Compass Investments

– The 21million.com faucet site, featured in a May 4 X publication, mimics the first ever bitcoin CAPTCHA page created by early bitcoin pioneer Gavin Andresen in 2010.

The 21million.com site currently displays a screenshot of the CAPTCHA task and a field for entering the bitcoin recipient’s address, which was not functioning at the time of writing.

Shrem’s bitcoin crane website also states that 0 bitcoins are available.

Like Andresen’s old site, Shrem’s page explains what bitcoin is and how to get it.

“What’s the catch?

According to Shrem, there’s no catch. “I want bitcoin to succeed, so I created this little service to give you a few coins to get you started.

When asked if Shrem is the vibe coder of the project or if he’s getting outside help, he said: Vibe coded! It’s a lot of fun.

Vibe coding is based on artificial intelligence and cues for writing code.

Bitcoin cranes played a significant role in spreading awareness of the cryptocurrency and helped drive its adoption in the early 2010s.

Andresen’s Bitcoin Crane page gave away 19,700 bitcoins, now worth $1.86 billion, for solving a captcha.

Users could earn up to 5 bitcoins per day from Andresen’s page. The bitcoin faucet incentivized wallet creation and transactions, which helped expand the user base and activity on the bitcoin network.

Other sites, such as FreeBitco.in, began offering similar services between 2011 and 2013. But as the bitcoin price and transaction fees increased, the rewards decreased and eventually the model became unprofitable.

Shrem co-founded one of the first bitcoin exchanges, BitInstant, with Gareth Nelson in 2011. At its peak, the exchange accounted for roughly 30% of all bitcoin transactions, according to Shrem’s personal page.

To offer the instant bitcoin buying experience that the first dominant Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, lacked, BitInstant purchased bitcoins from Mt. Gox in large batches and then resold them to customers almost instantly.

However, as the transaction volume grew, BitInstant’s business model faced scaling issues.

To support the expansion, the company received $100,000 from early bitcoin investor Roder Vera, with additional support later provided by Eric Voorhees and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Shrem also co-founded the Bitcoin Foundation in 2012 and served as vice chairman to promote the adoption of bitcoin as an alternative to traditional banking.

However, on January 26, 2014, Shrem was arrested while trying to leave a plane in New York City and subsequently charged with money laundering related to his role in BitInstant.

Authorities alleged that some BitInstant customers used bitcoins purchased from him for illegal purposes, including criminal transactions on the Silk Road darknet site.

Shrem pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and served one year before being released in 2016.