One of the first questions that people who become interested in cryptocurrency ask is ‘How can I earn or make free bitcoins online without any cash outlay?’.
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Is CoinPot Free Bitcoin Faucet Microwallet A Scam Or Legitimate?
NOTE: This article is for information purposes only. CoinPot and all its associated Bitcoin faucets have now closed down.
CoinPot is a microwallet that was launched in July 2017 to service a select few free bitcoin faucets, yet many people seem to be concerned about its legitimacy, with some even suggesting it might be a scam site.
Why Is FreeBitco.in Such A Popular Free Bitcoin Faucet Website?
FreeBitco.in is one of the most popular bitcoin faucet sites out there, with more than 8,800,000 registered users at the time of writing. Search for information on faucets and pretty much everywhere you go you’ll find reference to this site.
So, what makes this such a popular destination for people looking to get hold of free bitcoins online without mining or having to buy any expensive and difficult to maintain equipment?
One of the main things setting it aside from the hundreds of others you’ll find out there is that it offers a lot more than simple faucet functionality.
It is effectively a portal which gives you access to multiple ways of earning free bitcoins.
This is the understated homepage that greats you when you first visit the site. You’ll need to set up an account and include your bitcoin wallet address for deposits and withdrawals.
The options offered by FreeBitco.in are:
A Faucet, But With Added Thrills
Each time you use your free hourly roll you’re also in with a chance of winning a jackpot prize if you hit the right number. You’ll always get the basic pay out which varies according to the dollar value of bitcoin at any given time but this adds a bit of excitement to the process.
Hi-Lo Game
Basically you can gamble your bitcoin on the outcome of a random number roll, known on the site as ‘multiply btc’.
A Bitcoin ‘Bank’
You can earn interest on the bitcoins you have deposited. If your balance is over 30,000 Satoshis (fractions of bitcoin) you will earn an annual rate of 4.08% at the time of writing.
Weekly Lottery
There’s a weekly lottery. You earn tickets each time you claim from the faucet and you can then purchase extra tickets with your earnings. The top prize can be in the region of 2 bitcoins at the time of writing.
The image below shows the prize tiers. The value of the prizes increase throughout the week as more people enter.
Reward Points For Tech
You also gain reward points for various actions you perform – whether it be claiming from the faucet or playing the multiply btc game. These points can then be used to buy some new tech or a host of other items.
Generous Referral Scheme
Referrals – Once you’re familiar with FreeBitco.in and faucets in general it’s a good idea to start generating referrals so you can earn a passive income alongside your own claims.
FreeBitco.in offers, at the time of writing, a generous 50% of faucet rolls, 0.25% of bets on the hi-lo game and 25% of the daily interest accrued by your referrals.
Browser Mining
This is an increasingly popular way for websites to earn some money themselves while passing some of it on to visitors.
All you have to do is agree to a small .js file from Coinhive then you can use your spare CPU power to mine some coins.
You’re actually tapping into Monero mining hardware but your earnings are then converted into bitcoin. If you’re unfamiliar with this don’t be deterred – it’s a simple way to experience mining.
But be prepared for low earnings if you attempt this on a standard PC. Also, you need to understand that mining for extended periods of time may eventually damage your hardware.
When you consider all the different methods of earning free bitcoin this site offers you can see why it’s become a hugely popular destination for people looking to get their hands on some digital gold.
There are hundreds of faucets out there that are just that, faucets, and once you’ve claimed you move on to the next one, often not returning for days because there’s little incentive to do so when there’s so much choice out there.
But once you start using FreeBitco.in on a regular basis you begin to see the potential it has in adding to your pot of bitcoins more rapidly compared to other faucet sites you’ll come across.
It’s well designed and extremely intuitive to use – you don’t have to hunt around for what you need as it’s all right in front of you and easy to find.
One thing that really stands out about its design is the lack of intrusive advertising. Many faucets sites go overboard in attempting to maximise their revenue, drowning visitors in garish banner ads, pop-ups and even re-directs.
Easy To Use
But not FreeBitco.in – it’s clean and refreshingly ad/pop-up free meaning you can surf around the site without being blinded flashy sales pitches or having to repeatedly shut unwanted windows which have sprung into view during your visit.
It has clearly been designed this way to appeal to novice users. Beginners will find it extremely approachable and will have no problem getting hold of their first coins and experiencing the thrill that goes with this.
As a footnote, you’ll find various websites and Youtube videos purporting to demonstrate how to hack FreeBitco.in. To the best of our knowledge none of these work and you’re highly likely to lose all your Satoshi quickly if you attempt this.
There are also some sections of the faucet community that have run into difficulties with FreeBitco.in and have angrily decried it as a scam site. Again, to the best of our knowledge, it is perfectly legitimate and reliable. We have never experienced any issues with claiming coins or withdrawing them.
If you’ve enjoyed FreeBitco.in then you should out check some of our other recommended faucets together with a more complete list of alternatives for you to try.
Related links:
Are Free Bitcoin Faucets Legitimate And Why Do They Give Away Free Coins?
NOTE: This article is for information purposes only. CoinPot and all its associated Bitcoin faucets have now closed down.
These are question that crop up regularly in internet forums, comment sections and Q&A sites across the web so clearly there’s some confusion surrounding the validity of faucets.
After all, where else can you literally get free money handed to you in the comfort of your own home for very little effort? It just seems too good to be true and perhaps people are rightly suspicious.
The reason faucets exist is all down to simple economics. The faucet owner wants to make money from advertising so he incentivises visitors to keep on visiting by handing out tiny fractions of bitcoin (known as Satoshis) each time you visit the site.
The hope is that you’ll keep on returning to grab your Satoshis and thus help boost the faucet’s revenue and profit with your traffic. If enough people keep returning the owner will be in the money, although it’s not quite as easy as it used to be to profit from faucets.
It used to be that faucet owners could make a healthy return based on Google Adsense ads alone, but that was brought to an end when Google banned faucet websites from the programme on the grounds that they were enticing people to visit with free coins and this was against its terms of service.
Almost immediately faucet owners saw their revenues slashed, but not to the point where it is impossible to make a profit from running a faucet. In fact, the sheer number of faucets that remain active proves that there’s still money to be made.
So, as you can see, there’s no reason to be nervous about faucets, even if at first they do seem too good to be true. It’s a unique arrangement between customer and business but it’s one that serves both parties quite well.
Aside from the unscrupulous owners who don’t pay up after you’ve claimed, which are pretty few and far between from my experience, the only other thing you need to be wary of is the advertising that faucets sometimes carry (usually served up by a network and hence beyond the control of the faucet owner).
Buyer Beware
A lot of it is questionable to say the least, not in a NSFW way (although very occasionally this is an issue), but in terms of the legitimacy of the companies advertising.
The worst offenders are ads claiming to be able to multiply your coins by huge amounts virtually overnight. Promises of 12% daily returns abound, but just stop and think about this for a second.
How are these companies going to achieve this level of return? Even the best legitimate investment managers in the world would struggle to get a percentage even remotely close to this.
Clearly then, it’s unlikely that these companies which pop in and out of existence with their poorly written websites and spurious UK company addresses that have been bought over the internet, have found a magic formula that no-one else has thought of.
At best they are pyramid schemes where the first movers will profit at the expense of the late-comers. At worst they are simply scams designed to steal your coins and disappear into the ether.
We can’t categorically say that all of these sites are scams, but the it’s clear that the returns offered by the vast majority of them are simply not realistic and hence are unlikely to be legitimate.
But don’t let this put you off faucets – just avoid the ads and stick to claiming and you’ll be fine. The worst you’ll have to deal with is an unwanted pop-up or two but remember, you are getting free money and this is the price you’ll have to pay to grab your coins.
Most faucets are designed so that complete newbies can use them as obviously the owners do not want to put up any barriers to entry so this is another reason to dive in and begin your cryptocurrency journey.
If you need advice on getting started read our beginner’s guide to bitcoin faucets and then head over to our faucet list page to find some of the best-paying and most reliable faucets around.