$BTC In 2010, an American developer launched a promotional website, offering users 5 Bitcoins per day for solving a Captcha test.
In 2010, it was possible to earn 5 Bitcoins per day simply by solving a simple Captcha test. This initiative was launched by American developer Gavin Andresen through a website called "Bitcoin Faucet." He initially contributed 1,100 Bitcoins from his own balance, and then some early miners contributed to replenish the website after the initial balance was depleted. The goal was neither profit-making nor advertising, but simply an attempt to spread the word and introduce people to a new cryptocurrency whose future value was unimaginable.
The Captcha test is an automated method of distinguishing between humans and machines, typically requiring the user to type letters or numbers that appear scrambled in an image. The goal is to ensure that the user is a real person and not a bot trying to exploit the system. Thanks to this mechanism, everyone who entered the website solved the test and immediately received five Bitcoins.
Over time, the site distributed approximately 19,700 free bitcoins, worth more than $2.215 billion today, to ordinary users who took just a few minutes to solve the captcha. At the time, these coins were virtually worthless, but today they are worth millions of dollars and represent a tremendous fortune for those who hold them.
: Cointelegraph.