What Is a Faucet?
There are two ways a faucet works:
- A faucet incentivises users to use a particular cryptocurrency. It is an effortless way for users to earn crypto that doesn’t require any technical skills or purchasing of crypto assets. In this way, users perform various tasks like completing a captcha or viewing an ad, and, in turn, they receive a small amount of cryptocurrency for their effort.
- The second way acts as a method to onboard more users. For instance, altcoins interested in gaining more network users can add a faucet that awards small bits of cryptocurrency to users who complete their first transaction on a network. Since most networks, like Ethereum, require ‘gas’ to complete any transaction, faucets give users a small amount of cryptocurrency to help complete a transaction on the network.
History of Faucets
One of the earliest and most common forms of faucets is the Bitcoin faucet, which was created by Gavin Andresne in 2010; it rewards individuals with Satoshis. Bitcoin Aliens, launched in 2014, is a faucet that users utilise to earn cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash as a reward for playing games from their phones.
Faucets in the present time have now become few and far between, with most deployed for new networks to onboard more users.
