Free Bitcoins by playing Android games – scam or not?

Ah, le mirage du Bitcoin. A few years back I was very skeptic about Bitcoin. I thought it will fall as fast as it rose. At that point the price was about $200, and now Bitcoin is nearly $4,000. Had I invested in Bitcoin back then, I would’ve been a Bitcoin millionaire by now. I’m sure my experience isn’t unique, lots of others in my situation probably missed good opportunities. I was one of those that touted the end of Bitcoin, and my reasoning was that no way in hell authorities in various countries would allow it. Any yet, that’s where I was wrong. The IRS, no matter the country, wants to get a (big) chunk of your money, they’re not interested what form it takes. The source activity that produces those money is of interest, if that’s illegal there’s a problem. But the means of payment don’t count.

And Bitcoin will live long, mark my words. It will live for as long as there’s demand, and given that it is the main currency for underground transactions the demand will never cease. Alongside it, other currencies will rise and fall. Etherum for example. Demand is always there as illegal activities thrive. One underground market goes down, another Silk Road opens up. But, let bygones be bygones.

In the meantime all sorts of Bitcoin related sites popped up. It’s like a financial circus in terms of Bitcoin web & mobile apps. Aside the regular Bitcoin exchanges & wallets, there are also a lot of other Bitcoin gaming sites, gambling sites and even some called “Bitcoin faucets” that theoretically give you free Bitcoins. In reality you are served ads and because of the revenue they get off you, they will throw in some Bitcoin crumbs. BitKong is one such example, a browser based Bitcoin game where basically you tap and test your luck in a pyramid-like scheme.

Anyway, since the focus of this blog is Android and mobile related topics, I went and checked to see if these Bitcoin faucets are also available as mobile apps/games. And boy there are quite a few. My quick analysis shows close to 400 related Bitcoin apps, out of which almost 100 mention in some way or another “Bitcoin faucet”. Most of them are ad-heavy apps, that rely on the revenue they get from you to offer a very small chunk back to you in Bitcoins.