Best Ways to EARN Free Crypto: Easy Money?

One of the best feelings ever is to finally buy something you've worked extremely hard for. We get a feeling of accomplishment and success knowing we did something tough. However, at least for me, getting something for free is kind of a rush on its own. It's just something about a free meal your friend bought you that makes it taste especially good. Earning something by working for it, is great, but I'll never say no to free stuff.

Same goes with cryptocurrencies. Working on building the perfect portfolio is something I love to do and watching it grow makes me feel an incredible thrill. However, being young, the portfolio maybe doesn’t grow as fast as I would like and finding additional funding can be tough. Therefore, using existing methods of gaining free cryptocurrency makes a perfect way to grow the portfolio. Yes, making millions with free methods is highly unlikely, but every little Satoshi is always good, and as you’ll see some of these methods can truly offer substantial amounts.

Brave

To start this off I just must mention Brave. Brave is a web browser that can be downloaded on your computer and although you won’t make mountains of money it’s definitely worth being mentioned. Brave was founded by Brendan Eich, also the founder of the popular coding language JavaScript and the browser Mozilla Firefox . On top of that it has over 36 million users, so credibility shouldn’t be an issue. What makes Brave different from traditional browsers is its view on advertising and security.

How you’ll make money on Brave is based on your attention. Brave will show you ads based on your preferences of how many you want to see per hour. Then since you’ll be giving your attention by clicking the ad, it’s only fair that you are compensated for it. This will be in form of Basic Attention Token (BAT) which is the native token on Brave. The amount you’ll make per ad will only be worth a few cents. However, using Brave truly falls in the category of free crypto since just be using the browser you will make money. Furthermore, the point on Brave isn’t to keep that money but rather to tip it to websites and content creators you like. So, if you’re a content creator, or have a website, you can verify yourself and let people tip you.

Then, in addition to the new way of advertising that benefits both advertisers and consumers, Brave offers a few additional excellent features. First, it blocks advertisers and trackers from following you. Traditionally many sites follow your movements and clicks even after you’ve exited their site, Brave blocks this. Then, partly due to their tracker blocking Brave is a lot faster than traditional web browsers. And lastly, Brave is lighter for your computer which results in saving both battery and computer capacity. 

Bitcoin Faucets

These are sites that reward you for doing different tasks. This can be anything from answering basic survey questions to playing and testing some game. The amount you earn from these tasks is only a few satoshi typically, and frankly I believe that your time could be better spent. However, I don’t want to stop anyone from trying this since back in the day these could pay up to 1 BTC per task and while it wasn’t much at the time, we all know what has happened to the price more recently.

There are many Bitcoin faucets out there and it’s good to be careful since scams can also be found. A trusted one is Cointiply, they have paid over $3 million in rewards and they have many tasks available. How Cointiply works is that you’ll receive points from doing tasks with which you can then redeem Bitcoin. A terrific way to boost your earnings on Cointiply is by simply logging in to your account daily since you get a loyalty boost and earn more points for every task you do. Also, note that the tasks vary in both points and length so if you really want to be successful here you need to see which ones are worth your while. And lastly as a warning, don’t give too much personal information in surveys since I’m not sure how carefully Cointiply checks the businesses using their service.

Airdrops & Bounties

Next up we have the potentially most lucrative way to earn free cryptocurrency. An airdrop in cryptocurrencies means that the company behind a certain project deposits cryptocurrencies into the holders’ wallets if they meet certain requirements. The requirements can range anywhere from simply having specific cryptos in a wallet to having to do certain tasks like promoting the project, doing tasks can also be a bounty.

Why companies do this is mostly due to marketing reasons and adoption. Often times you’re required to use the project in order to take part in an airdrop, this stimulates trading activity which benefits the underlying project. Another potential reason for an airdrop can be to increase the supply of coins or tokens.

When it comes to potential earnings for participating in airdrops, I think you’re going to be amazed. For example, last year Uniswap rewarded anyone who had used their service a whopping 400 UNI tokens. At today's market prices of roughly $25 (4/10/2021) that 400 UNI would be worth $10 000. Unbelievable, I know, and that’s not the only major airdrop. Last week Axie Infinity announced that they’d do an airdrop to people that had transacted with the service before October 26th of 2020. The amount you received depended on your level of activity. @sorareuk on twitter reported that he’d received 68 $AXS worth roughly $5000. And while that’s a lot it’s not as much as what @axie44 on twitter reportedly received. He received 4905 $AXS worth over 700 000 US dollars. You can read more about this on Cointelegraph.

Now after reading about those rewards, I’m sure you’re wondering how you too can find these amazing opportunities. Well, one thing pointed out by Guy in a Coin Bureau video on this same topic is that many airdrops are for DeFi projects. Hence, it can be a good idea to keep your eye open for any promising projects, even those without a native coin since many can launch their coin by airdropping it to early users. There are also two good websites for you to check on any upcoming airdrops. One is Airdrops.io which not only shows you what airdrops are coming but also what you need and how you can participate in it. Another useful site to check if Airdrops.io missed any big airdrops is CoinMarketCap, there you can find a similar list on upcoming airdrops. So if you’re interested, I suggest you keep an eye on those two sites.

Lastly, a bit more about bounties. While bounties are quite similar to airdrops, they usually take the form of more social and marketing tasks. These can be anywhere from joining and referring their Telegram group to making a YouTube video about a project. Bounties are also much rarer so you need to be alert. One good site to check on any upcoming bounties is on Bounty0x.io. However, if you’re looking for big bucks it’s airdrops you need to focus on. And also, while the airdrops you receive might not be worth much at today's prices it can be worth a lot more in the future. That's what happened with the UNI tokens too.

Coinbase Earn

Those of you who use or have used Coinbase should know what I’m talking about. Coinbase Earn essentially rewards you for learning about different cryptos. This is possible because crypto projects prepare a few videos about their blockchain and token and then give that and a certain amount of their crypto for Coinbase to distribute. Why they do this is for advertising reasons. It's an effective way for a project to gain publicity and viewers since the Coinbase Earn feature is extremely popular.

When it comes to your earnings, they will usually be equivalent of a few US dollars per project. However, as with earning any cryptocurrency, those insignificant amounts can easily turn into much larger sums if that crypto gains traction. Furthermore, doing one of these earn programs only takes a maybe ten minutes and therefore a compensation of a few dollars is more than fair. And on top of the dollar amount you’ll gain knowledge of new projects and even better than money is knowledge. Knowledge is something you can then yourself monetize.

Lastly about Coinbase Earn, there is one piece of criticism I have to give. That is that the funds Coinbase has easily run out. I have repeatedly entered Coinbase Earn just to find that every program has already distributed its funds which leaves me without anything. Therefore, be alert for any new projects so you can secure your earnings. 

Publish0x

As said earlier monetizing your knowledge is a wonderful opportunity. If you know and are passionate about something then sharing it with people should be fun for you and potentially even rewarding. Publish0x is a blogging platform that offers you a few different ways to earn cryptos without having to supply any of your own cryptos. Publish0x uses two different cryptos, Ampleforth and Ifarm.

The first method to earn is by monetizing your own knowledge. You can write articles and blog posts which others then can read and select if they want to tip you. Unfortunately, though, the platform is currently in beta mode so you’ll have to submit an application to become a writer. However, in my understanding if your content is legit and somewhat good then you should be fine.

The second way to earn is by reading. Yes, you can earn also earn crypto from reading. How this works is that when you read an article, Publish0x will provide you with the tipping amount. Then you can select how much of that you want to keep and how much you want to tip to the author. The third way to earn is by sharing articles. When sharing articles, you’ll receive 5% off the tip that the reader is giving. In the future there’ll also be competitions and leaderboards for those who share articles and by competing you can earn additional rewards.

Publsih0x is only in early stages of development and reading about it made it clear that there’s a lot more to come. Therefore, being an early adopter might give you some additional benefits in the future. 

Blockchain Games

Something many people don’t know is how gigantic the gaming industry has become. Trying to explain to my dad that the gaming industry is larger than both the music and the movie industries combined just doesn’t seem to work. I believe this is common for many people, especially older people, just try telling them that people make a living playing video games and they’ll laugh you out of the room. However, I know, and you know, that gaming can truly be both fun and a lucrative side hustle, especially now that blockchain gaming has arrived.

Many of these blockchain games combine innovations in the blockchain industry like NFTs to create a rewarding and entertaining experience. The games tend to have their own crypto ecosystems around them which makes them work. Then as the ecosystems grow and adoption picks up it reflects in the price of the cryptocurrency. This in turn makes playing more lucrative which further adds fuel to the growth. I’m not going to get into these games themselves since you can find an article on blockchain games with serious earning potential from Coin Bureau right here.

To incentivize you to read the article let me tell you about potential earnings. From the popular game Axie Infinity, there are people making between $500-1000 a month, some even more. In Philippines there are people who have replaced their day job with playing Axie. That’s quite the childhood dream. However, not all games provide you the opportunity to make as much as Axie Infinity, but the most important thing is to play something that’s fun. This is because of many reasons. First you’re often times better at something you think is fun and you’re more likely to spend time on improving at it. Secondly, if you think it’s fun there’s probably others too who like it but it maybe hasn’t gotten much publicity yet. This in turn might be good for you since once it gains traction your earnings can easily take off too since you’re already good, and maybe you even get an airdrop like the one Axie Infinity did. Thirdly, it’s not just about the money. Gaming is supposed to be fun and for the majority it won’t be the main source of income but rather something to enjoy on your free time. But seriously, if you’re interested in blockchain games then read the article I linked to.

Crypto Cards

Naturally, using a credit card isn’t free since you have to use money. However, using money to buy necessities is something everyone must do. Therefore, if you spend money on things you normally do and get a percentage back every time you do that then that’s free. Crypto credit cards basically work the same way as normal credit cards, but instead of receiving points you’ll receive some crypto. 

As an example, Crypto.com has a well-known credit card in partnership with Visa. They have many tiers and the further up you go the better the rewards. Using their lowest tier card doesn’t require anything from you and you’ll receive 1% cashback paid in Crypto.Com's native crypto CRO. The next tier requires you to purchase CRO with $400 and hold it for 180 days. From this card you’ll earn 2% cashback and 100% reimbursement on Spotify. And yes, after the 180 days you’re allowed to do whatever, you want with the CRO you staked. When you move to higher tiers the amount you have to purchase increases and the benefits get better. I’ll leave a picture where you can see the rest:

What makes Crypto.Com's cards great is that you can preload it with any currency. For example, if you want to use a fiat currency like Euros instead of cryptos you can deposit Euros to your card and use those. Then when using the card for things you normally use a card for, you’ll start seeing your CRO balance grow. What you then can do is convert that to BTC, or any other crypto you like, or back to fiat. Alternatively, you could also keep them in CRO if you see great potential in that. 

Lastly, I also want to remind you that the card offered by Crypto.com isn’t the only one. Other exchanges offer crypto cards, for example, Binance. There are also other companies and banks that offer crypto cards, and if you’re interested in which banks those might be then I suggest you read the Coin Bureau article on top crypto friendly banks. 

Staking & Earn

Although this isn’t technically free it does take advantage of the possibilities of utilizing your already existing assets. I believe that many reading this article own, or are at least planning on owning cryptocurrencies, therefore if you already own them, it is free to make them work for you.

Just as a quick reminder, staking is basically committing your cryptos to support the blockchain and verify transactions, in return for this you’ll receive a reward from transaction fees or from the projects reserves for stakers. Staking is something that can feel a bit complicated and isn’t even available for all of the cryptos out there since staking is only one of the many consensus mechanisms, which is why there are also other ways to earn with your assets. As an alternative you could try earn features on different exchanges. Basically, you lend your cryptos to the exchange or directly to other people, and they will pay you interest for that. This you can do on many exchanges and for example Kucoin has a great lend platform that earns you interest of up to 3% on Bitcoin and 20% on stablecoins. If you want to try this then I suggest you take advantage of the exclusive offer Coin Bureau has for Kucoin using this link.

However, other exchanges offer this service so if you prefer some other platform then that’s fine too. There are also decentralized options like Aave for those who prefer privacy. Just be sure that when using any of these services you check that everything in both the platform and the contract you get into is fine. You don’t want to lock up your funds for an amount of time you’re truly not comfortable with. You'll also find a ton of useful information from the Coin Bureau YouTube channel about lending platforms, staking and passive income on your cryptos. So, make sure to visit the channel if you need further information.

Mining

I’m aware that mining technically isn’t free since both electricity and the equipment costs. However, if you already own a PC with a powerful graphic processing unit (GPU), which many do, then using that to start mining is technically free. It’s as free as any of the other methods since also they require things like internet, electricity, and the device itself to work.

Therefore, if you have a PC then turning it on to mine when you’re not using it can be a good idea for passive income. For example, using the software provider Nicehash you can make a profit of anywhere between $2-15 a day depending on your GPU. It's easy to set up and you’ll be consistently paid in Bitcoin. I won’t be telling more about this since if you’re interested in maybe trying this then I suggest you read the Coin Bureau article on NiceHash and mining, there the whole mining process is explained.

Nothing’s Truly Free

While some of these things I mentioned here might sound like free to your ears, they’re actually not. Many of these at least require time which without a doubt is our most valuable asset. I do agree that trying out different services to maybe participate in an airdrop is worth the while since you’re learning by doing. However, answering surveys maybe isn’t the most productive way to spend your time. If you do it just to pass some time then yes, I think it’s worth it. But when you start taking time away from valuable things like education then it’s not worth it in the long run. And to clarify, with education I don’t necessarily mean school but rather what you want to learn on the side, like learning about cryptocurrencies for example. Using Coinbase Earn to learn (get it?), or even just watch a high quality and educational Coin Bureau YouTube video is much more valuable than the pennies you're going to make elsewhere.

Conclusion

As with all reviews and guides, what’s found here isn’t everything. There are also other ways that can be equally classified as free cryptocurrencies, like getting your paychecks in crypto instead of fiat. Therefore, it’s worth checking other sources too if you want to truly dive down the rabbit hole. Also, for all my choices there are multiple companies that offer these same services and the once I’ve used are only examples. So, as always, I suggest you do your own research before getting into anything. 

Personally, I would dive further into those ways that you can earn free cryptos with little to no effort. For example, mining with existing equipment, earning yield on your cryptos, and earning free crypto cashback with credit cards are some things that I would classify as free, or at least as free as it can get. You can think of the free crypto you earn as your risk money. Maybe you decide to put everything you earn through cashbacks to a small cap altcoin in hopes of a 100x success. The free crypto you earn now might not be worth a lot but in 10 years if you decided to hodl those cryptos can show a whole other level of dollar value.