A cryptocurrency faucet is an automated program that allows people to earn free cryptocurrency by "claiming" it on a pre-defined time schedule. Faucets offer a lot of benefits and are one of the main ways that new crypto projects promote their coin. A faucet can help new coins build a following because they get the coin into user's hands and users are incentivized to keep checking the faucet to claim their rewards; on top of that, who doesn't like free stuff? In today's article, I will show you an easy way of creating a cryptocurrency faucet by using Mint Bot and Telegram.
Before you can distribute your cryptocurrency through Mint Bot, you will first have to create a group on Telegram in which you have administrator privileges. This can be done by clicking the "Hamburger" icon in the top right of Telegram and selecting New Group.
After you create the group, give it a name and begin adding members. Be sure to add Mint Bot to the group as @MintSLPBot. This is the actual bot that will take care of distributing your crypto. Make sure you select the right Mint Bot with the mint leaves in the photo.
After creating the group with Mint Bot, ensure that you change the settings to public (so people can join your group). To do this, pull up the group info by right clicking the group icon, select manage group from the drop down menu, and then set to public.
Now that the administrative issues have been taken care of, we can actually create the faucet itself. The Mint Bot website says to use the following command to create your bot. faucet -create [token id] [token name] [claim amount] [claim wait time] While this command is obviously correct (since it comes from the official website) it can be a bit difficult to understand. When you create the bot, you don't actually use the brackets. The different parameters are separated only by a space. So, to create my bot, I used the following command.
faucet -create 0e49b677f8960bfc3c586064d1ba40959c5051f5d0a1f703c06ec4781baae114 RobToken 1 24h
The "faucet -create" command is a standard creation command used to create the faucet. It will be the same regardless of what other parameters you choose. The long string of characters is the token id. The "RobToken" text is simply the name of the token. "1" represents the amount distributed per each claim, and "24h" represents the rule that each person can claim once every 24 hours. The creator of the faucet can tailor the claim amount and duration between claims to their preference. Do you want a person to log in more frequently, or do you want them to save up for one big claim? It all depends on your token's marketing plan, but it is nice that Mint Bot gives faucet creators those options.
Filling The Faucet
Once you have entered all of the parameters, you can verify that the faucet has been created by typing "faucet" within the Telegram group. This will display all the details you entered, but it will also show that there are zero balances in the faucet, and trying to claim results in an error. To fill the faucet, all you have to do is transfer some tokens from your Mint Bot wallet to the faucet.
This can easily be done by directly messaging Mint Bot and transferring the desired balance.
On the official website, the command to fill the faucet is given as faucet -deposit [token id] [token amount]. As with creating the faucet, this command does not require the use of brackets, and the funding command would look something like this.
faucet -deposit 0e49b677f8960bfc3c586064d1ba40959c5051f5d0a1f703c06ec4781baae114 10000
In this command the "faucet -deposit" is a standard command, the token id is the same as when we created the faucet, and the number at the end is the amount of tokens we are putting into the faucet. At first, I struggled with this command and was unable to create the faucet, but I reached out to Mint Bot co-founder Max who was able to quickly provide some much appreciated assistance. In order to fill the faucet, you must directly message Mint Bot. Do not attempt to fill the faucet from within your Telegram group. Trying to fill the faucet from within the Telegram group will yield no result as the command will simply be treated as a message that was posted to the group instead of an executable command.
As long as you already have some tokens in your Mint Bot wallet, it is a simple matter to transfer them to the faucet and fill it. However, if you have your funds in another wallet, such as Badger or Electron Cash, you will first have to send them to your Mint Bot wallet. The public key for your Mint Bot wallet can be found by simply typing deposit into a direct message to Mint Bot. This will give you your public address to receive tokens. Once you send tokens to this address, you can transfer them to the faucet as previously described.
Conclusion
Creating a faucet can be a great way to increase interest in a new crypto. People love free stuff, and the ability to periodically earn some free crypto encourages many people to visit the faucet, view the official Telegram group, and remain energized about the project. Creating a faucet from scratch can be difficult, and using the combination of Telegram and Mint Bot levels the playing field and gives non-technical people (such as myself) an easy way to create a faucet and promote their crypto. Telegram charges no fees, and covers the BCH cost required to distribute your tokens. Overall, I have to say that interacting with Mint Bot has been a completely positive experience. The program is easy to use, and the staff has been incredibly helpful on both occasions that I have reached out to them.
! BONUS !
As part of this tutorial, I created a demo faucet and stocked it with the world's first crypto designed to be completely and totally useless, the Rob Token. The Rob Token has absolutely zero goals, plans, or ambitions. It has no monetary value, no white paper, and no road map. It has no cash value and most likely never will. It was created solely for demonstration purposes and showing people how to make use of SLP tokens without me having to spend any "real" crypto. If you want to hold a token with absolutely zero potential feel free to head on over to the official Refund Faucet. t.me/RobRefundFaucet
Image Credits:
https://freesvg.org/water-faucet
https://simpleledger.cash/
References
https://mintslp.com/faq
Big thanks to Max from Mint Bot for the assistance.
