Cryptocurrency has not yet managed to replace fiat money but has gained a stable position in the investment market. The most popular cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. Over the ten years of its existence, it has managed to surprise many skeptics who have claimed that blockchain-based virtual coins have no value. Today, hardly anyone will deny that the blockchain industry has enormous prospects.
Every day, the “Digital gold,” as Bitcoin is called, attracts more and more people who were not previously interested in cryptocurrencies. In this article, we will share the most popular ways to earn Bitcoins.
Mine Bitcoins
Mining requires significant funding and special skills in order to set up, configure, and maintain a rig. To start Bitcoin mining, you need to buy an ASIC-miner – special equipment specifically designed to mine Bitcoins. A good one can cost about $3,000, but it depends on what model you are going to buy. For example, the price for the Bitmain Antminer S17 starts at $2,000.
ASICs consume a lot of energy — about 1300-2000 Watts. Additionally, the hardware is noisy, and you cannot run it at home or in an atmosphere with a temperature higher than 30 Cº and high humidity.
You can buy a used one, but we recommend to purchase only new equipment from official distributors and big stores with good reputations.
Advantages of BTC mining on ASICs
- It is personal equipment
- Relatively fast payback period
- You can mine other coins working on the SHA-256 algorithm
Disadvantages of BTC mining on ASICs
- The equipment is expensive
- You need skills to configure a rig
- High level of noise and temperature
- Constantly growing mining difficulty and chance that your equipment will become useless
Mine BTC with Cloud Mining
In case you don’t want to spend a fortune on an expensive ASIC, try cloud mining, where miners buy computing power from special services. In other words, you rent remote equipment for a certain amount of time.
The ASIC is already configured and, basically, all you need to do is connect to a piece of equipment remotely, enter your Bitcoin Wallet address, and wait for the coins to appear on your balance.
With this method, you don’t need to worry about the installation and configuration of the equipment – the service provider does everything for you.
Pros of Bitcoin cloud mining
- Much easier to start
- You don’t need to worry about the location of a noisy ASIC
- Don’t need to pay for electricity consumption
- You can begin mining with a minimal amount of money
Cons of Bitcoin cloud mining
- A lot of services providing cloud mining are fake. You pay for rent, but you don’t receive mined coins.
- The income is smaller, and the payback period is much longer than the one you would face buying personal equipment.
Doing micro-tasks on Bitcoin faucets
One of the easiest ways to earn Bitcoin is via cryptocurrency faucets – special platforms giving rewards for small tasks. You can watch ads, download applications, visit other websites, play games and do other things to earn BTC and other digital currencies.
- BonusBitcoin – widespread BTC faucet which pays satoshis every 15 minutes. All coins are withdrawn to the CoinPot platform.
- Freebitcoin – a faucet where you earn Bitcoins entering captchas every hour. The amount of the award is random and ranges from 31 satoshis to 0.031 BTC
- BitFun – press the “claim now” button to get BTC and wait 10 minutes for the next giveaway. You can increase your award by playing different games on the site or roll dice for extra money.
- Cointiply – a classic faucet where you watch advertisements, complete surveys, and do other tasks for BTC. Throughout its history, thousands of users have earned more than 165 BTC in total.
Earning a significant amount of satoshis with faucets is almost impossible. You would have to use dozens of faucets every day, non-stop, to make anything serious. It’s a good way to earn some coins and use them later for educational purposes.
Play Games for Bitcoins
Bitcoin faucets are useful for learning about cryptocurrencies; however, they are monotonous and boring. When digital coins became widespread, many game developers started integrating crypto coins into their games, attracting more gamers.
Most crypto games reward users for specific results and actions. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Spells of Genesis – one of the first cryptocurrency games. It is a trading card game similar to Magic the Gathering or HearthStone. The gamers fight with other gamers in the fantasy world of Moonga. Throughout the game, you earn BitCrystals, building necessary facilities, and collecting cards.
BitCrystals are part of the in-game economy and can be used for certain purchases and card trading. It is a full-fledged cryptocurrency that can be sold on crypto exchanges for Bitcoins and other altcoins.
Blockchain Cuties – a popular crypto collectable game where users breed puppies, lizards, cats and other creatures and animals. Each of them has a unique appearance, set of abilities, and skills.
You can later trade them using smart contracts on ETH, TRON, EOS, and NEO blockchain and even sell them for other cryptocurrencies.
My Crypto Heroes – a video game running on the Ethereum network developed by the Japanese Double jump.tokyo studio. In this game, you need to create the most powerful and well-equipped character to succeed. Also, gamers trade their unique characters and rare items on the in-game market.
Bitcoin Lending
If you already have some Bitcoins, cryptocurrency lending is one of the best ways to make a passive income. The concept of crypto lending is simple: borrowers use fiat money or stablecoins as collateral to get a loan, and lenders provide the required cryptocurrency at an agreed-upon interest rate.
There are plenty of lending services available, and the most popular ones are BTCpop, BitBond, StemFund, and LoanBase.
Though Bitcoin lending is often compared to its traditional counterpart, it is important to note that these platforms are more prone to risk than legally regulated banks. The risk is high both for borrowers, because of high volatility, and lenders who risk getting scammed. The cryptocurrency sphere lacks a regulation mechanism that can protect parties from scammers looking to just take the money and disappear. Platforms are trying to fight this problem, making the KYC process obligatory in order to increase security.
Get a Job that pays in Bitcoins
Another method to get BTC or other cryptocurrency is to offer your services. Search for jobs and companies who are ready to pay you in crypto on:
- CryptoJobslist
- Cryptogrind
- Crypto.jobs
- Cointelegraph
Employers post vacancies in marketing, software engineering, system administration, sales, design and trading. So, you’ll quickly find a job there if you have experience as a software or blockchain developer, graphic designer or copywriter.
Earn BTC Trading
If you have good analytical skills, can read price charts and know some basics of technical analysis, then take a look at trading. Starting small as a part-time hobby, later, it may become your full-time job providing you with enough money to live in comfort.
This occupation carries with it plenty of risks. Today, trading is not just about buying low and selling high. You have to use various tools and methods, including derivatives, margin trading with leverage and even shorting during bear markets.
It’s better to hone your skills and knowledge of this craft by studying technical analysis methods, trading strategies, and practicing with small amounts of money or on a demo account. If you are a newcomer, take your time to educate yourself before diving in head first.
Buying Bitcoins and Holding
Probably the easiest way to earn some extra money is to buy BTC, wait and sell it at a higher price. “HODL” is a favorite term of the crypto community, meaning “Hold On for Dear Life” – or storing your coins and waiting for BTC’s value to grow.
Start by creating a Bitcoin wallet to keep your cryptocurrency in a safe place. Freewallet has a multi-asset wallet and application dedicated specifically to the digital gold. There you can buy, store and manage your coins safely.
With Freewallet applications, you can buy Bitcoin just with a few clicks. We support all types of Visa and Mastercard banking cards.
- Sign in to your wallet
- Click the “Buy” button
- Choose a currency to purchase with
- Choose the amount you’re going buy
- Fill all necessary fields
- Your Bitcoins should be on your balance
All you have to do is wait for BTC to grow in price and sell it on an exchange for fiat.
Selling something for Bitcoin
Everybody has some old stuff to sell. Selling on marketplace websites can supplement household earnings, so instead of visiting eBay, try Openbazaar.
Openbazaar is a special P2P platform where you can sell your goods for Bitcoin and other digital currencies. There you can create your own store page and sell everything you’d like.
- Openbazaar has a desktop application (the web version is coming soon).
- The service is absolutely free and doesn’t take any commissions.
- It accepts more than 1500 coins.
You, as a merchant, can choose what currency you want to be paid in.
Additionally, there are plenty of payment gateways for owners of shops and online stores. You can connect such a gateway and start accepting payments in Bitcoins and other digital assets.
- Coingate – payment gateway with an application for mobile devices where you can monitor all the transactions. They charge a 1% commission on all payments.
- Coinsbank – a payment processor available for iOS and Android. It supports major fiat currencies, including USD, GBP, and EUR.
- Bitpay – an easy gateway to configure and maintain. $1,000 worth of daily transactions are free of charge. A good choice for small businesses and shops.
- BitcoinPay – this service has the cheapest transaction fees at 0.8%. It offers almost instant withdrawals, which are performed in a few seconds.
Bug bounties
Cryptocurrency companies, like other software projects, often struggle with bugs and vulnerabilities. These malfunctions can be exploited by hackers to steal money and expose the personal data of users.
Bounties encourage hackers to find these vulnerabilities and report to them to the company so they can be fixed before they are exploited. As a reward, hackers will get paid in cryptocurrency. In 2018, one developer was so good at finding bugs that he managed to get $120,000 in a week from an EOS bounty.
Conclusion
The ways mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are more schemes and ways to earn Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including arbitrage, OTC trading, running a masternode and beginning staking.
Earning Bitcoin is as hard as making $10,000. The time when you could get a few BTC without making significant investments has passed. Also, it is risky, and the size of your income depends on the exchange rate your equipment power (if you’re a miner). The funds you invest can be recovered in a few months — or never.