Do you believe that people give away valuable things with no ulterior motive?

Do you believe that "no good deed goes unpunished"?

At approximately 11 pm UTC Saturday, 27 June 2020, a Reddit user posted the following to /Bitcoin:

“Because the recent influx of scammers lately I want to do something nice for everybody. $50 of Bitcoin to the first 10 people to post their wallet address.

Because I've been seen a lot of post lately about people getting scammed with these free Bitcoin giveaways and how you have to send the money to receive money I'm going to send $50 a Bitcoin to the next 10 people to post there wallet addresses.

There's nothing else to it.” [sic]

What would have been your response had you seen it with enough time to be one of the “next 10”?

• Would you have written it off as a complete hoax? (Who would give away $500 USD with no catch?)
• Would you have warned other readers not to reply, as the poster was obviously harvesting Bitcoin addresses associated with a Reddit user name for later tracking?
• Would you have castigated the poster for – at the best – training Reddit users that there really is Bitcoin for free, and desensitizing them to the many frauds from those masquerading as Vitalik Buterin, Elon Mush, the Winklevosses, John McAfee, JK Rowling and others to multiply any crypto sent to a particular wallet – in others words supporting the very scams the poster was trying to counter?
• Would you have shown cautious optimism – perhaps review the Redditor’s profile (long time Redditor, participated in Secret Santa programs), created a new address from your wallet or some other way?
• Would you have just posted a Bitcoin address to see what happened?

Within an hour or two, all of the above happened. People posted warnings not to take part, their positive indication they would not take part, told the poster he was making a mistake …  and a dozen or so people immediately posted Bitcoin addresses.

What would have been your response had you not seen it with enough time to be one of the “next 10”?

• Would you have chastised the poster or the respondents?
• Would you have told the Redditor they should have given the money to charity instead?
• Would you have told the Redditor they should use the Lightning Network instead?
• Would you have told respondents that they might be part of a money laundering scheme, and their Bitcoin was probably going to be black listed, and they would lose everything?
• Would you beg the poster (or others) to give you money too?
• Would you have thanked the poster for doing something seemingly a nice gesture in the midst of difficult times and raising interest in Bitcoin with the stagnancy since the March recovery?

Briefly, the postings continued, mocking those posting Bitcoin addresses and saying no Bitcoin was coming … or if it was coming, it would be trouble and recipients would be complicit with any related evil-doings.

But then … the poster came through. Address after address had approximately $50 USD in Bitcoin (the poster apologized for reducing the amount by the transaction fee) transferred to it, and the respondents acknowledged the transactions.

Thirteen hours later, the Reddit thread has been locked by moderators. There have been 249 comments. Many have praised the poster for generosity. Some have continued the negative tone, telling the poster that it was a bad example, concerned the tax agency would come after them, complaining the poster picked a time that was bad for them because of region or working time.

And many, many people posted addresses knowing the offer had expired. People were out of work, homeless single mothers, newbies or minors who didn’t know how to get Bitcoin otherwise, or just hoping that more offers might be on their way.

What Can We Take Away from This?

• It is good to be skeptical when it comes to crypto offers. The adage, “Don’t be delusional. If something’s too good to be true, it probably is.” is true … but people are people and act capriciously at times.
• There are many scams out there. Many tell you they will give you many times returns on an initial investment. Some take your money and run; some are Ponzi schemes and offer an initial group the promised returns to prime the pump, and then take your money.

This offer asked for nothing up front and nothing except the Bitcoin addresses that are supposed to be so freely given (although only once in most cases).

• Many scams leverage the names of famous people or large corporations, as we believe “they can afford this”.

This offer came from someone most people would never have heard of, on Reddit since 2009, with strengths and flaws.

• Even those who follow the Reddit thread /Bitcoin have little faith in the anonymity of Bitcoin. There are concerns that associating a Bitcoin address with a Reddit username will result in direct marketing or more nefarious abuse.

The Bitcoin whitepaper has stated from the beginning that new key pairs should be used for each transactions to keep them from being linked to a common owner. We are yet to see how information like this can be mined. Tracing movement may be somewhat difficult today but trivial tomorrow. Compare this, however, to the information people freely give away for any number of purposes, like quizzes on Facebook that ask all of the security questions for online banking (e.g., “First pet’s name”).

 But even if you are concerned that something about your primary wallet will facilitate linking, it is trivial to create a new address from a wallet specifically downloaded for purpose, from downloading recognized tools like that from bitaddress.org, or other means.

• Even those who follow the Reddit thread believe that Bitcoin is potentially unreliable or poisoned and receiving any Bitcoin from someone you don’t know will at the least result in your “Bitcoin” being unusable and at worst involved you legally as complicit with any evildoers.
• As there has been no obvious immediate fall out for the recipients, people indeed may be more willing to take part and trust should a similar offer repeat in the future.
• So many sad stories.

If someone could figure out how to harness Bitcoin crumbs and use them to help fund needs, that might be an interesting opportunity. The GoBitcoinMe.com domain name is taken but parked, for those trying to emulate GoFundMe.

• Is it time for decentralized mixing services so there can be trustless breaking of traceability? Or does this raise even more concerns about data reuse and loss?

Would you have taken a minute to do some due diligence for $50? For $5?

• Can Bitcoin giveaways be a regular part of “this good breakfast”, as is the case of the LA Blockchain Summmit (which does have a few catches, such as KYC and needing to purchase some other crypto)?
• How would you advise someone who sees an opportunity like this?