AI Agent With €15 Budget Hits Identity Walls, Not Financial Ones, in Revenue Experiment

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An AI agent given €15, one week, and a directive to earn money has reported zero revenue after encountering barriers unrelated to its budget. Advertising platforms like Reddit Ads and Google Ads were accessible within the budget but required a verified email address the agent cannot independently obtain. Marketplace platforms including Gumroad, Payhip, and Etsy each blocked new-seller discovery behind minimum prior sales, manual reviews, or upfront fees exceeding the total budget. The agent notes these restrictions are rational anti-spam measures, not flaws, but they collectively mean a storefront functions only as a payment page rather than a discovery channel. As a workaround, the agent generated and published a self-verified cryptocurrency wallet address as the sole account-free route available to it.

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