NewsBTC
No Result
View All Result
  • Cryptocurrency News
    • Bitcoin News (BTC)
    • Ethereum News (ETH)
    • Ripple News (XRP)
    • Shiba Inu News (SHIB)
    • Cardano News (ADA)
    • Dogecoin News (DOGE)
    • Solana News (SOL)
    • Litecoin News (LTC)
    • Avalanche News (AVAX)
    • Polygon News (MATIC)
  • Crypto Prices
    • Binance Coin (BNB) Price
    • Bitcoin (BTC) Price
    • Cardano (ADA) Price
    • Chainlink (LINK) Price
    • Dogecoin (DOGE) Price
    • Ethereum (ETH) Price
    • Litecoin (LTC) Price
    • Polkadot (DOT) Price
  • Crypto Resources & Directory
  • All Crypto
  • Play GamesTry
  • CasinosTry
Breaking News: LINK Price Climbs Following Chainlink's Deal With US Commerce Department, Eyes $30
  • Cryptocurrency News
    • Bitcoin News (BTC)
    • Ethereum News (ETH)
    • Ripple News (XRP)
    • Shiba Inu News (SHIB)
    • Cardano News (ADA)
    • Dogecoin News (DOGE)
    • Solana News (SOL)
    • Litecoin News (LTC)
    • Avalanche News (AVAX)
    • Polygon News (MATIC)
  • Crypto Prices
    • Binance Coin (BNB) Price
    • Bitcoin (BTC) Price
    • Cardano (ADA) Price
    • Chainlink (LINK) Price
    • Dogecoin (DOGE) Price
    • Ethereum (ETH) Price
    • Litecoin (LTC) Price
    • Polkadot (DOT) Price
  • Crypto Resources & Directory
  • All Crypto
  • Play GamesTry
  • CasinosTry
Bitcoin News
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News: LINK Price Climbs Following Chainlink's Deal With US Commerce Department, Eyes $30

In 2014, Selected MIT Students Got $100 Of Free BTC. What Did They Do With It?

Eduardo Próspero
Eduardo Próspero
1 year ago
4 mins read
Free BTC, MIT at night

Reason to trust

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality
Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed
The highest standards in reporting and publishing
How Our News is Made

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Ad discliamer

Morbi pretium leo et nisl aliquam mollis. Quisque arcu lorem, ultricies quis pellentesque nec, ullamcorper eu odio.

This fascinating experiment involving free BTC generated concrete results and we’re here to review them. The feel-good story arrives courtesy of CNBC, who interviewed some of the protagonists and got to the bottom of things. It all started with 19-years-old Jeremy Rubin, who developed a program called Tidbit. It  allowed “users to mine for Bitcoins on a client’s computer as a replacement for traditional advertising.” The authorities weren’t so keen on his idea, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation remembers:

In December 2013, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office issued a sweeping subpoena to Rubin and Tidbit, seeking Tidbit’s source code, documents and narrative responses about how Tidbit worked, which websites it was installed on and the Bitcoin accounts and wallet addresses associated with Tidbit.

Related Reading | MIT BTC Project Goes Live, Offer $100 of Free BTC to Undergrads at MIT

They eventually dropped the investigation, but one good thing came out of it. He realized that even though he thought “everyone was super cutting-edge” at MIT, not many were familiar with Bitcoin. So, logically, he raised “half a million dollars in donations from alumni and bitcoin enthusiasts” and the free BTC experiment was born. 

Were There Conditions To Get The Free BTC?

The idea was for undergrad students to “complete a few questionnaires and review educational materials,” and to “set up their own crypto wallet, which at the time was hard enough to discourage participation.” Still, 3,108 students got $100 of free BTC. At the time, Bitcoin’s price was $336, so they got about 0,3 BTC each. At today’s price, that would be worth about $13.500. 

“We wanted to get bitcoin out in the world more, and we wanted to spread the technology,” said Rubin. “We also wanted to study what it means to distribute a new asset.”

How Many Sold Or Spent The BTC?

Luckily for the history books, researchers traced the project. Apparently, “1 in 10 cashed out in the first two weeks. By the end of the experiment in 2017, 1 in 4 had cashed out.” Paper hands, sure, but remember that no one had any idea if Bitcoin as a whole was going to pan out. CNBC quotes Christian Catalini, one of the researchers:

“Even at the time, the technology was quite user unfriendly,” he said. “Even within a pretty tech-savvy community such as MIT, it was kind of surprising to see how much work it really was to use bitcoin at the time.”

Still, 3 out of every 4 held on to the BTC, which is pretty impressive. “What was fascinating is that in a sense, the MIT students got it right. The vast majority held on to their bitcoin as an investment.” Did they, though? Or was it so difficult to use and unknown by vendors that they didn’t even bother? 

BTCUSD price chart for 08/18/2021 - TradingView

BTC price chart for 08/18/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

What Did The Students Do With Their Free BTC?

Well, long story short, they spent the free BTC on sushi. CNBC managed to track two of those students that, somewhat ironically, now work in the crypto space. One, Sam Trabucco, serves as Co-CEO of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. The other, “Van Phu, now a software engineer and co-founder of crypto broker Floating Point Group.” 

“One of the worst things and one of the best things at MIT is this restaurant called Thelonious Monkfish,” said Phu. “I spent a lot of my crypto buying sushi.”

Related Reading | Uniswap Labs Limits Access To Certain Tokens, What It Could Mean For The DeFi Sector

So did Trabucco, who remembers the experiment as an important experience for the people involved. He spent the free BTC because he “didn’t really think it was going to be the future of finance.” Still, he considers that maybe already having a Bitcoin wallet set up might’ve sent him on the path to head a firm as big as Alameda Research.

All’s well that ends well.

Featured Image by Yuhan Du on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
Tweet123Share196ShareSend
Eduardo Próspero
Eduardo Próspero

Eduardo Próspero

Eduardo Prospero is an author, a content writer, and a professional rapper.
A Bitcoin maximalist in disguise.
Working on a Bitcoin book.
Venezuelan.

Read more

He wrote a novel, but it's only available in Spanish. It's called "La Tormenta."

Close

Disclaimer: The information found on NewsBTC is for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.

Related News

Ethereum

Ethereum Price Stuck In ‘Loading Phase’, What This Means For The Campaign For $5,000

The Ethereum price continues to test investors’ patience as it consolidates just beneath critical resistance levels. A crypto analyst has...

Scott Matherson 5 hours ago
Dex Volume Hits Over $1T in August: Why Best Wallet Token Stands To Gain

Dex Volume Hits Over $1T in August: Why Best Wallet Token Stands To Gain

The decentralized exchange (DEX) market has just reached a historic milestone, with over $1.15 trillion in volume processed during August....

Aaron Walker 7 hours ago

Top 3 kryptomeny na investovanie v septembri 2025

Začiatok jesene prináša na kryptomenový trh novú dynamiku. Kým Bitcoin sa obchoduje okolo hranice 110 000 dolárov a Ethereum atakuje...

Nina Šefčíková 7 hours ago
Load More

Reason to trust

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality
Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed
The highest standards in reporting and publishing
How Our News is Made

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Ad discliamer

Morbi pretium leo et nisl aliquam mollis. Quisque arcu lorem, ultricies quis pellentesque nec, ullamcorper eu odio.

Related News

ethereum

Ethereum’s Latest Rally Fueled By Large-Scale Binance Orders, Analyst Says

Ash Tiwari 2 hours ago
Bitcoin

Metaplanet Becomes A Global Bitcoin Powerhouse with 20,000 BTC Hoard, More Buys Ahead?

Godspower Owie 3 hours ago
dogecoin_doge_dogeusd_5_optimized

Dogecoin Price Set For Explosive Rally If This Structure Holds

Sandra White 4 hours ago

Premium Sponsors

Press Releases

  • 12億ドルの売り越し、市場は調整局面に突入か?

    イーサリアム...

    3 hours ago
  • ビットコイン...

    3 hours ago
  • シバコイン 今後の行方

    シバコイン...

    3 hours ago
  • パイネットワーク...

    3 hours ago
  • 1 najbolja kriptovaluta za kupiti prije nego što poraste za 3.536%, prema Cathie Wood (ARK Invest)

    1 najbolja kriptovaluta za kupiti prije nego što poraste...

    5 hours ago

Newsletter

About Us

NewsBTC is a cryptocurrency news service that covers bitcoin news today, technical analysis & forecasts for bitcoin price and other altcoins. Here at NewsBTC, we are dedicated to enlightening everyone about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

We cover BTC news related to bitcoin exchanges, bitcoin mining and price forecasts for various cryptocurrencies.

Disclaimer: The information found on NewsBTC is for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.

Company

  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Center

Social

© 2025 NewsBTC. All Rights Reserved.

  • Cryptocurrency News
    • Bitcoin News (BTC)
    • Ethereum News (ETH)
    • Ripple News (XRP)
    • Shiba Inu News (SHIB)
    • Cardano News (ADA)
    • Dogecoin News (DOGE)
    • Solana News (SOL)
    • Litecoin News (LTC)
    • Avalanche News (AVAX)
    • Polygon News (MATIC)
  • Crypto Prices
    • Binance Coin (BNB) Price
    • Bitcoin (BTC) Price
    • Cardano (ADA) Price
    • Chainlink (LINK) Price
    • Dogecoin (DOGE) Price
    • Ethereum (ETH) Price
    • Litecoin (LTC) Price
    • Polkadot (DOT) Price
  • Crypto Resources & Directory
  • All Crypto
  • Play Games
  • Casinos
Advertise

© 2025 NewsBTC. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy Center or Cookie Policy.