On-chain record · high source confidence
The Bitcoin Faucet (2010) — Published Donation Address
On 11 June 2010 Gavin Andresen announced a web service at freebitcoins.appspot.com that handed out a small amount of bitcoin to anyone who solved a captcha and supplied a receiving address. In the announcement thread he published a donation address so that recipients could return coins to the pool. The service ran into 2012 and is widely described as the first Bitcoin faucet.
- First seen
- June 2010
- Connected
- July 2010
- Route display ID
1°-5BCB-7850Display identifier only — not proof of ownership.
2 additional population comparisons
Evidence boundary
What is — and is not — established
This is a genuine self-disclosure: the address was posted by Andresen himself in the public announcement thread, archived by the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. The address has since seen very heavy use (on the order of 9,500 transactions) and its later activity may not all relate to the original faucet. Totals for how much the faucet ultimately distributed vary between secondary sources and were not verified on-chain here. The faucet is a 2010 service and fits the era window, though it was not named in the core brief.
The dossier
Evidence record
Address record
- Role
- donation address published by Gavin Andresen for refilling the faucet
- Script
- P2PKH
- Category
- Satoshi era
- Source confidence
- high
- Catalog reviewed
- 2026-08-06