How to earn Cryptocurrency

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a form of digital money, for the purpose of this portion of the article we will be talking about Bitcoin, the undoubted king of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is currency that was made by an anonymous person, believed to live in California, by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. This is just a theory, as there is no evidence, physical or electronically that Satoshi has anything to do with Bitcoin. Satoshi, has not spent any of the money or Bitcoin that he supposedly owns; he has an estimated 1 million Bitcoin, or BTC. At the current (10/3/2016) price, $615 USD, that puts his value in BTC at 615 million dollars. However, Satoshi is not the only one who is anonymous, Bitcoin, as a whole, is completely anonymous. Unlike a bank, or even PayPal, another form of online currency, when you make a transaction it is completely anonymous and cannot be reversed, this solves a common fraud issue with banks and other online currencies. Each transaction has a transaction address, which gives no more information than the amount sent in BTC, the sending address, the receiving address, and the miners fee. This is true for other cryptocurrencies, such as:

·  Litecoin

·  Dogecoin

·  Ethereum

·  Etc.

Each one of these currencies uses a different algorithm, making it hard to mine multiple cryptocurrencies at the same time.

What is Cryptocurrency Mining?      

Cryptocurrency mining is, in simplified terms, the process of using a computer to solve rigorous mathematical equations, and for each answer to get correct you will receive a reward, this reward is paid out in a certain cryptocurrency, depending on what you mine. However, it takes an astonishing amount of time to mine cryptocurrencies. It is a simple logic, the more of the cryptocurrency that are mined, the harder the algorithm gets. For an example of how long mining takes, we will, theoretically, be using a single computer with the latest CPU and GPU, the two different types of mining and use 1 whole Bitcoin as our target. This would take about 1367 years or 71,279.29 weeks. For this reason, using just one normal computer is worthless. So, to solve this problem, engineers have developed specialized computers to mine cryptocurrencies, these computers can range in size, from the size of a USB Memory Stick, to the size of a large computer. Depending on the size each unit uses a certain amount of energy, and produce a certain amount of hash-power. For reference, 1 TH/s = 1000 GH/s and 1 GH/s = 1000 MH/s. Small, USB sized units can produce up to 120 GH/s with the highest end equipment, and as low as 330 MH/s with low end equipment. Mid-sized miners can produce up to 14 TH/s with the highest end equipment, and as low as 1.3 TH/s with low end equipment. There is also very high end equipment that can be custom made for certain cryptocurrencies. However, these machines range from $30 for USB sized units to $3,000 for mid-sized units. And most people just don’t have the money for this, or are not willing to invest in them. But that is not at all incorrect, as with these miners, it can still take months or even years to find portions of a Bitcoin. So, that leaves most people with one option, cloud mining. Cloud mining is the most dangerous option out of the options, this is because if the cloud mining company you invest in decides to stop all operations then you lose all of your money, sometimes without any return at all. However, there are a few trusted companies, the one that I personally use is Genesis Mining. They have been in the cloud mining scene since it started; they specialize in Bitcoin but also mine other cryptocurrencies. To start cloud mining, all you have to do is sign up for an account on your desired cloud mining website. From there you need to select a plan, these plans usually range in price from $25 a month to $1000 for a lifetime subscription. Some websites, such as Genesis Mining, even allow you to customize your plan to fit your budget. Once you select your plan you can pay with Bitcoin, and sometimes Credit/Debit Cards. After you make your purchase your equipment now is in your name and will mine for you, if it solves an equation, you get rewarded directly to your Bitcoin wallet, or sometimes to the site where you made your purchase, from there, some sites allow you to transfer directly to your bank. Always remember, there is a chance you will make profit and there is a chance you won’t; but also don’t get your hopes down, because almost never is your profit instant.

This is a giant Bitcoin Mining Farm in China

Other Ways to Earn Cryptocurrency (Anybody) 

 There are other ways to earn cryptocurrency besides mining. Most of these ways are not guaranteed to make money, and when they do, it is usually a very small amount of your desired cryptocurrency. One, main way to earn cryptocurrency is faucets. There are many different faucets for different currencies, but the main premise is that a website will give you currency to simply fill out a Captcha or another form of anti-bot form, and enter your cryptocurrency address. How they make their money is from advertisements, you will see on nearly e very faucet there is advertisements all over the page. However, there are a few that allow you to earn larger amounts of cryptocurrency at a time, most of these allow you to take surveys for larger amounts of cryptocurrency. Lastly, in the faucet category there are game faucets, these faucets pay larger amounts of cryptocurrency than even survey websites. The reward for one game win is generally around $5 USD, of course payed in cryptocurrency. These games are completely free to play, but most of them have a catch, for example, some sites will reset all the games that you have won in a row, once you lose one game and only the overall winner of the most games every hour wins the prize. Overall faucets are fun to use but do not pay very well.

Gitcoin.gg is a personal favorite suvey site and faucet site of mine.

Other Ways to Earn Cryptocurrency (Adults)

*We do not take any responsibility for any losses in the act of gambling*

The last way to earn cryptocurrency is by gambling. Gambling can be enjoyable, but is also highly addictive, as so we recommend that you gamble no more than you’re willing to lose and that you are permitted by local or federal law to participate in the act of gambling. There are many online casinos that allow you to deposit and play with cryptocurrency, however most of them only allow Bitcoin, as most other cryptocurrencies have little to no value. For some websites you are required to show ID in order to deposit or withdraw, as regulated by most countries. Gambling is a high risk, high reward game, and there is a chance you can turn dust to diamonds, but there is always a higher chance you will turn diamonds to dust.