As the crypto industry has grown larger over the past few years, there are now multiple ways that you can get your hands on these new digital assets. You can buy them, trade them and even stake them. However, all of these methods would require you to expend considerable amounts of time, effort and, most importantly, money.
However, what if we told you that you could get small amounts of crypto for free? It sounds too good to be true, but it is actually possible through certain websites and apps known as crypto faucets. Tag along as we quickly tell you what crypto faucets are and how you can use them to get small amounts of Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptos for free!
What are crypto faucets?
If you feel like trading or staking is too big of a task or risk, you can easily use a crypto faucet to earn small amounts of cryptocurrency. Crypto faucets are websites or mobile applications where you have to perform simple tasks or play some mundane games to earn crypto. You can do this from the comfort of your home and whenever you like.
The tasks are minuscule jobs like watching ads or videos, playing games, or solving quizzes. Also, these are not substantial rewards — you won’t be able to buy houses with them. But slowly and steadily, you can gather a healthy amount of crypto coins through these small rewards. Think of them as drops of water from a leaky faucet collecting in a bucket. Accumulate these drops, and you’ll have a modest reservoir of coins over time. Also, this is how these websites and apps get the ‘faucet’ tag.
History of crypto faucets
Crypto faucets have been around since 2010. They were created right after the Bitcoin network went public in 2009. However, they were never intended to be a source of free crypto or money.
Back in the day, Bitcoin had little to no value. No one was using it, and most people were not even aware of it. To drum up interest and educate people about the benefits of this new virtual asset, a Bitcoin developer and early adopter named Gavin Andersen started offering free bitcoins to people who would complete a set of captchas online.
This was the first crypto faucet in existence. At that time, participating in this crypto faucet would net you 5 BTC. Now bitcoin faucets only give a small amount of Satoshi, the smallest unit of a bitcoin. After that, many crypto faucets came into existence, spanning various cryptocurrencies. Today, there are Ethereum faucets, Litecoin faucets, Monero faucets and many more. Also, if you did use that Bitcoin faucet back then, you’d have 5 BTC, worth around $200,000 today.
How do crypto faucets work?
You do not need any formal training or expertise to reap the rewards of these faucets. The only requirement would be a wallet address to store these rewards permanently.
Start by finding a good faucet — there are plenty of them online. Next up, register yourself — you’ll have to enter some basic details and provide the wallet address to which you want to send the tokens. Once you’ve done that, you can begin performing the tasks listed on the website/app.
Different tasks generally have different rewards, depending on their difficulty level. Most faucets will have a time-lock and a minimum threshold that need to be met before you can send the tokens to your personal wallet. Until then, they stay in the mini wallet registered to you on the website/app.
Conclusion
Crypto faucets allow you to accumulate small amounts of cryptocurrency with little to no effort. They are a great way to get into the world of cryptocurrency. They also serve as an effective way to kill time and earn some crypto in the process. Either way, they are a great way to fill your wallet with coins without spending a penny.
First Published: IST