Bitcoin death is something common media predict since the first boom when btc reached $1 or even before maybe... The large community/user base wouldn't allow this by that time and now 100x bigger it still won't... If it is as you say, faucets will be no help for you, signature campaings may give you something more valuable to see how things work, but to get real in this you should either buy btc with fiat (maybe a miner if you have cheap eletricity) and if you ever consider investing on clound mining be sure that there is always some risk they may run away with everything (ponzi), this post may give you a clue "https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=878387.0". There are much safer ones like hashnest (from biggest asic miners provider) that are very not likely to disapear with your money..