After setting up your crypto wallet or wallets, it's time to learn how to earn some crypto online to fill your wallet with cash. But be careful! If you see a new faucet, airdrop, or similar opportunity that isn't recommended by other online articles, you may wish to start a new topic in the faucet, airdrop, or cryptocurrency subforums asking whether the opportunity you saw is a scam or not. Here at Bizdustry, we're interested in making money online, but we don't want our members to get scammed. Checking a new site with the wisdom of the crowd will save you valuable time and coinage.
Without further ado, here's some of the opportunities that are available:
Some coins have their own official faucets, for example, Polygon, the maker of MATIC, has its own internal faucet. MATIC is supposed to be for software testing and development. While it's unlikely for a coin maker to sabotage their own coin, always do your own research and check if the faucet you're looking to join and use is a scam.
For using a faucet you want to use popular and trusted websites. Another thing you should do for faucets is read the faucet terms of service. While faucets are more likely to be available in your country than traditional survey sites, it's best to stay away from sites that ban users from where you live. Some faucets ban users from the United States, so it's not really a factor of country tier, it's a factor of crypto regulations in each individual country.
Another concern is that some faucets ban the use of adblockers, so those can infect your computer with malware. Before using such a faucet, make sure that you have antivirus and antimalware software installed, as well as tracker blockers. This should reduce the odds of an infection. It's also recommended to use a separate email address for your faucet activities, in case you run into a scam faucet. That way the scammer doesn't have your main email address or other personal information.
However, if you're willing to protect yourself and read the terms, faucets can be a viable method to earn a small amount of crypto, and possibly more if you have the power to tap into referrals and leverage them.
With that being said, scam airdrops abound, and those are worse than scam faucets. If you are unfortunate enough to be on a scam faucet, you'll just be wasting your time and you won't get paid. If an airdrop is a scam, you could get your wallet hacked or your computer infected with ransomware. A scammer could run off with your private keys to your crypto wallet and clean you out. Don't give out your private keys to anyone online.
With that being said, there are some legitimate airdrops. The best ones are "learn and earn" airdrops like Coinbase Earn, Coinswap Earn, etc. These airdrops let you learn about the coins you want to learn about and thus earn them, which is more ethical than other kinds of airdrops.
By contrast, other airdrops can show up as a surprise to people involved in certain projects. For example, a domain hosting company awarded tokens to its domain holders based the length of domain usage, and the crypto exchange Uniswap airdropped its exchange token to its longstanding users. Sometimes it's even more random than that - airdrops as a reward for holding a certain number of coins or tokens, or holding them for a significant length of time. This encourages people who aren't invested in that coin to invest in it in hopes of being rewarded too. Some airdrops can come out of the blue to people who are active in the crypto community and have exchange wallets. This can be really annoying to U.S. crypto holder because, if they don't know the coin, they have to research it in order to find out its value because, in the U.S. crypto earnings count as income that we have to report on our tax returns.
Finally, there are the airdrops called bounty airdrops where the users earn from posting on social media to promote the new cryptocurrency. If you're interested in these, there are airdrop calendars that you can follow from various websites to take advantage of the latest airdrops. But again, just because it's on an airdrop calendar, that doesn't mean that it is legitimate. You may want to use a separate wallet for your airdrop ventures to protect yourself.
The person who stakes their crypto is rewarded with a certain percentage of their stake by leaving their crypto locked up and allowing the system to use it for authentication. Some cryptocurrencies offer higher rewards for staking them than others. It pays to research the cryptocurrencies that offer staking to find out which one is right for you. Beware of new cryptocurrencies that offer a high staking return, as those currencies may not have a strong enough userbase to keep the price from crashing, wiping out your initial buy in which may be a loss worse than your staking income.
As for the method of staking, the easiest way to stake your crypto is by using an exchange to stake it. However, you are relying on the exchange for your security for the staked crypto. Another method is to join a staking pool by joining a staking pool and sending the crypto to stake to a pool of validator nodes. Again, always look out for scams and check to make sure that the staking pool you're sending your crypto to pays its users. Finally, you can stake your crypto on your own by running your own cryptocurrency node. This requires a computer that is connected to the Internet and is on constantly to validate transactions, but by doing that, you can stake crypto located in a cold storage wallet. The process of validation using Proof of Stake uses less energy than Bitcoin and requires no specialized hardware.
This process is good for people who want to invest in a cryptocurrency for a long time. It allows the user to make money on their crypto holdings in addition to the hopes of a price increase relative to fiat. The risk is that the price of your chosen cryptocurrency will go down, negating or reducing the earnings from staking.
At the end of the day, if you're looking for free crypto, do your own research and be careful. Earning from these methods requires strategy, timing, and patience, but if you are shrewd, use trusted platforms, and are willing to learn, there may be good earning opportunities available to you.
Without further ado, here's some of the opportunities that are available:
1. Faucets
Crypto faucets are basically the equivalent of fiat get paid to sites. However, the tasks that users need to complete for free crypto may be less demanding than those on a fiat site. Some crypto faucets award coins or coin fractions for completing Capatchas or simple math problems. Others are more traditional and award crypto for watching videos and completing surveys, viewing ads, and referring friends to the site. Like traditional survey sites, referrers get a cut of their friends' earnings, which can add up quickly. The most prominent faucets are FreeBitco.in, Cointiply, and FireFaucet.Some coins have their own official faucets, for example, Polygon, the maker of MATIC, has its own internal faucet. MATIC is supposed to be for software testing and development. While it's unlikely for a coin maker to sabotage their own coin, always do your own research and check if the faucet you're looking to join and use is a scam.
For using a faucet you want to use popular and trusted websites. Another thing you should do for faucets is read the faucet terms of service. While faucets are more likely to be available in your country than traditional survey sites, it's best to stay away from sites that ban users from where you live. Some faucets ban users from the United States, so it's not really a factor of country tier, it's a factor of crypto regulations in each individual country.
Another concern is that some faucets ban the use of adblockers, so those can infect your computer with malware. Before using such a faucet, make sure that you have antivirus and antimalware software installed, as well as tracker blockers. This should reduce the odds of an infection. It's also recommended to use a separate email address for your faucet activities, in case you run into a scam faucet. That way the scammer doesn't have your main email address or other personal information.
However, if you're willing to protect yourself and read the terms, faucets can be a viable method to earn a small amount of crypto, and possibly more if you have the power to tap into referrals and leverage them.
2. Airdrops
Airdrops are the equivalent of someone handing out a small amount of a new product to get your target customers to be aware of it - free samples, basically. In this case, the product in question is a new cryptocurrency. Giving the users a small amount of the new cryptocurrency will entice people to learn more about it, if only to learn how they can cash it out to Bitcoin or fiat at the soonest opportunity.With that being said, scam airdrops abound, and those are worse than scam faucets. If you are unfortunate enough to be on a scam faucet, you'll just be wasting your time and you won't get paid. If an airdrop is a scam, you could get your wallet hacked or your computer infected with ransomware. A scammer could run off with your private keys to your crypto wallet and clean you out. Don't give out your private keys to anyone online.
With that being said, there are some legitimate airdrops. The best ones are "learn and earn" airdrops like Coinbase Earn, Coinswap Earn, etc. These airdrops let you learn about the coins you want to learn about and thus earn them, which is more ethical than other kinds of airdrops.
By contrast, other airdrops can show up as a surprise to people involved in certain projects. For example, a domain hosting company awarded tokens to its domain holders based the length of domain usage, and the crypto exchange Uniswap airdropped its exchange token to its longstanding users. Sometimes it's even more random than that - airdrops as a reward for holding a certain number of coins or tokens, or holding them for a significant length of time. This encourages people who aren't invested in that coin to invest in it in hopes of being rewarded too. Some airdrops can come out of the blue to people who are active in the crypto community and have exchange wallets. This can be really annoying to U.S. crypto holder because, if they don't know the coin, they have to research it in order to find out its value because, in the U.S. crypto earnings count as income that we have to report on our tax returns.
Finally, there are the airdrops called bounty airdrops where the users earn from posting on social media to promote the new cryptocurrency. If you're interested in these, there are airdrop calendars that you can follow from various websites to take advantage of the latest airdrops. But again, just because it's on an airdrop calendar, that doesn't mean that it is legitimate. You may want to use a separate wallet for your airdrop ventures to protect yourself.
3. Staking
Staking is the equivalent of mining for cryptocurrencies that use the Proof-of-Stake (POS) framework, only this process has a lot more access for the average person. Basically, in this process you lock up existing crypto that you've earned or bought, and use it to sign transactions to prove that someone hasn't made more Ethereum or a similar cryptocurrency out of thin air. Like Bitcoin mining, staking ensures that people can't use the same Ethereum for multiple transactions. The system authenticates that transaction via the stake of a neutral third party, and the stake, the locked up crypto, ensures that the third party is interested in maintaining the integrity of the system.The person who stakes their crypto is rewarded with a certain percentage of their stake by leaving their crypto locked up and allowing the system to use it for authentication. Some cryptocurrencies offer higher rewards for staking them than others. It pays to research the cryptocurrencies that offer staking to find out which one is right for you. Beware of new cryptocurrencies that offer a high staking return, as those currencies may not have a strong enough userbase to keep the price from crashing, wiping out your initial buy in which may be a loss worse than your staking income.
As for the method of staking, the easiest way to stake your crypto is by using an exchange to stake it. However, you are relying on the exchange for your security for the staked crypto. Another method is to join a staking pool by joining a staking pool and sending the crypto to stake to a pool of validator nodes. Again, always look out for scams and check to make sure that the staking pool you're sending your crypto to pays its users. Finally, you can stake your crypto on your own by running your own cryptocurrency node. This requires a computer that is connected to the Internet and is on constantly to validate transactions, but by doing that, you can stake crypto located in a cold storage wallet. The process of validation using Proof of Stake uses less energy than Bitcoin and requires no specialized hardware.
This process is good for people who want to invest in a cryptocurrency for a long time. It allows the user to make money on their crypto holdings in addition to the hopes of a price increase relative to fiat. The risk is that the price of your chosen cryptocurrency will go down, negating or reducing the earnings from staking.
At the end of the day, if you're looking for free crypto, do your own research and be careful. Earning from these methods requires strategy, timing, and patience, but if you are shrewd, use trusted platforms, and are willing to learn, there may be good earning opportunities available to you.
