The cryptocurrency ecosystem attracts all kinds of people these days. A lot of novice users are always looking for free handouts in this industry, even though they don’t actually exist. Anyone claiming to offer free currency if users get in touch with him or her is a scammer. Vitalik Buterin recently took to Twitter to confirm that this “plague” is not ending anytime soon.
Cryptocurrency Handouts Don’t Exist
If it was possible to get rich without lifting a finger, it would surely happen in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Although a few fingers have to be lifted, this industry is perceived as being one of the best get-rich-quick opportunities out there. This is mainly thanks to the hard work of other people who have not been fortunate enough to become overnight millionaires.
To be sure, a lot of people still use faucets or other ways to obtain free cryptocurrency. While the amounts being handed out are fractional at best, it seems this business model is still pretty popular. There is no such thing as “free” in crypto, though. Everything you earn costs effort, time, and usually computing resources in one way or another.
We’ve also seen an influx of people impersonating important people in the cryptocurrency industry. Vitalik Buterin has been targeted quite regularly in this regard. People either create fake profiles using his picture and a slight change to his Twitter handle, or just comment on his tweets and promise people free Ether if they send a small amount to a specific address. Considering that so many people are new to crypto, the idea of receiving something for free attracts a lot of positive attention.
Or BTC. Or BCH. Or DOGE. Or Wild Beast Block. Yall are getting nothing.
— Vitalik "No I'm not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) March 4, 2018
These efforts are not limited to tricking Ethereum users, mind you. People imitating or hijacking Vitalik’s tweets have been promising other currencies, including Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Cash. All of these efforts are complete scams, for obvious reasons. No one on the internet will ever give you something for free, as they most likely had to work (hard) in order to obtain it in the first place. There is always some effort involved on your end, and most of these online promises will eventually result in major losses.
It is evident these efforts are not limited to Vitalik Buterin or other prominent developers in the cryptocurrency community either. John McAfee and Andreas Antonopoulos have also been impersonated, and it is very likely a lot of other people have too. Criminals and scammers will continue to use this method for quite some time to come, as the strategy has proven to work and to be rather lucrative more often than not.
How all of this will play out for the overall cryptocurrency community remains to be determined. It is certainly possible we will see fewer of these scamming attempts in the near future. Hopefully, fewer people will be tricked into believing those efforts are genuine. At the same time, with new people entering this ecosystem every single week, a lot of new victims are ripe for the taking as of right now.
