While mining is the most common way to earn bitcoin, it’s not the only way. Different methods now exist; some don’t even need much prior knowledge. How much you earn depends on your chosen method and initial investment. This article will discuss 12 excellent ways to earn bitcoin today.
1. Bitcoin Trading
Crypto trading is one of the common ways to earn bitcoin. As a trader, you could either HODL your bitcoin or become an active trader. HODLing involves buying bitcoins and holding them, waiting for the price to increase. This is a long-term strategy; the goal is to buy low and sell high.
The second approach is being an active trader. This involves using leverage to trade bitcoin CFDs. Leverage increases your purchasing power, thus boosting potential earnings. It's a short-term strategy designed to capitalize on bitcoin's volatility. Trading CFDs allows you to buy in a bull market and short in a bear market.
Crypto trading is legit, but it has some risks. Your portfolio could drop in value, or your assets could get completely wiped out when trading with leverage. So, apply proper risk management.
2. Cloud Mining and Bitcoin Mining Pools
Mining is the oldest method of earning Bitcoin. Most people shy away from it because of the cost of buying bitcoin mining rigs. Mining operations for Proof of Work blockchains like Bitcoin are expensive. This is where bitcoin mining pools and cloud mining come in, as they’re cheaper.
With cloud mining, you buy cloud computing power from specialized data centers and start mining. This allows you to easily mine Bitcoin without buying or maintaining the mining equipment. You can also subscribe and cancel cloud mining services anytime.
Mining pools allow you to combine your mining power with other miners. This increases the chances of mining a new block and earning more bitcoin rewards. A mining pool is a group of miners who act as a single miner on the blockchain. The mining rewards are distributed pro rata to all members, i.e., depending on the amount of mining power you contributed to the pool.
Your safest bet would be to participate in mining projects run by crypto exchanges. And remember, always conduct thorough due diligence before investing.
3. Bitcoin Lending
Bitcoin lending involves loaning out your bitcoin through smart contracts to earn interest on your idle assets. Many crypto exchanges allow bitcoin lending, making it easily accessible.
Lending allows you to continue HODLing even in a bear market while still earning interest. Sometimes, you can earn up to 0.2% daily interest rates. However, the interest earned differs depending on your chosen platform, lending amount, and lending duration. Note that you cannot access your BTC for the loan duration.
4. Cashback Rewards
Cashback rewards enable you to earn bitcoin through online shopping. So, you need a browser add-on for checking out when you shop at various online stores. An add-on alerts you about the available crypto rewards when shopping.
Sometimes, you can receive up to 40% cashback. Some companies that allow you to earn bitcoin rewards include Lolli, CoinCorner, Satsback, and Pei. They help you earn bitcoin on everyday purchases at online stores like Expedia, Gap, Office Depot, Hotels.com, Starbucks, Uber, H&M, etc. Note that you can also earn bitcoin cashback rewards when you shop online with some crypto debit and credit cards such as the Coinbase debit card. These rewards tend to be low.
5. Interest-bearing accounts
Depositing your crypto holdings in an interest-bearing account allows you to earn free crypto on your portfolio. In traditional savings accounts, the bank offers you a marginal interest on your savings – usually based on the prevailing market interest rate – for lending out your cash to third parties.
The same principle applies to interest-bearing accounts but with a higher APY. You can access these accounts on platforms like BlockFi, Voyager, ZenGo, Nexo, etc.
6. Pay-to-Click (PTC) Websites
PTC websites allow you to earn free bitcoins by performing small tasks. These tasks could range from viewing ads, reading articles, clicking links, etc. They are a great way for website owners to get more visitors.
You're required to visit specific websites for a certain period to earn small bitcoin rewards. PTC websites are not likely to earn a lot but are great if you have time to kill. The amount of bitcoin you earn from PTC varies depending on the website and the time you spend on it. Some top PTC websites include CoinAd, BTCClicks, Earn Free Bitcoins, Bitsurf, and BitVisitor.
BitVisitor is one of the oldest PTC sites and offers one of the highest bitcoin payouts, ranging between 1000 to 2000 Satoshi per visit. 1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC. Others like Earnfreebitcoins.com pay from 20 Satoshi to 1000 Satoshi per 1–5-minute visit, while BTCClicks pays 100 Satoshi for a 10-second visit.
7. Blogging and Signature Campaigns
Signature campaigns involve monetizing your knowledge of the blockchain industry. They allow you to use their unique signature for advertising various blockchain-related products and get paid per post. These posts usually have conditions like length, originality, or number of posts required per week.
These sites are a go-to resource for individuals seeking to learn about blockchain. And the most popular one is Bitcointalk. It is one of the largest online forums dedicated to blockchain technology in general. All the information is outsourced from individuals paid depending on their rankings, built through time or expertise.
You can also earn free bitcoins from blogging platforms. Such platforms allow you to earn by writing and posting articles. And readers earn bitcoins for reading and rating articles.
Steemit and PublishOx are popular examples. Most platforms do not pay in bitcoin, but you can convert the crypto rewards to BTC.
8. Bitcoin Affiliate and Referral Programs
Almost every crypto exchange and blockchain service provider has an affiliate program. They are willing to pay you if you refer paying clients. This is the core tenet of affiliate marketing – it allows you to profit from your networks, especially if you have a massive following.
When you sign up for an affiliate program, you'll receive a unique link that you can use to promote the business across social media or various ad campaigns. When users sign up with your link, you get paid based on the agreed-upon compensation.
Note that the payout isn't always in bitcoin, but you can convert your referral earnings to bitcoin. Binance, for instance, gives a 100 USDT cashback voucher for each referral. Others, like Coinbase, pay you 50% of your referees' trading fees for the first three months. Trezor pays a certain percentage on each sale made through your referral link.
9. Owning Bitcoin Faucets
Faucets are a subcategory of PTC websites. Internal sites or mobile applications allow you to earn free bitcoin after performing a specific task. The tasks to be accomplished can vary, depending on the advertisers. As with the PTC websites, you shouldn't expect to earn much from faucets.
Owning bitcoin faucets could significantly increase the amount of free bitcoin you earn. Owning your faucet is more profitable compared to being a faucet user. All you have to do is build a cryptocurrency faucet and start selling ads on your site. Your earnings will depend on the number of advertisers on your bitcoin faucet and the amount of traffic.
10. Online Bitcoin Casinos
You can earn free bitcoin in casinos through free spins, welcome bonuses, deposit bonuses, loyalty bonuses, daily cashback, and referral bonuses. And luckily, there are several reliable bitcoin casinos nowadays. Casinos have several games with various incentives that will allow you to earn free bitcoin, provided you meet the rules.
For example, Bets.io offers a 20% daily cashback bonus, and FortuneJack offers up to 6 BTC as a welcome bonus. Others, like RealPoker, offer a free sign-up bonus of 0.0015 BTC without requiring you to register. In some cases, most bitcoin casinos will offer you free bitcoins without requiring you to sign up or make an initial deposit.
11. Play-to-Earn Games
Thanks to NFTs, the online gaming industry has shifted from the traditional "pay-to-play" to play-to-earn models. The play-to-earn model is also based on the free-to-play approach. This means that basic games are free for all players.
There are hundreds of play-to-earn blockchain games from different genres. They allow players to retain ownership of their gaming characters and control all their in-game assets. These include playing cards, avatars, skin customization, weaponry, and characters. And you can resell them in the secondary market to earn free bitcoin.
12. Learn and Earn
Learning and earning might be the easiest way to earn free bitcoin in your spare time. Coinbase Earn and CoinMarketCap, for example, allow you to earn free cryptos in exchange for learning about various crypto projects, usually by watching short videos.
To get started, you must first sign up for an account on the respective platforms. Then you can start watching informative videos to learn about different projects. Once you're done, you must complete a short quiz about the video you've watched. These are relatively simple questions. You won't need any special knowledge besides the information learned in the video. Your crypto wallet is credited with that project's cryptocurrency if you answer the questions correctly. You can convert these altcoins into bitcoin anytime.
The Bottom Line
We've covered the different ways you can earn free bitcoin online. The amount of bitcoin you'll earn depends on which method you choose. Some, like trading, could potentially earn you a lot of bitcoins, but they are risky and require some expertise.
Other methods like interest-bearing accounts and bitcoin lending are less risky than trading, and your earnings depend on your initial bitcoin portfolio. And some of these methods are free and only require your time with no initial investment.
FAQs
How can I earn free bitcoin?
There are several ways to earn free bitcoins. Some require that you have an initial bitcoin portfolio for you to earn. These include bitcoin trading, interest-bearing accounts, and bitcoin lending. With others, you only need to have time on your hands and a good internet connection. They include play-to-earn games, learn-and-earn websites, pay-to-click (PTC) websites, bitcoin casinos, and affiliate programs.
Can I earn free bitcoin from blogging?
Yes, you can earn free bitcoins from blogging platforms.
How to earn free bitcoin with Coinbase
You can earn free bitcoin through Coinbase Earn. You'll need to watch informative videos about different projects and answer short quizzes. If you correctly answer the questions, your Coinbase account will be credited with that project's crypto. You can then exchange it for BTC.
