Bitcoin faucets are websites where you can get a small amount of cryptocurrency, often in the order of cents or a few dollars, by simply solving a CAPTCHA and entering your crypto address.
In 2010, these ‘cryptocurrency faucets’ became very popular in the bitcoin community, as they allowed people to obtain coins for free to test the fledgling technology. One tap in particular handed out 5 BTC to anyone who asked for it.
Years later, many of these portals are still active, but have drastically reduced the amount of BTC they give away to each user.
However, there are still valid bitcoin exchanges that allow you to dive into the world of decentralised currencies for free, even with small amounts.
Let us see which are the most valid platforms.
A dip into the past: the history of bitcoin exchanges
Bitcoin exchanges are figuratively speaking “cryptocurrency taps”, i.e. websites where you can get a small amount of cryptocurrency for free.
The way they work is very simple: all you have to do is solve a CAPTCHA to verify that you are not a bot, and then enter a bitcoin address as the destination for the crypto you want to claim.
These kinds of digital taps were born back in 2010, at the dawn of bitcoin, when some users in the community decided to publicly give away a few units of BTC in order to spread the principles of this new technology as quickly as possible.
American developer Gaving Andresen, for example, launched a site called “freebitcoins.appspot.com”, offering 5 BTC to each visitor – a small sum at the time, but worth a fortune a few years later.
At bitcoin prices in November 2021, those 5 BTC would be worth around $345,000.
In total, Andresen had loaded the site with 1,100 BTC of his own and then asked the community to donate their coins once they were all paid out.
In total, the platform distributed 19,700 BTC, or $679 million at current cryptocurrency prices.
Of course, the site is no longer active, but screenshots of what it looked like are circulating around the web.
The taps we can find in circulation today allow us to withdraw fractions of bitcoins, known as satoshi (or sats), equivalent to a few cents or dollar units.
Although these sites continue to offer a free solution for obtaining cryptocurrencies, they have partially changed their approach.
The current taps are no longer based on the desire to distribute standard bitcoin, but on the practice of monetising online traffic through advertisements and banners that allow the operators of the sites to keep the business running.
In fact, if you try to request cryptocurrencies on these platforms, you will always come across a series of redirects to third-party sites, often dangerous for the data stored on your device, full of advertisements and with annoying waiting times.
The longer we stay on the site, the more we have to click and display banners.
What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges and how much do they really earn?
Just as the counter value of bitcoin given by the taps was ridiculous at the prices of 2010, even today with BTC at $35,000, we see that the amount given away by these sites is always extremely low.
We are talking about a few dollar units to be optimistic, and a few cents at worst.
Sometimes, in order to earn extra money, it is necessary to perform secondary activities such as playing a video game, watching a video or downloading an application.
Today, the best bitcoin taps are the following
The most popular and profitable are the first two listed, but as mentioned above, they require you to complete tasks in order to redeem the prize, 0.0005BTC for Contiply and 0.0003BTC for Satoshihero respectively.
If you are going to try your hand at this activity by frequently visiting these types of sites, the advice is to use a different PC from the one you use every day, and away from any private keys stored on it.
To be honest, it is often not really worth wasting a lot of time handing over your personal data and risking being hacked for a few pennies.
There are also Ethereum faucet in circulation that allow you to obtain the GoerliETH test coin (GETH), which can be sold for ETH on secondary markets, but even in this case what you get is small in relation to the work you do and the risk you take.
On the other hand, there are alternative ways to earn your first income in crypto that are just as easy, far less risky and more profitable.
For example, you can immerse yourself in a play-to-earn game such as Axie Infinity or The Sandbox, or you can complete learn-to-earn tasks on various centralised exchanges.
These solutions are as cumbersome as they are unprofitable, but at least they are safer and more profitable than bitcoin taps.
Another way to earn coins from scratch is to participate in the airdrops of new decentralised projects. Many protocols/platforms often choose to launch a token by distributing it within their community to those who contributed to its initial launch.
The activity of an airdrop hunter is much more demanding than that of a tap hunter, but allows one to procure significant amounts of tokens, sometimes exceeding $1,000 in value per project.
Today, for example, Celestia’s airdrop is officially inaugurated: users who have qualified according to the criteria published by the new blockchain’s team will finally be able to sell their proceeds, obtained almost for free, for an estimated equivalent value of at least $400 per user.