The history of Bitcoin and its early days is quite fascinating. The advent of the new financial order was just budding and only a handful of people took it seriously. The price was extremely low and the lucky ones who purchased it back in the day are leading comfortable lives.
American developer Gavin Andresen had donated over 19,700 Bitcoin’s for free in 2010 to users who simply solved a ‘Captcha’. Andresen had launched the ‘Bitcoin Faucet’ website back then and used the domain ‘freebitcoins.appspot.com’ for the giveaways.
The software developer wanted Bitcoin to succeed among the masses. In an effort to boost adoption he gave users an opportunity tp receive 5 Bitcoin’s for free each day just by solving the Captcha. Bitcoin costed $.08 in 2010.
The Bitcoin Faucet website is now defunct and stopped operations after a few months of rolling out free BTC’s. Andresen loaded the website with 1,100 BTC of his own money. Moreover, the website reloaded BTC’s multiple times after several users minted it.
A total of 19,700 Bitcoin’s were given away for free in 2010. The total worth of the free BTC give away stands at a whopping $1.2 billion as of today in 2021.
”I want the Bitcoin project to be successful, and for that to happen, people need to get coins so they can experience this technology for themselves,” said Gavin Andresen in an interview. He revealed he first thought the idea to give away free BTC’s is “really dumb” but went ahead with it anyway. His main motivation was to let people understand the nuances of BTC and he succeed in his plans.
However, looking at it today, lucky are the ones who received 5 BTC’s each by simply solving a ‘Captcha’.
Bitcoin Today
Bitcoin is the most sought-after cryptocurrency today and reached an all time high (ATH) of $69,044 on November 10, 2021. Its market cap reached a staggering 1.7 trillion with a trading volume close to 40 billion on any given day.
The lucky ones who received 5 Bitcoin’s in 2010 is now worth $283,493. Large financial institutions, entities and several companies have also invested in BTC today and is adopted by the masses.
A decade later, Bitcoin could be on another level altogether and analysts claim that it’s never too late to enter BTC. The leading crypto knows only one thing, that is growing, despite falling sharply.
Bitcoin at the time of publishing was trading at $56,640 and is -4.67% in the days trade.