Gavin Andresen, a software developer based in Amherst, Massachusetts, discovered Bitcoin in May 2010, roughly eighteen months after Satoshi published the whitepaper. He began corresponding with Satoshi by email and on the Bitcointalk forum.
After chatting with Satoshi about Bitcoin and its potential, Andresen identified a key barrier to adoption: new users needed a way to obtain coins without having to mine them. His solution was the Bitcoin Faucet — a website that gave away free bitcoins (initially 5 BTC per visitor) to anyone who completed a CAPTCHA. Wired’s 2011 retrospective on Bitcoin’s rise and fall adds a funding detail absent here — reporting that Andresen bought 10,000 bitcoins for $50 to seed the giveaway; see Wired’s feature on Bitcoin’s rise and fall for that account.
Andresen announced his self-described “really dumb” idea on the Bitcointalk forum on June 11, 2010, and over the faucet’s life gave away roughly 19,700 BTC — for many newcomers, their first coins, obtained without having to mine.
He paired the faucet with steady code contributions through 2010 — the track record that, by December, led Satoshi to hand him the project.