I personally don't think it's that easy to scam somebody with tBTC...
You either have to guide them to a fake wallet that you've compiled yourself to make it look like the testnet is actually the main net, get them to download said wallet and use it. Sure, the reference (non-gui) wallet
livgle is easyer to change, but i don't think you'll get any complete novice to run a cli wallet.
Or you have to get them to execute a cli command
ometv including --testnet or get them to execute a startup script where you've hidden the --testnet parameter, then convince them everything is normal while the wallet's gui is filled with the word "testnet".
On top of that, if they want to confirm the transaction on any thirth party tracker, you'd have to convince them the fact the tracker clearly says "testnet" is normal for the main net.
I have seen 2 demo instances of clients that were on testnet that gave no indication of it.
Yes, it's probably easier to guide someone to a flake client that does something else or works another way, but yeah they are out there. Never saw someone scammed but lets face it, we are probably a small sample set.
I would also like to make the point that just about every person lately asking for testnet coins is a newbie. So it just looks really off. "Hi, I am new user, I need these to do some magical new project, gimme some"
BTW, mining tBTC, especially in vast quantities is NOT that easy as you'd think... The block reward is 0.39 tBTC/block and the diff (last time i checked) was >13M. Next to the high diff and the low block reward, you'd have to setup a full node and setup a pool, or at least find a way to solo mine using rented hashrate using your own node. It's just not that simple. You've quoted PART of my post calculating how much work goes into 1 tBTC, you just snipped the part where the actual calculations took place. Since then the diff has even gone up, so those calculations are an underestimation...
I never quoted the cost, you were a quoted as part of another quote.
But, yeah there is a cost involved both in time and effort, if you have a great new project show it to us or tell us about it. Don't just come in and ask.
If you or Coding Enthusiast or OmegaStarScream or others came in and asked it would probably be a different story.
But the OP came in and posted 1 thing in 2017 in Chinese and then came back 3 years later asking for 50 testnet coins to build a mixer and exchange.
There are plenty of crap alt-coins trading for fractions of a penny to test the exchange with. And you know what, you can also test the mixer with any alt that has a newer codebase.
Just my view. I do also see your points, I just have less trust of humanity.
As for the 1 vs .1 vs 10 vs .001 there might be a few instances that it does matter but I don't think they come up that often.
Keep safe out there.
-Dave