by Jake Wengroff
Free crypto? Sounds like a scam, but it’s not. In the ever-evolving world of crypto and digital currencies, entrepreneurs and developers are constantly devising new strategies to garner adoption. The crypto faucet has emerged as a new way for users, both newbie and seasoned, to earn crypto for free. Let’s take a quick look at what crypto faucets are and how they function in the cryptocurrency world.
What Are Crypto Faucets? (And Can You Make Money Off of Them?)
Crypto faucets are websites or mobile applications where the user is asked to complete certain tasks and in exchange, they receive cryptocurrency as a reward. These platforms give free crypto for completing easy tasks like playing games, watching videos and ads and solving puzzles. However, the rewards are usually very small and will not make a user of crypto faucets rich.
The first crypto faucet was launched in 2010 by Gavin Andresen, a Bitcoin developer, to spread awareness about Bitcoin — which was only launched on January 3, 2009. That early crypto faucet made it easy to acquire Bitcoin since there were no crypto wallets at the time.
In 2010, Bitcoin’s price never broke above $0.40 per Bitcoin, and so, the industry needed something to capture the attention of the new digital asset. Andresen gave away Bitcoins for free to those who completed a simple CAPTCHA. With time, more cryptocurrencies were created, and creating faucets became the norm among developers for driving the adoption of new crypto or digital currency.
How Do Crypto Faucets Work?
No formal training is needed to use a crypto faucet. All a user needs is their crypto wallet address to store the earned cryptocurrencies. The first thing to do is find a good faucet and register. Registration typically involves filling in basic details and the crypto wallet address. Then, users can start carrying out the required tasks. Tasks have different rewards, usually based on their difficulty level. The more challenging or longer the task, the higher the reward.
There is usually a minimum withdrawal limit on tasks, and rewards are usually sent into an internal wallet until they reach the withdrawal threshold set by the platform. It is at that point that the user can withdraw the earned crypto.
Are Crypto Faucets Safe?
If a company offers you an asset or something of value, beware: it might be too good to be true. Risks abound with crypto faucets, cautions MakeUseOf (MUO). Some faucets refuse to pay users even after watching ads or completing other tasks. Some might even block access once they reach the payment threshold, leaving users unpaid. Additionally, cybercriminals know that people will spend a lot of time in front of their computers to receive free, and potentially valuable rewards in return. As such, fraudulent websites posing as faucets can infect computers with malware or engage in other malicious attacks.
To safeguard against this, always research the faucet before using it to determine if it’s safe. Check out its online communities and reviews, and if a faucet has many positive comments, it could be worth using. However, research multiple sites — and scrutinize them. Their reviews could be fake and published by paid hacks.
3 Benefits of Crypto Faucets
Nonetheless, there could be several benefits of participation in crypto faucets.
1. Free Crypto
It’s a no-brainer: free, potentially valuable tokens in exchange for the completion of simple tasks. People can even multitask and do something else while earning crypto so as not to waste time. Additionally, unlike trading and investing, which require the investor to assume risk, crypto faucets only require the participant’s time. The more time committed to a faucet, the greater the reward.
2. Multiple Earnings
There is often no limit to the number of times one can earn from a faucet. Usually, the amount of cryptocurrency earned is based on the number of tasks completed.
3. Crypto Education
Faucets were primarily created to make people aware of cryptocurrencies. As such, it’s a relatively easy way to get started with crypto. Sometimes the crypto wallets or exchanges will offer free crypto for users to watch a video or learn more about a new coin. While this might be less “mindless” than playing games, it is still considered a crypto faucet.
Crypto Title Registry to Safeguard Assets
Earning crypto from a new platform via a faucet, or discovering new crypto within an existing wallet or exchange account, can still carry risk. As cited above, cybercriminals lurk everywhere, and investors, no matter how large or small the size of their portfolio, need the strongest safeguards in place to protect their crypto.
The industry needs market-driven solutions that can keep up with the ever-complex marketplace of crypto assets. TransitNet is creating the industry’s first third-party title registry that demonstrates proof of ownership of crypto assets, to add a layer of protection for investors in digital currencies and other crypto assets.
Join the forefront of the new crypto infrastructure. Request an exclusive registration for TransitNet’s title registry when it launches today.
Jake Wengroff writes about technology and financial services. A former technology reporter for CBS Radio, he covers such topics as security, mobility, e-commerce and the Internet of Things.
Sources
Coin Geek – How Gavin Andresen gave away 19,700 bitcoins in 2010—the Bitcoin faucet turns 12
The Coin Times – What Are Crypto Faucets?
MakeUseof – What Are Crypto Faucets and How Do They Work?
Bankrate – Bitcoin’s Price History: 2009 to 2022