Faucets: Walking into the Crypto World and Risking Almost Nothing

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I don't need to tell readers on Steemit (nor most readers on Medium at this point) about the potential of cryptocurrency and its likely role in the future of finance. I try to keep up on new tech trends, but in this case I arrived late in the game, in 2018 after the price peaked. I am not looking to get rich quick, and I realize that my coins could just as easily (actually more easily) go to zero as go to the moon. Instead of investing "real" money, I catch faucet drips, and I risk virtually nothing. Every once in a while, I earn enough to withdraw to an exchange (Binance or KuCoin) and see where it goes. Today I am north of $150 USD, but last November I was down to $19 USD from $80 USD before that, so it's been quite the roller coaster ride. But likely better odds than Vegas.

I tried a lot of faucets and other earning sites in the crypto Wild West, many of which were too time-consuming, spammy and/or unreliable to be worth the pocket change that could be expected. But I have settled on a few that have worked out pretty well, and will share them here. In the interest of full disclosure, the links are, in fact, referral links. So I reap some benefit in the form of higher payouts if you click them and start using the sites. But it doesn't negatively impact your returns if you click through this way vs. elsewhere, so I encourage you to help me out if you are so inclined.

Cointiply - this one also has some good offer walls, and until a few months ago had a cool thing called the Cointiply Mining Game. The Mining Game wasn't actually mining cryptocurrency on the blockchain, but rather was a sci-fi game where players could own assets of an interplanetary mining company. You could invest your Cointiply coins back into the game instead of withdrawing them, and your mining power increased with each item purchased, which boosted your hourly earnings. There was also a distinction between "coins" and "gems", and a trading economy within the game for maximizing returns. The Mining Game became a great way to really move the needle on earning crypto. Sadly, in Fall 2018, Cointiply discontinued the Mining Game, presumably because it was not a sustainable business model. Players still receive small payouts as restitution, which is not zero but also is, of course, much lower than the earning potential from the game.

There is now a trading economy on Cointiply within a game with Fortnite-inspired weapons. I haven't really gotten into it very much, so I just roll the faucet (up to every sixty minutes). But they still have offer walls and a faucet that can be claimed up to once per hour, along with referral and loyalty bonuses. It is also worth noting that the loyalty bonus is quite stringent even compared to some other faucets, so it's very important to claim every day, per note below.

Satoshi Labs - this faucet seems to have picked up the mantle of passive income after Cointiply discontinued the Mining Game. The game on Satoshi Labs is a similar premise, except that users purchase upgrades to their laboratory equipment to earn more power. But the hourly payouts are much lower than the Cointiply Mining Game, at least in the beginning. The good news is that it looks like it may prove to be more sustainable; the bad news is that it's a longer slog to make money. Faucet claims can be every five minutes. They had been referring to the payouts in "satoshis", but wisely started using "lab flasks" when the market turned upward, so that their payout expenses would not be directly tied to the price of bitcoin. (1,000 lab flasks = $0.05 USD, so 1 flask = 1 satoshi only if 1 BTC = $5,000 USD.)

Freefaucet.io - this faucet allows 3 claims per 24-hour period, but each claim is more generous than most faucets: it can be in the neighborhood of 50 satoshis, which is pretty high for faucet drips. Most of the coins are lesser-known altcoins, but they also have BTC, LTC and ETH. The Random Faucet has the highest payout, if you don't care which coins you get (and if you get enough of them, you should be able to trade for whatever you need on an exchange anyway.) The developers are also active in the chat, and will sometimes throw out a free gift of a tiny amount of coin for cheering your favorite coin or interacting with them on the site.

Bitnyx - used to be once every thirty minutes, recently changed to once every sixty (which doesn't really impact me, because I don't claim that frequently anyway.) Claims are up to 30 satoshis. It also does not appear to require a ReCaptcha to claim.

Free Dogecoin - also up to every sixty minutes.

Coinpot Faucets - each of these has a pretty small payout, but it adds up if you claim with all seven. Some of them have loyalty bonuses as well (note asterisks below.) And there is a variety of coins.
Moon Bitcoin (BTC) - up to every 5 minutes
Moon Cash (BCH) - up to every 5 minutes
Moon Dash (DASH) - up to every 5 minutes
Moon Dogecoin (DOGE) - up to every 5 minutes
Moon Litecoin (LTC) - up to every 5 minutes
Bitfun (BTC) - up to every 3 minutes
Bonus Bitcoin (BTC) - up to every 15 minutes

Coinpot also has some opportunities to earn more with games of chance, etc.

Faucet Hub - many of the faucets listed here (as well as others) use Faucet Hub wallets for withdrawals. So wherever you are claiming, you should have a wallet on Faucet Hub that you can then transfer funds to a wallet on an exchange. Some faucets allow withdrawals directly to BTC or DOGE wallets (like Cointiply) but the minimums and/or fees may be higher than to Faucet Hub.

Additional Tips:
I have found that it works well to use a separate browser for only my faucet claims, so that I can keep tabs open and readily available. It also needs to be on mobile; it's 2019, so that should be reasonable. And the best way to make several claims a day is to do so during those small moments of downtime in the day, when there is enough time to pull out a cell phone but not enough to fuss with a PC. Why not make a few pennies while waiting for the bus, for the pizza shop to finish your order, or for the elevator to arrive?

I like the Brave Browser, because there are a few faucets that don't work on others due to pop-up ads that block buttons and can't be moved. And although faucet owners legitimately place ads on their sites (as it is their business model), Brave keeps the most intrusive ones at bay but still allows claims to go through.

One word of caution: if you also like to earn a little more by completing offers, be sure to open the originating faucet/site in another browser other than Brave before linking to the site where you will complete the task (survey, app download, etc.) It seems that because of the privacy-oriented nature of Brave, it doesn't always allow the link to be traced back, and the offer walls don't necessarily warn you. You may only find out when you complete the (sometimes quite time-consuming) offer only to be refused credit on the originating site.

I don't have time to hit the faucets every few minutes like I understand some devoted users can; not even close to every couple of hours. But I have become diligent about claiming at least once a day. This is VERY important for faucets that provide loyalty bonuses. Typically a loyalty bonus will increase by 1% each day, up to 100%. So if you can claim consistently every single day for 100 days, you are literally doubling your money. But miss just one day, and it resets to zero. So if you are going on a weekend camping trip and will be without wifi or mobile reception for a full day, be sure to claim once just before you leave and then immediately when you get back. Otherwise you might have to spend the next 3-4 months arduously climbing back up to the 100% mark.

That pretty much covers it. I hope some readers find this useful, not only for the referrals but also because it's great to see people get involved with crypto and blockchain tech. The barrier for entry is low enough for it to have truly democratizing potential, and it can be helpful to learn the ropes when only a tiny amount of money is on the line. So good luck, and happy drip-catching!