Free Crypto: Tips that Move the Needle Better Than Faucets

_{Source of Graphic: CoinCentral}

I'm always looking for novel ways to pick up free crypto, especially when it can be done with minimal investment of time and money. In an earlier blog post, I shared some tips on free crypto faucets that I've found over the last few months. It's easy to start earning with faucets, but it's slow. In this post, I will discuss some other options, from Binance.US and Coinbase, that require a small investment of time to set up, but which move the needle much more than free faucets.

If you do everything listed here, you could be looking at $155.00 USD risk-free; even without getting the referrals (which could be a bit harder than the rest of the tasks) it's $75.00 USD! Not a scam - just some free offers from these two well-known exchanges to win your business and promote a few of their altcoins. In the interest of full disclosure, these are referral links, But seriously good stuff:

Binance.US

I've been trading on Binance.com since I entered the crypto space over a year ago. I wasn't sure what to think of the announcement in June of this year that Binance would suspend US accounts. It sounds like US users can still trade and withdraw funds, but this may be removed in a matter of time. But there is a silver lining:

Binance.US is now available, and depositing a free $15.00 USD into users' accounts after completing fiat verification and making over $100.00 USD in trades.

They don't have as many altcoins listed as Binance.com and some of the other major exchanges, but they have a lot of the top ones, and are in the process of adding more. Also no trading fees until November 1, so a good chance to move your crypto there and make some quick trades.

If you don't like the coins, or would prefer to use a different exchange, it's possible to just transfer $50.00 USD in funds to Binance.US, trade it all for another fiat or crpyto currency, and trade it right back (without any fees) for a total volume of $100.00 USD. Wait a couple of days for the $15.00 USD deposit, and you're free to withdraw.

Coinbase Earn

Props to @jrcornel of Steemit for passing along a way of getting some free crypto on Coinbase, that is a lot more bang-for-the-buck (in this case, "buck" is not fiat dollars, but rather is "time.") Nice to stay informed!

I have had a Coinbase account since before I started trading on Binance and Kucoin, because at the time it seemed like the only game in town for moving between fiat USD and BTC for me. And I didn't like that they only had four coins. But since then they have diversified quite a bit, and have some opportunities for earning some coins for free.

If you haven't done so already, set up a Coinbase account. If you buy or sell more than $100.00 USD with your account within 180 days, you get $10.00 USD free (as do I, if you use this link.) From the Dashboard, go to "Earn free crypto with Coinbase Earn" about halfway down the page.

The videos are nice and quick, and for most of them you only need to answer one really easy quiz question. If you can answer the question right after watching a few seconds of the video (and you usually can), you don't even need to watch the whole thing. Also keep in mind that if the specific altcoin that you are earning for free is not your cup of tea, you can just trade it for BTC or another coin right there on Coinbase.

Earn Free EOS

Five e-learning videos, approx. 2 minutes each, earns you a free $2.00 USD of EOS each, for a total of $10.00 USD.

There's also opportunity to refer others for up to an additional $40.00 USD.

Earn Free Stellar Lumens

Similar deal to the EOS section: Five e-learning videos, approx. 2 minutes each, earns you a free $2.00 USD of XLM each, for a total of $10.00 USD.

Opportunity to refer others for up to an additional $40.00 USD.

Download the Brave Browser, Earn Free BAT Tokens

Three short e-learning videos, approx. 2 minutes each, $1.00 USD of BAT each. Plus download the Brave Browser in the Advanced Lessons for another $7.00 USD of BAT, total $10.00 USD.

Brave Browser then also pays in BAT for viewing ads after you've set up Brave Rewards.

Earn Free DAI

Three short e-learning videos, approx. 2 minutes each, $2.00 USD of DAI each. Under Advanced Lessons, go through the tutorial on opening a CDP with Maker on the Coinbase Wallet app for another $14.00 USD of DAI, total $20.00 USD.

There are also videos that you can watch on 0x and Zcash if you are interested, although they do not pay out (as of today.)

So that I can say that this blog post is not a total sell-out, I plan to continue to use Binance.US, as I've sincerely had a good experience with Binance thus far, all things considered. That opinion could change in the future, but I also am keeping my Kucoin account active for altcoins that I can't find on Binance.US for now. Also, keep at least $6.00 USD worth of Kucoin Shares (KCS, Kucoin's own cryptocurrency) and earn a daily bonus, sized based on your investment.

As for Coinbase Earn, I will say that I did watch the videos all the way through, and I like the approaches that these projects have taken to the decentralized economy. EOS is doing cool things with smart contracts and delegated proof of stake. Stellar Lumens has some good ideas for reducing the friction on global financial transactions. BAT has a nice model for how ad-supported browsing could be a lot better, and I continue to use the Brave Browser. And DAI seems to have the right idea for a USD-equivalent stable coin.

Even though Bitcoin has been around for ten years, the crypto space is still considered "new" by many traditional investors, perhaps because it is changing so fast. It seems to be a true marketplace of ideas, however chaotic, and that is ultimately a good thing. Bubbles and "pump-and-dump" schemes go with the territory, as they always have with risky ventures from the 19th century U.S. gold rushes to the 1990's Internet 1.0. (Even the products and service providers endorsed in this post could fall out of favor sometime in the future, although many of these are pretty well-established at this point.)

The decentralized crypto experiment seems to be the best hope for breaking (or better yet, repairing) the centralized crony capitalism that pervades the modern economy. So let's see where it all goes. Good luck earning!