Can you smell they in the air? It smells to me like generosity.
Some notable members of the bitcoin community are personally giving away small sums of cryptocurrency to help newcomers better familiarize themselves with the concept. One such person is Bruce Fenton, who posted the following on his Facebook page on Friday:
Want to learn about Bitcoin? No better way to learn about Bitcoin than to try it.
This will take about 3 minutes.
I’ll send $1 worth of Bitcoin free to the next 10 or so people who
1) Download a free wallet app (I recommend Blockchain)
2) Send me or post here the wallet address or QR code
Bingo, you get Bitcoin and see how it works first hand.
Newcomers only please.
It is indeed a great way to learn about bitcoin. And given the system’s complexity, the best way to truly understand how it works is to get one’s hands dirty and make mistakes.
Also joining the party is Charlie Lee, employee at Coinbase and founder of litecoin, viewed as bitcoin’s little brother in terms of digital currency. Litecoin is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $323.3 million.
Lee posted the following today on his Facebook page:
I’m taking a page from Bruce Fenton but with a Coinbase and Litecoin twist.
1) Open a Coinbase account from https://coinbase.com
2) Pick a username in the settings page
3) Post your payment page link (ex. https://coinbase.com/charlie)
I will send $1 worth of bitcoins to the first 50 users. New users please.
If you are interested in Litecoin:
1) Download the Litecoin client from https://litecoin.org
2) Run it and copy your receiving address
3) Post the address here
I will send 0.1 LTC ($1) to the first 50 Litecoin addresses. Also, new users please.
Coinbase is also taking part in something similar. Recently, the company announced they would be giving away $10 worth of bitcoin to eligible college students around the world. We learned this week they’ve now given away coins to over 20,000 students.
The Bitcoin Club at MIT have taken it a step further and secured funding from an outside source to put $100 worth of bitcoin in the hands of all undergraduates at the school.