For many of us, we don't have a lot of disposable income to invest in crypto. However, that doesn't mean we don't want to get our hands on all the cryptocurrency we can get. Thankfully, there is a range of options that you can use to exchange your time and sometimes skills to earn cryptocurrency or sometimes even get free crypto, even if it is often just small amounts. Perhaps you are looking for a little side gig or something to help pass some free time, if that's the case, why not look into something that could help you increase your crypto holdings as well. There is a range of approaches you can take when you want to find ways to earn cryptocurrency, read on to find out some ideas you may not have considered.
Get Paid for Using Social Media
A lot of us spend far too much time using social media, but you can use this in your favor thanks to some of the many projects starting to pop up that combine cryptocurrency with social media. You can be rewarded for creating content on a growing number of platforms. If you have quite good writing skills, are knowledgeable about something in particular, or even just make quality memes, you may find this a great way to make money using something you already do on other platforms. A few examples of platforms that reward users for creating content are Steemit, Hive, DLive, and APPICS.
Cryptocurrency Mining
While bitcoin mining is often out of the range of your average household PC if you do happen to have something moderately powerful, you may be able to mine some altcoins to generate some cryptocurrency. While you will still have to foot the power bill, you may come out on top if you choose the right crypto to mine and have half-decent hardware (primarily a good GPU but CPU can also be used in some cases). If you start taking advantage of space computing resources, then you may be able to get yourself some extra crypto coins this way.
Crypto Airdrops
Even though airdrops aren't as common as they used to be, you may still find the odd one of interest. Airdrops are usually a way to bring attention to a new project and to help distribute some of the coins or tokens among those interested. It can help with things like brand awareness, but in your case, it can also help you get cryptocurrency for free. However, when you do consider doing an airdrop to get some free crypto, ensure you aren't giving away any sensitive information to apply as you may end up regretting this in the future if the project turns out not to be legitimate. If the requirements are minimal however you may find it worthwhile, like anything though, do your own research and NEVER hand over your private keys.
Freelancing and Microtasks
There is a range of places online where you can find different opportunities regarding crypto jobs or jobs that pay in cryptocurrency. These jobs can range from short-term contract work to full-time work or even microtasks that are rewarded with small amounts of bitcoin or cryptocurrency. You can find many opportunities with a quick search online; one great example of a crypto jobs website is Aworker, which lists an extensive range of crypto-related and blockchain jobs available worldwide, many of which are remote.
Microtasks can be a little more hit-and-miss, but you will find several places where you can do small tasks for rewards. The problem with microtasks is you may find many of the task offers are attempting to gather information about you using surveys or asking you to download sometimes questionable applications; these are things to beware of and almost always something to avoid.
Bitcoin Faucets
Faucets are something that has been around in the crypto space for a long time now, and it's not likely something that is going to go away. One of the earliest bitcoin faucets gave each visitor, not just 1 bitcoin for free, but 5 BTC per visitor and all they had to do was fill out a captcha. If you are looking at bitcoin faucets these days, they tend to dispense only a few satoshi at a time and are limited in how often you can use them. You can also find faucets for ethereum and even cryptocurrencies like doge, just don't expect to earn much if you choose to go down the path of faucet mining as you are probably using more power just having your device on than you will earn in some cases.
While having a faucet open in a spare tab may be a way to pass the time and earn some free crypto, just beware that they have to be profitable or they wouldn't be handing out crypto and make sure they aren't asking you for any personal details or access to any sensitive accounts or requesting unreasonable privileges. Websites like bitcointalk.org can be helpful to check bitcoin faucet reviews and get an idea of what the community thinks of a specific faucet you may be considering using.
Lending Cryptocurrency
While this is a topic that is far broader than we will cover here if you are looking for a way not just to earn cryptocurrency but increase the amount of crypto you already have, lending may be for you. However, it is something that carries quite the risk in many cases. You may find you can make money lending ethereum and other cryptos to some of the new DeFi projects flooding the space, but these are mostly relatively new projects and may put your funds at risk if problems occur. Some centralized exchanges even provide you with the opportunity to perform margin lending for other traders using various (often automated) systems.
If you are considering earning from bitcoin lending, ensure that you are fully informed of the risks and look into where you are thinking about placing some of your funds very carefully. It's always best to assume there is some risk involved, so it's never a good idea no matter how comfortable you are to risk more than you could handle losing. It's up to you to ensure you do your research, and the more, the better.
Masternodes and Staking
If you already have some cryptocurrency, it may be worth looking through your portfolio to see if you have anything (usually proof-of-stake coins) that can be staked or could perhaps be used to help you run a masternode. Masternodes and staking can be reasonably low impact or even passive ways to make income depending on the level of effort required on your part.
Masternodes typically take a little more effort and sometimes require some technical resources that you may not have access to, but in the case of staking often this is fairly simple. In many cases, you can receive staking rewards and earn cryptocurrency just by storing it in your wallet.
Affiliate Marketing & Referral Programs
Many crypto projects offer a way to earn bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through their affiliate and referral programs. Often a percentage of the transaction fees or trading fees are provided to you whenever someone you refer uses the platform.
There is a range of programs offered by many cryptocurrency exchanges, including the excellent referral program we have at LocalCoinSwap. If you are a website owner, blogger, and very active on social media, you may find crypto affiliate programs a great way to earn cryptocurrency. Getting a piece of your referral’s trading fees can be an excellent way to help fund your content or website and get some cash back for your time and efforts.
Selling Good or Services
While this one may seem obvious at first, there are a lot of things you could do on a smaller scale as well. Perhaps you have some collectible you were considering selling, maybe some computer hardware, anything really. When you sell your goods and services, you may find it beneficial to you to exchange them sometimes for cryptocurrency. Trading items in person for bitcoin or another crypto is generally the best way to do this as you won't have the advantages of trading bitcoin with escrow or other protections. Many small businesses (and even larger ones) are starting to accept cryptocurrency, and perhaps you could too!
Peer-to-Peer Trading
Have you ever wanted to start your own business but weren't sure what you wanted to do, well if you are already interested in crypto, you may find P2P trading a great way to earn crypto. You can get started by signing up to LocalCoinSwap and exploring the payment types you could often and looking for arbitrage opportunities. If you are interested in other methods to make money using P2P trading you should check out another of our articles here!
You may even find you can offer to accept a less common payment type that demands higher margins and make a profit for yourself as well as provide a useful service for other traders. Many people are able to make money P2P trading, and it can become quite a significant business for them, while it's not a way to get rich quickly. If you put in the work you can do quite well for yourself.
If you are interested in P2P trading or just want to get some crypto yourself, head on over to LocalCoinSwap and start trading bitcoin and more. You can also join our Telegram community or follow us on Twitter & Facebook.