What are Bitcoin Faucets and are they Still Worth?

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If you’re interested in crypto you may have come across something called a Bitcoin (BTC) faucet.

Bitcoin faucets are sites which dish out tiny amounts of free coins in return for you performing a simple action.

Many people are sceptical about crypto faucets when they first encounter them. After all, how can a site give away free Bitcoin?!

In fact, crypto faucets are real and, in most case, completely legitimate.

Read on to find out how they work, how much money you can make and a guide to some of the best Bitcoin faucets out there.

What are Bitcoin faucets and how do they work?

A Bitcoin faucet (also known as a crypto faucet) is a website that gives out tiny amounts of cryptocurrency each time someone visits and perform an action.

This can be something as simple as completing a CAPTCHA, viewing ads or signing up to newsletter.

The reason the faucet (which is another word for a tap) can dispense free digital currency is because the site hosts advertising.

The more visits the site owner gets, the more ad views are registered and the higher the Click Through Rate (CTR) is likely to be.

Crypto faucet operators hope that the amount of profit they’ll make from ads will exceed the free coins they dish out.  

There are many different types of crypto faucet, from the very simple to more complex sites that offer a whole range of ways to earn free Bitcoins.

This might include taking surveys, playing online games, watching videos or engaging with a Paid to Click (PTC) ads.

Are Bitcoin faucets safe and legit or a scam?

It seems unlikely that there are sites out there giving away completely free crypto.

So where’s the catch? Is it just another scam?

The answer is that there’s no catch, aside from taking up your time, and no scam – BTC faucets are real.

The vast majority of crypto faucets are genuine, safe to use and completely legit, dishing out free crypto to visitors, often every hour.

You’ll occasionally find a site that doesn’t actually pay the coins you’ve earned, but they are few and far between.

You can usually avoid falling for this by googling the site before you use it.

If it’s a scam site, it’s likely that someone will have written a bad review about it, or left a comment on sites such as Reddit.

These faucets sometimes claim to be associated by with large, legitimate sites and this is a quick and easy way to spot a fake.

For example, there is no crypto faucet operated by Coinbase, the global exchange, yet some scammers have tried to dupe people by claiming that there is.

Another thing to remember is that no legitimate faucet site will ask for any money. Crypto faucets are completely free to use! As always, do your research first.

How do I use a cryptocurrency faucet?

Getting started with Bitcoin faucets is super easy and you’ll be earning free crypto in no time.

All you need is a Bitcoin wallet address and some spare time. Some sites require an email sign-up, but a lot don’t.

Some faucets dish out different cryptos to Bitcoin, such as Bitcoin Cash or Litecoin, so you’ll need the correct wallet to use each one.

Once you’ve got your wallet(s) set up you’ll need to add the address to the faucet you’re using. Often this address will be your ID as well.

Most faucets have a minimum withdrawal threshold which may take quite some time to reach.

Once you reach the threshold you can withdraw your coins and then either ‘hodl’ them, or sell them on a crypto exchange.

There are also platforms called microwallets which can help speed up the withdrawal process.

Microwallets enable you to gather all your faucet earnings in one place, rather than having to reach the individual threshold of each faucet you use.

An example of a microwallet is faucetpay.io.

Here, you’ll find a long list of faucets that you can claim from, together with other ways of earning crypto, such as surveys and offer walls. There are also a limited number of casino games.

One of the most well-known microwallets was CoinPot and the associated ‘Moon’ crypto faucets, but these have now shut down.

Best Bitcoin faucets and crypto apps

You’ll find loads of online resources listing the best crypto faucets out there.

But often these lists go out of date very quickly!

Some of the best Bitcoin faucets have been around for years, but others only last a few weeks or months before they disappear, sometimes before they’ve paid out.

Two faucets that we’d recommend are:

• Cointiply
• Freebitco.in

Both these sites have been around for ages and are used by tens of thousands of people each week.

Cointiply

Cointiply offers a Bitcoin faucet, together with several other methods of earning crypto.

These include: Online games, PTC ads, surveys, rewards for installing apps, and watching videos in return for coins.

Rewards are paid in Cointiply coins before being converted into Bitcoin at the market rate when you come to withdraw.

At the time of writing, the withdrawal threshold was $3 (about £2.20).

This would take quite a long time to reach using the faucet alone, which just shows you how low the payouts are.

But if you take a few of the better paying surveys available on the site it’s possible to reach this amount within a matter of hours.

Cointiply also allows you to earn a loyalty bonus which after 100 days of claiming will double the amount you’re rewarded with.

It also has an easy-to-use app meaning you can claim free crypto on the go.

Freebitco.in

Freebitco.in is more of a gambling orientated site but features a free to use faucet as well.

As an added incentive for users, each time you roll the faucet you automatically earn free entries into the site’s weekly lottery, together with reward points.

The lottery pays out ten prizes every Sunday, with the top prize worth several thousand pounds/dollars, depending on the price of Bitcoin at the time.

You can also play the multiplier game and gamble crypto on the latest events, include sports and crypto price movements.

The site is also famous for running an annual competition where you can win an actual Lamborghini!

You can buy tickets or win them through the free Wheel of Fortune feature.

A final bonus offered by Freebitco.in is that you can actually deposit crypto on the site and earn interest on it.

At the time of writing the rate was a bank-beating 4.08% paid daily and compounded.

Both sites allow you to earn interest on the crypto you hold with them.

Are Bitcoin faucets profitable?

Did you know that the first crypto faucets paid out up to 5 Bitcoins per roll?

That would be worth a whopping £240k/$350k at Bitcoin’s All Time High (ATH) price in 2021!

These days though faucet payouts are tiny, with the rewards often referred to as ‘dust’ by users.

An amount of 20 Satoshis or so (100 million Satoshis = 1 BTC) is normal at the time of writing. The term Satoshi comes from Satoshi Nakamoto – Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator.

Judging by this you can see that crypto faucets are not a profitable way of earning cash unless there’s a meteoric rise in the price of Bitcoin in the future.

Many faucet sites run referral programmes which can help you collect more coins, especially if you’ve got a wide circle of friends.

But you’ll need a lot of people making regular faucet claims to substantially boost your earnings.

Bitcoin faucets should be viewed as a way of learning about crypto without any financial risk rather than a side hustle or a way of earning extra cash.

If you’re if you make money from Bitcoin faucets and if they’re still worth it the answer is that you can certainly earn a small amount by regularly claiming from multiple faucets, but you won’t be putting a deposit on a Lambo any time soon!

What are the highest paying crypto faucets?

It’s difficult to accurately say what the highest paying Bitcoin faucet is, as the payout amounts vary considerably and can often change.

If you discover a legit Bitcoin faucet paying more than 50 sats (Satoshis) then you’re lucky!

The two sites I’ve mentioned above don’t offer the highest paying faucets, but the free bonuses on offer put them near the top of the table.

If you search Google, you’ll find many aggregator sites which round up payout rates for dozens of faucets, so this is a useful starting point.

It’ll help you find the highest paying faucets at any given time, although be aware that these aggregators are often promoting their own referrals, which may be artificially placed at the top of their lists.

You need to take into account the amount of the claim, the time between claims and the additional bonuses to determine which Bitcoin faucet has the best payout rates.

Do crypto faucet bots work?

If there’s one thing that’ll give you RSI it’s repeatedly completing CAPTCHAS or similar repetitive tasks to make your faucet claims.

Which is why some people use bots to make the claims for them on autopilot.

While this may seem like an easy way of gaming the faucets and effectively generating free money with minimal effort, there’s a catch.

Faucet sites have caught on to this trick and many of them use sophisticated software to spot the cheaters.

If you’re caught using an autoclaiming Bitcoin faucet bot it’s highly likely you’ll be banned from the site and forfeit any crypto in your account.

Freebitco.in for example implicitly states in its terms that bots are forbidden.

The site doesn’t tell you when you’ve been banned – you’ll only find out when you come to withdraw your coins.

This could potentially mean weeks or months of claims being forfeited, along with any crypto you’ve deposited to earn interest.

There are dozens of sites online selling bots with various claims made about how much you can earn by using them.

The consensus seems to be that while you might get away with using a bot for a short period of time on some sites, over the long term it’s not worth it and you’ll be barred from claiming and your IP blacklisted.

Many faucets also take a dim view of people using VPNs as these can be used to enable multiple accounts to be set up by a single user, which is another common way people try to cheat faucets.

Bitcoin faucet gambling and casinos

The gambling industry never misses a trick, and it embraced crypto while it was still a nascent technology.

Now, there are hundreds of crypto casinos and gaming sites with often very little to differentiate between them.

Several BTC faucet sites also allow users to gamble coins through hi-lo games, multipliers and sports books/events, such as Freebitco.in, as mentioned above.

It’s definitely an area to tread cautiously in though.

Despite the obvious risks of losing your crypto through bad luck, there are many scammers out there who have set up fake sites to trick you out of your digital currency.

The mainstream crypto gambling sites offer a wide range of traditional casino games, such as slots, baccarat, blackjack and roulette, alongside Esports betting, online percentage return to player (RTP) games, to name but a few.

Crypto casinos often require you to buy Bitcoin from an exchange first before depositing it on the site to gamble with, in the same way you would fiat money.

With any faucet gambling sites or online casinos make sure you research them thoroughly before depositing crypto and never bet more than you can afford to lose.

Conclusion

Faucets are a niche area of the cryptosphere which serve a useful purpose.

They offer an easy way for people new to the world of Bitcoin to learn how digital currencies work and familiarise themselves with the associated technology and terminologies.

The beauty of crypto faucets is that you don’t need any upfront cash to get started – they’re completely free to use.

You’ll never get rich using faucets, but they’re unique in that you’re effectively getting free money, without any risk.

It’ll also get you used to dealing with Bitcoin wallets and other aspects of crypto without having to bankroll your interest.