continue doing that and using the money to get more (or just hold a few). Limits just add that extra step, and they really don't resolve anything.

[foxkyu]

False. Those pennies could be worth hundreds of dollars if it's held onto for a long period of time. 1 -  10 bitcoins used to be given out by faucets when bitcoin was first released.

ahh, i didn't expect that
i hope i know bitcoin when it's still early released
when i play faucet the reward just 500 satoshi at freebitco.in
i didn't know what the reward of faucet when bitcoin was first released

[Vhawk23]

False. Those pennies could be worth hundreds of dollars if it's held onto for a long period of time. 1 -  10 bitcoins used to be given out by faucets when bitcoin was first released.

ahh, i didn't expect that
i hope i know bitcoin when it's still early released
when i play faucet the reward just 500 satoshi at freebitco.in
i didn't know what the reward of faucet when bitcoin was first released

I hope i can time travel and get back to the first time bitcoin were released
Then grab a wallet, enter some faucets
The i'm a rich man in the future

But actually faucets really help newcomers of bitcoin
Just like me at the first time, i did use some faucets
But with many newcomers are coming right now (because of the gorgeous BTC price)
One per one faucets will dry out... And then they need to work to get thoose BTC

[MUCHSIN]

Faucets are one of the things why Bitcoiners increase.

An easy way to get Bitcoin.

[Kprawn]

We started a project for my kids at school.

We created a account on Freebitcoin for them and chalenged them to get 50 friends to join, and use it too.... They got more than 100 kids to join.  

Well that gave them some nice passive income for some weeks and they even branched out to friends on social media.

They will get bored with it, but they learned about a new technology and they feel very proud about the income they made from it. {That is how entrepreneurs and creativity are born}

They enjoy it, and even studied the Satoshi papers... {I was impressed} and now they have used that money to start with new projects... so it was a good experience.

My daughter sold her account last week for $55 .....She needed that money to buy a camera for something else she is busy with... So I am kind of proud of her.  

[randy8777]

when i started with bitcoin i was spending the first two weeks on trying to get as much coins as possible.
for newbie users it's a great way to get some coins for free and test a wallet with sending and receiving and such.

[kulme]

Faucets are neither good but only have been good for bitcoin. If people were able to claim a little more and not abuse the system , people who are new to bitcoin would have a fantastic opportunity to test the concept of bitcoin .

I myself got introduced to bitcoin after being given a free amount of bitcoin to play with and I was hooked.
People who tip on sites like reddit and specially the bitcoin subreddit should use those to fund faucets which are targeted towards newbies.