Several hundred years ago, by which I mean 2015, I started using faucets on my phone.

The process was pretty straightforward but, as you do, I was not particularly careful so I lost all that crypto.

I downloaded a wallet, but the 12- or 24-word system wasn't as easy as today. The keys were stored on an encrypted file, I downloaded the file on my phone, and even though I still have that phone and that file, I can no longer decrypt it.

And even if I could, I wouldn't know what wallet the keys would be for.

It wasn't much, I'd earned pennies, and that was on a lucky day, but BTC wasn't worth much back then, so those pennies are now tens of dollars. Maybe hundreds.

Fast-forward to 2021, I started using faucets again.

Every day I spend more time than I'm prepared to admit doing things for crypto. It's a long list of things.

I have apps where I can claim steps and earn crypto, including Sweatcoin by the way (who knew, back when I started, that SWEAT would actually be worth something one day), and I gave up on all faucets but one, FaucetCrypto.

They use a system based on experience points whereby making the threshold to withdraw ($0.07) takes days when you first start, but then it becomes quicker. First it takes days, then it takes 24 hours, then eventually you may end up earning dollars every day.

Obviously, the idea is the same. You're banking on the fact that one day, those $0.07 (which you can withdraw using all major coins including BTC) will be worth something.

The problem is they slashed rewards by a significant margin.

It is so much harder, and it takes longer, to earn experience points. And everyone lost nearly 50 percent of the experience points they'd already accrued.

This, ironically, points out the problem of centralization. Of course they said they did it because it was becoming unsustainable, which I understand, but it still sucks.

And it's likely to happen again.

So the question is, are crypto faucets still a thing? Are they still useful?