John Carl,
Editor
Jan. 3, 2025
With Bitcoin close to $100,000 today, it’s hard to imagine anyone giving away free Bitcoins.
But not long ago the world seemed very different.
In 2010 a software developer named Gavin Andresen gave away 19,700 Bitcoins through a website he called Bitcoin Faucet.
He believed that Bitcoin was a promising new way for the world’s unbanked population to exchange value — and his goal with Bitcoin Faucet was to expand access to this new transaction network so that anyone could use it.
In order to get the free coins, all you had to do was solve a simple CAPTCHA, and provide the address to your Bitcoin wallet.
Then, with the press of a button, 5 free Bitcoins would appear in your wallet a few minutes later.
Thousands of users took Andresen up on his offer.
If you were one of them, and had the foresight to hold onto your coins, today your stash would be worth almost $500,000.
It’s a reminder of how quickly the value of transaction technology can change.
As these technologies develop and mature, what once seemed trivial turns out to be significant.
And based on what I’ve been seeing in the news, I worry that history is likely to repeat itself.
Earlier this week I heard several people standing around the water cooler at the gym chuckling about the now-famous story of Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer who spent 10,000 Bitcoins to buy two pizzas, completing the first known commercial transaction.
Today, just 15 years later, it’s worth almost a billion dollars.
When you think about Gavin’s Bitcoin Faucet and Laszlo’s two pizzas, it’s easy to shrug and say “well, if only they’d known better,” and completely miss the fact that most investors are doing something similar right now.
While it likely won’t be as extreme or as rapid this next time around, it’s my firm belief that today’s value for Bitcoin is a steal compared to what it’ll be worth in the future.
I can’t predict exactly how and when these changes will take place — but I believe it’s safe to say that 15 years from now Bitcoin’s value is going to be in an extremely different place.
And when you consider all of the positive weight in Bitcoin’s favor, I think that value will be extremely positive.
The election of Donald Trump, and his administration’s embrace of this new transaction system, is bringing about a fundamental shift in the economy.
If he follows through on his promise to make Bitcoin a Strategic Reserve Asset that’s held by the Fed this change will be even more rapid.
The same transformation is taking place in Silicon Valley.
Google has been slow to adopt the blockchain’s capabilities — but that’s been changing quickly this past year.
Google has partnered with a small crypto firm to build a transaction network that can give the credit card networks a run for their money.
I know about this small crypto firm because I invested in it during the last crypto bull market, making 1,033% gains in 2021.
This new partnership with Google is creating the opportunity for a re-run of that successful investment.
It’s my belief that the timing of this partnership couldn’t be more perfect.
I consider it likely that today’s pizza money in Bitcoin will one day be worth a fortune — and this is our chance to make the most of it.
Make it your own,
John Carl
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle