When I firstly thought of this post I couldn't decide which blog to add it to. On the one hand, it's quite general (so Whispers of Digital Sea seem appropriate) but on the other hand, it's about earning crypto so, after all, I decided to put it under my Free Crypto tips and tricks blog.
What are faucets?
Well, probably most people here know that already, but as they are the main topic of this post I would give a quick explanation of what they are. Faucets are a kind of website focused on... giving free crypto. There are many types of them, some just give one "fixed" amount of chosen cryptocurrency once in a while (it may differ from few minutes to even a few hours). Currently closed Coinpot.co, which I mentioned in some of my previous posts was (mostly) a faucet(s). Those websites could give You some fraction of Bitcoin(satoshi), Litecoin(litoshi - or at least I heard it's called this way), BitcoinCash(should it be called "cashoshi" then?), Dash, Doge, Ethereum, Monero... the list could probably go on and on. Well, actually it's mostly about those popular, and well-established coins. Most likely because more people would wanna get some. They can have some captcha's to solve in order to get Your little bit of crypto. They also usually have some additional mechanisms, including referral programs.
In some way, You can call publish0x a faucet too, as it gives You some crypto (though it's random on WHAT You'll get - as far as I know with 25% chance for Ethereum, and the remaining 75% equally split for the remaining two coins - which tend to differ depending on time) once in some time (10 minutes), a few times a day. Well, it's actually more to that as You decide how much of it goes to You and how much to the author of the article, under which You claim You crypto, but You got the picture. Is more like a publishing platform, but with a faucet-like feature. And I'll even do a comparison between Publish0x and "regular" faucets in this article.
How does it work?
It's actually the most important question about all crypto-earning opportunities You can encounter. And this one rule should You always remember (as it's your first line of defense against scams!): don't try something if You neither can figure out what business plan stays behind it, nor is it explained in a believable way. Of course, it's better when the website is telling You this, than when You have to figure it out. Because other ways You can end up fooling Yourself (as I kinda did with Golden-Farm/CoinBirds - two names and websites to the same thing actually - before I discovered it's a scam I did come up with a somewhat possible explanation of how it could work... but instead it was simply platform intended for stealing from users or in other words: scam).
And what business plan can be in just giving other people money? Well... it is. Many faucets rely on ads revenue (this is why for example in moon faucets You saw a lot of ads) - the amount of certain coins You get is actually small enough to be covered with ads revenue. But who the heck would pay for ads in such a place - when people wouldn't actually look at them? I don't know. Maybe they are just stupid. Or maybe we are and it subconsciously affects us? And maybe also this is why they are so insistent and cumbersome (all those pop-ups etc.). And - even If I didn't check the stuff on the ads (most of them was... rather untrustworthy offers of incredible gain on crypto) - it seems that it statistically has some effect for advertisers or at least it seems so. And as much as it looks like the really pointless circulation of (seemingly not that big) money, it seems to work.
Sometimes is connected with some prize pool, foundations, or other things of this kind, which wanna popularize crypto (in general or increase interest in their token, which they could see as potential profit), sometimes it comes from some additional function. Like when the faucet has also an option to deposit and stake the coins or for some kind of gambling, then the platform could invest those deposited coins for a mining operation or just getting some cash back from house edge (in other words: from the fact that in gambling more people loses than wins). So better be cautious before deciding to use any faucet for anything other than taking money from it (depositing is a bad idea before You are sure it's safe... and even then it's not that much advised).
How much can You earn?
First of all, yes, You can earn something from faucets. Well, You never are sure if it really does pay, so all Your profits may turn out to be purely virtual, therefore it's always better to check one before You start to use it.
But let's assume we talk just about trustworthy faucets. How much they give? Well, as I mentioned before it's not much. And what's important it's often dependent on ads revenue and also the price of a coin, as the value You get has rather amount fixed in dollars than in cryptocurrency.
Take for example MoonBit.co.in - one of bitcoin faucets from coinpot.co - for most time I used it, You could get 1 satoshi about each 10 minutes(or slightly less). But that was about most efficient (In a matter of just quantity of crypto, the time needed not included) as with time the number of accumulated coins decreased (after few hours it was already a rapid decrease) - so You could in theory get 6 satoshis each hour, what means 144 a day. But when You would use a faucet about once in 8 hours the amount You could claim wouldn't exceed 20 satoshis (actually I didn't remember if such an amount for such time even happened...). But in the last days of coinpot it was just about 3 satoshi per day! Other faucets would of course have somewhat similar, but could be better. For example freebitco.in give free sats every hour and I was even seen as it was near 30! But now it's just about 4 satoshi/hour. Well, still much better.
But back to our example, In times I mostly use moonbitco.in bitcoin price was something above 10,000$, but let's make my point even more blatant and assume the current price of bitcoin - but for simplicity round it down to 50,000$. And as clicking every 10 minutes is impossible (after all everyone has to sleep, eat, etc.) take the variant of 3 times claiming 20 satoshi. This what You could claim from it in good times wouldn't be very much bigger anyway (I dare say in most "optimistic" scenario - and here the low price is optimistic one - 10 times more). So we have 60 satoshi a day.
Is this much or not? Well... satoshi is 0.000,000,01 BTC, so it will be 0.000,000,6 BTC so assuming the 50k price it will give... 0.03$ or in other words 3 cents. One can argue it would become much more (and in my opinion, it kinda is the very point of the crypto faucets - but I will come back to this later), but it was calculated assuming what You could claim in the past and the current price of bitcoin. Which already did rise a lot. And even assuming we would claim 10 times this it will still be less than 1/3 of a dollar a day. Not much. (Well actually via some bonuses You could get up to 300% bonus (but only 200% would be certain, the rest will always stay random), but still its just 12 cents instead of 3...)
But maybe it's just about choosing bad paying faucet? So take freebitco.in's an example. For it, the base of what You could earn is 4 satoshi every hour. For each claim You "roll" - which basically mean getting some random number... but as the other level are up to slightly over 0.0035 (by slightly over I mean I cut less significant digits) but for this, there's only 0.01% chance. There are also 4 levels between that, but anyway chance for base 4 satoshi is still equal to 98.85%, so others are actually negligible (as I remember I only once or twice get the first level after it(1% chance for that), which currently is 47 satoshi, so still not that big difference... well it's over 10 times more, but that's not much compared to highest - and almost impossible tiers) - well, in theory, they would move hourly gain up to slightly over 48 satoshis, but... in my experience more reasonable would be to just stick to 4 in the calculations. So this way we would get up to 96 satoshis. It seems less than what I mentioned about moonbit.co.in, but actually when on moonbit.co.in You would had get up to those 144 satoshis a day, on freebitco.in You would get over 20 satoshis in 1 hour (I even saw about 30...), so 240 satoshis a day. But to make this calculation more reasonable (by that I mean "how much is you gain worth in time You get it") I will use 4 satoshi and 50,000$ price for calculation.
So if we take that values we get 0.048$ almost 5 cents... well slightly better (especially that if we would calculate it in the same manner as for MoonBit it would actually be about 5 times more... which is still less than 1$) and if we take hypothetical average amount it would be about 0,586968$... or 0,58$ if we cut the less important digits(so below 1 cent) that... isn't exactly impressing. and how many times would we be able to actually claim it? I think 12 times is an optimistic version, so it would be about half of it.
Of course, there is much more than that to FreeBitcoin - You can even effectively increase You earnings by exactly 1200 satoshis a day, and not only that... but that would be material for another article. Anyway, If You wanna use faucets You can use freebitco.in and with that referral link I will get half of Your claims, but... 40% of it would come back to You! Yes, I did set my account like that, so it happens automatically each week! It's a win win scenario ;)
The faucet paradox - or WHEN to use faucets
Before going to some final thoughts (and comparison) I wanna bring out one paradox connected to faucets. And more precisely to the fact, that amount they give You is usually fixed to the value in USD (or other fiat currency, doesn't matter that much), which means - coinwise - that the faucets are most efficient when the cryptocurrency value is low. Well... that wouldn't matter (as it is less worth in that moment)... IF not the fact, that when we use a faucet for some cryptocurrency we - most likely - believe in that coin. Believe that it has a bright future and in the long run the price would eventually go up - maybe even to the moon. With that mindset, it's actually BETTER for us if at the moment the price is lower. It means not only buying opportunity (as I said I was actually happy when bitcoin price did go to 3k because I believed anyway it will surpass its last ATH after some time - and You know just how much I was right as we are currently at price over 2,5 times of previous ATH! - the only fact I wasn't happy about was that I didn't make it to buy on that price as I don't have money on exchange... and didn't think the price would bo back up this fast as it does) but also more cryptocurrency gain from faucets. And if at that moment they are not worth much per coin? Well, who cares, actually if he thinks the prices would go up?
Of course, sometimes that mindset could be misleading as some coins can just lose their value - and in general, this is the final fate of MOST cryptocurrencies. There are just a lot more coins that need them, so it's impossible for all to flourish. But this bad fate awaits mainly the new one, which won't succeed, it usually doesn't apply (or doesn't fully apply) to those well-established coins - like bitcoin for example.
So in general the best time for using faucets is when their cryptocurrency is at its lowest. Paradox, isn't it?
Faucets vs Publish0x
So what is better - regular faucets or Publish0x? Well as there are some relatively highly paying faucets as freebitco.in the profits are still low. You could get about 5 cents a day with them, and with publish0x? Well, it depends on how generous You are, but I noticed the value of a single tip seems to be about 1-1,25 cent. So with 5 tips (when You keep most to Yourself), it will be about equal to what You get on freebitco.in... for clicking every hour and doing those annoying captchas every time. And on Publish0x it's just 10 minutes timer, and also those tips are linked to articles about crypto and other staff, which are usually pleasant to read. Well honestly I didn't read all articles I tipped, and I think there are many people who use Publish0x more like a faucet than a place for some crypto-connected(-or-not) reading... and even if we exclude an added value of articles itself, even as a faucets Publish0x seems a lot better. You can get the same amount with much less effort... and Ethereum is also a strong coin, which rather would only increase its value in the long run (well, there are some obstacles to defeat still, but if Ethereum 2.0 is likely it will be done) - and at the same time has much more rise potential than bitcoin. The other coins here - as most altcoins -also has higher volatility comparing to bitcoin, which mean they would increase value quicker (but on the other hand they are less stable, but having two circulating altcoins + ethereum seems like still decent stability and big ability to rise, so a great combination!)
As I remember the limit of daily tips was about 5, but if it would be higher (I have yet to check it and update this article) it would mean that not only i matter of "profit to used time" Publish0x is better, but also in how much You could actually gain.
Final thoughts - are they worth Your time?
To put it shortly... NO.
But for a more precise and longer answer... it is that sure only when we take just the main feature into consideration (and as I mentioned in that regard Publish0x definitely outrank most likely any faucet, even though it's more of a publishing platform than a faucet) - and that actually was the point of the article. Focus on the faucets as an idea, as some core-feature, and evaluate just this feature itself.
And... well it's not that good. Usually NOT worth Your time, as the profits are absurdly low, compared to the time You have to invest in it. And even if time is the only thing You can lose... faucets - themselves - are generally not worth it. Time is money, as the saying goes, and it's true - the time is very valuable. As it actually is fun to explore some free crypto/cash opportunities on the Internet (this is one of the main reasons this series was created in the first place) it usually... isn't the most profitable option. Doing some courses and get a decent job would most likely give a better money/time ratio.
Heck, actually, as one of my main hobby is fanfiction writing and world (re)building I even wonder about starting to build some community around my works (I mean globally, so I first have to translate them into English) and perhaps start taking commissions... even considering I would have to translate them too (I most likely would do those commission in my native - Polish - language first anyway) and that I'm more a man of the big picture, than detailed and perfect implementation (not only I see this, some of my readers also told me that, just using slightly different words) - which altogether makes me not exactly the most suitable man for taking commissions - would, in the end, be much more profitable than playing with faucets and stuff like that - even taking just money into consideration. But I get kinda offtopic here. (If this offtopic seems somewhat interesting to You I can write more about it - just let me know You want it!)
But back to the main question - the only way that can make faucets (somewhat, as that conclusion from the last paragraph still apply...) worthwhile are their additional mechanism - which can make them muuuuuch more profitable than their base functionality itself. Especially that some can be used for staking. (Freebitco.in for example has a staking function (starting at 30,000 satoshi balance) with 4,08% gain a year... but it's calculated every day, so it's actually more. For example from 0.1 BTC You would get 1095 satoshi... and that profit would increase every day...)
And that's the only reason I actually do intend to write articles about some of them - they have additional features, which make them not that bad as they would be if had just the faucet feature.
I hope You liked this article and would tip it - maybe even with less than the slightest possible amount for me ;)
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