Justin Sun's Guide to Cryptocurrency
Note: @holovision is unable to blog today (April 01, 2020). Filling in is guest blogger @justinsunsteemit who is sharing the first chapter of his upcoming book Justin Sun's Guide to Cryptocurrency.
For almost a decade the cryptocurrency faucet has been a modest alternative to mining cryptocurrency. Based on a time limit between users' claims for a small amount; it's been a relatively proven way to build up a small fortune. This chapter explains how you too can cash in.
What you'll need:
- A website domain for your faucet.
- Your own server (optional) rather than renting one.
- Code/script to run on the website.
- A list of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition (See Appendix I).
- A small amount of cryptocurrency to start. If you're doing it right you won't really need much.
What if I don't have/can't get those items?
No problem! Just buy out an existing cryptocurrency faucet with an already existing on-line reputation.
How do I make money giving away cryptocurrency?
Again, it's not a problem! You'll be getting paid for placing advertising on your faucet site. Lots, and lots and lots of ads. Also, you simply don't give any cryptocurrency away. As the first Ferengi Rule of Acquisition clearly states:
Once you have their money... you never give it back.
Getting Started
First, you need to set up your faucet site. Most likely you can't code and you're using open source script or something that you've pirated from BitTorrent. This part may require developers. As payment to the developers try offering them a cryptocurrency you create (see chapter 2 "Farting Out Crypto: The Modern Magic Beans"). If that doesn't work pay them with "exposure" which is just giving the developers credit on the site for their hard work. You can hide it in small font under the copyright notice even though you never actually will bother registering a copyright for your site.
If you're going the route of buying an an already existing cryptocurrency faucet you should probably fire the whole staff rather than keeping them on. I've learned from personal experience after buying Steemit that most people for some reason care about things they've put time and energy into. Just burn every bridge you must and stomp out all resistance in the beginning. That's all you can reasonably do.
If possible you should always own your server(s). If for whatever reason law enforcement shows up with a warrant; a private company you contract with won't be trying to quickly destroy evidence with the same zeal as you will.
Establishing the User Experience
Your cryptocurrency faucet will need to have a threshold at which theoretically a payout will occur. It has to be enough for the bright-eyed crypto noob to believe he or she, who am I kidding?, he can actually achieve with diligence. The threshold should also take at least a week to reasonably reach.
That week is your time window to stop that noob from taking your money away from you. You may outright state that you are giving away cryptocurrency but that's just your claim. As it is clearly stated in the 239th Ferengi Rule of Acquisition:
Never be afraid to mislabel a product.
One great psychological trick is to post a "payouts" section on the front of your cryptocurrency faucet site. When a user first views that list of addresses and payout amounts the user can't help but imagine they could be one of those payouts. In reality every single address will be owned by you and you'll randomly be sending payouts to yourself and nobody else.
Your first line of defense is the number of claims a user makes. If you set a low time limit between claims (1-30 minutes) the user is more likely to keep coming back to click on the claim button. After a certain number of claims in one day simply disable the user's account and make an accusation that the user was using bots. The precise number to indicate "bots" were being used isn't important because you'll never put that in the Terms-of-Service (ToS) agreement for your site's faucet. It just states bots can't be used for claims and you have the right to disable accounts "Suspected" of engaging in that.
If the user thinks that's not fair because they know for a fact they are innocent and creates a new account then just let them do that for a few days. After that disable the user's account because creating multiple accounts also violates your faucet's ToS agreement. Checkmate!
When all else fails use impossible to solve CAPTCHA verification to foil the user's attempts to make a claim..
The lifeblood for your cryptocurrency faucet is unsuspecting users willing to keep coming back to click the claim button to watch a stupid ad for something they'd never actually buy or a service out of their price range. Think about it. The user is claiming $0.0005 USD. What are the chances the user has lawyer money set aside to sue you? The probability is smaller than the amount they are trying in vain to claim.
If somehow that thieving crypto faucet user isn't diligent and makes only a reasonable one claim a day negating a false bot accusation your next line of defense is a loyalty program. Maybe, just maybe, you'll pay but you don't have to make it easy for the crypto noob.
Each day slowly increase the claim amount for making a claim during a 24 hour period. For some users as the percentage increases they might begin making more regular claims because each claim has increasingly more value. That's when you can make the bot accusation.
After a week or two have random server outages or go into "maintenance" mode. This prevents users from making claims and when you make those outages long enough the 24 hour claim window lapses and the users in your loyalty program are set back to zero increase that day.
BUT EVEN AFTER ALL THAT A USER IS STILL ABLE TO REACH A THRESHOLD PAYOUT WORTH $1.07 USD! HELP!
Like I always say, "Super easy, barely an inconvenience". From the very start you don't use reputable advertisers. Every single ad placed on your site claims they can double your cryptocurrency in 100 hours or is promoting some sh*tcoin. In reality those ads will be loading malware. Your faucet's ToS agreement will state that users must disable adblockers in order to use your cryptocurrency faucet.
For a list of Chinese state-sponsored hackers ready and willing to pay you top dollar for hosting their malware on your cryptocurrency faucet see Appendix II.
You can pre-order a copy of the upcoming book Justin Sun's Guide to Cryptocurrency directly from Cryptsy.com
Comments