Throughout human history people have been coming up with all sorts of approaches to exchange goods and services in a fair and efficient way. Starting from barter, to tokens, paper money, electronic money and now we’re entering the fifth wave of money — cryptocurrencies. It was Bitcoin that started this wave.
CONTENTS
What is Bitcoin?
Buying Bitcoin
What is a Bitcoin Wallet?
What Can You Buy With Bitcoin?
How Does a Bitcoin Transaction Work?
What is the Blockchain?
Bitcoin Investing and Trading
Understanding Bitcoin Forks
How to Earn Bitcoin
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that allows for online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
The concept of a decentralized cryptocurrency was first described in the whitepaper published on the cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com by a person (or group of people) known under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Stringing together various types of technologies, Satoshi managed to create what is now known as Bitcoin.
The protocol solves the double-spending problem by using the proof-of-work consensus mechanism and by recording all of the transactions on a shared, distributed ‘list’ of transactions called a blockchain (see ‘The Double Spending Problem‘ section below for more on this).
With the advent of Bitcoin, everyone who owns a smartphone with an internet connection has access to a global financial market within minutes. No censorship, no bureaucracy, and most importantly, no control. With Bitcoin, anyone, anywhere can send and receive cryptocurrency. It recognizes no borders and no sovereigns; it has rules without rulers.
There are a lot of different details that we need to connect together in a cohesive story before Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) start to make sense for the novice crypto explorer. For starters, let’s explain the five features that make Bitcoin different than fiat currencies.
5 Features That Differentiate Bitcoin
Decentralized – No single state, institution or authority controls the Bitcoin network. The protocol itself is open source and it’s maintained and upgraded by a group of dedicated core developers, maintainers and contributors. The network itself is not hosted on one server, but rather on thousands of specialized machines spread around the world.
Deflationary – The issuance of the currency is steadily decreasing in a predictable and transparent manner. Also, Bitcoin’s supply is limited to 21 million coins, making it scarce, and therefore a viable store of value similar and often compared to gold.
Immutable – Transactions cannot be reversed or tampered with, without redoing the proof-of-work, which is practically impossible — the system is purely peer-to-peer and heavily encrypted, so hacking the entire network is almost out of the question.
Pseudonymous – The blockchain itself is open and transparent — everyone can see and trace every transaction back to the Genesis block (the first block of a blockchain), but the users of the network are anonymous since the protocol itself doesn’t require anyone to disclose its identity. The bitcoin address that is generated for a wallet user changes with each transaction, which makes the transaction almost impossible to trace. So you can securely transact via the Bitcoin protocol without revealing your identity to the network (it would be rare but someone with sufficient technical knowledge could track you through your IP and link your wallet address with your real-world identity, letting them trace all your bitcoin transactions).
Divisible – The smallest unit of a Bitcoin is called a satoshi and it is one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin (0.00000001). This feature of Bitcoin, combined with the newly integrated Lightning Network, makes the technology perfectly suitable for many recurring and almost instant micro-transactions.
Buying Bitcoin
Depending on where you are in the world buying bitcoin may be an easy thing to do, or a difficult one.
Buying bitcoin is not an activity that is exactly the same everywhere in the world, and unfortunately there are countries where the financial infrastructure is not sufficiently developed (or trusted) to support buying bitcoin through the help of financial institutions like banks.
In many countries (particularly in developed countries), you can buy cryptocurrencies easily through a bitcoin exchange using credit/debit cards or bank wires.
What is a Bitcoin Exchange?
A Bitcoin exchange is an online platform for buying and selling bitcoin and the many other altcoins you may have heard of, such as Cardano, Monero and Dash. These exchanges act as intermediaries for buyers and sellers of these cryptocurrencies, similar to a stock exchange.
The term ‘exchange’ and ‘wallet’ are sometimes used synonymously. Though there is some overlap there are important differences to be aware of.
Exchange – a platform to trade crypto such as Bitcoin. On an exchange you can usually store your crypto as well. Since you can store crypto on an exchange they are also referred to as ‘web wallets’.
Wallets – these come in a few different formats. On some wallets you cannot trade bitcoin since they’re purely a means of storing it. i.e. a ‘hardware wallet’, such as the Trezor exists to provide a safe method of storing crypto, but does not offer a way to trade crypto.
Types of Bitcoin Exchanges
Centralized Exchanges (Fiat and Crypto) – Most people buy and sell crypto using a centralized exchange (aka ‘web wallet’) that allows for funding and withdrawal using fiat currency (state-issued money like US dollars) because they need a way to convert their fiat into crypto.
Centralized exchanges store and secure your bitcoin in their online funds similar to how a bank works. You don’t usually have direct access to your private key, and they rely on a third party to keep your bitcoin safe. Web wallets are widely used because they conveniently allow you immediate access to your bitcoin and to perform fast transactions.
One of the most popular and respected online bitcoin suppliers on the market is Coinbase, but there are other websites where you can purchase crypto using either a credit card or a bank transfer.
If you’re located in the US, Coinbase is the easiest and safest path to buying bitcoin. They can instantly verify your documentation to get you buying crypto right away and they also insure your funds up to $250,000.
If you’re located in Canada the best option would be Coinsquare since they also auto-verify documentation, have reasonable fees and offer an easy-to-use interface.
Centralized Exchanges (Crypto Only) – Some crypto exchanges do not have the option to fund or withdraw funds using fiat money. So you need to deposit a crypto like bitcoin before you can do any trading on the exchange for another crypto like Cardano or EOS.
And if you want to withdraw your money you’ll have to withdraw it as a crypto. That means that if you want to convert your crypto to USD you’ll have to send the coins to an exchange that deals with fiat.
Binance is a favoured exchange that has strong security, has many altcoins available for trading and has reasonable fees.
Decentralized Exchanges – A decentralized exchange differs from the centralized exchanges in that there is no third party intermediary that holds the user’s funds.
Crypto is traded directly from one person to another based on an automated peer-to-peer system. Decentralized exchanges offer greater privacy since users do not need to submit any personal documentation.
Bisq is a decentralized exchange favoured by many though it’s much more difficult to set up and use than a centralized exchange like Coinbase.
Local Exchanges – If you don’t have the ability to purchase bitcoin online you can buy bitcoin locally in exchange for cash through an exchange like LocalBitcoins.com as long as there’s someone nearby who wants to sell.
Since you can buy for cash that also means you can buy bitcoin anonymously. The disadvantage with buying locally is that the price can be significantly higher. As well, trading in physical space has its own risks, so make sure to do it in a public space where you feel safe.
For a more in-depth guide to buying Bitcoin read our How to Buy Bitcoin (Beginner’s Guide)»
What is a Bitcoin Wallet?
In the simplest terms, a bitcoin wallet is a software program for sending, receiving, storing and monitoring your bitcoins — similar to a bank account. However, technically speaking, bitcoin is not stored anywhere.
Every bitcoin holder has a private key — a very long secret code consisting of numbers and letters that is saved in the bitcoin wallet. When transactions happen on the blockchain, the funds are merely associated with the wallet of the recipient, seemingly changing their ‘location’.
Wallets are divided into two general camps: hot wallets and cold wallets. Hot wallets are commonly referred to as software wallets. When people refer to cold wallets they’re usually talking about hardware wallets.
Hot Wallets
Online wallets – These wallets operate completely on the web, which is why they’re also known as ‘web wallets’. They come in two general forms: free, open source websites like MyEtherWallet and — much more commonly — websites that you pay a fee to use. The latter are more commonly known as ‘exchanges’ and are the easiest wallets to use since all you have to do is sign up for an account on a website like Coinbase and they give you an easy to use dashboard to handle your crypto. Since they handle so many people’s coins it makes them the most likely target for hackers, making this an insecure method of storage. See the ‘Centralized Exchanges’ section above for more on this.
Mobile wallets – They store your private key on your mobile phone. Regardless of the security level of the wallet app, this is not a secure option. Jaxx is an easy-to-use software wallet that also allows for trading between different cryptos right within the wallet.
Desktop wallets – They store your private key on the computer. As long as the computer is malware free and doesn’t have security flaws your Bitcoin are safe. Jaxx also offers a desktop version of their program.
Cold Wallets
Hardware wallets – Your private key is stored on an external device (USB) and can be used on any computer. These are the most reliable bitcoin wallets because they provide seed backup in case the device gets lost or stolen. In order to perform bitcoin operations, you need to connect the hardware wallet to the internet. The only negative feature of this wallet is that you need to have it with you at all times if sending and receiving coins. Trezor is a good example of a hardware wallet.
Paper wallets – Your private key (or seed) is written on a piece of paper and can only be stolen with direct physical access. They’re pretty secure, but prone to damage over time unless stored somewhere the paper and ink won’t degrade. So it’s necessary to make multiple copies over time to prevent their destruction. Also, to perform bitcoin transactions, you need access to some kind of digital bitcoin wallet.
Brain wallets – Some people take it as far as to remember the entire 12 phrase recovery seed by heart. They use mnemonics (memory techniques) to store the recovery seed in their memory, making them a living, breathing, bitcoin wallet. There are not a lot of people who do this, mainly because of how forgetful we are as a species.
TIP: Regardless which bitcoin wallet you choose it’s always best to have a backup in a secure and encrypted location. Update security software and use applications with multisig transactions to sleep peacefully sleep at night.
Page 4 – Who Accepts Bitcoin Payments?
What Can You Buy With Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the staple and foundation of the cryptocurrency market. While this is slowly changing due to the crypto-scene’s evolution over these past 10 years and the fact that, in many ways, Bitcoin is technologically outdated — it still works perfectly and, most importantly, has built up social proof.
Many large companies are aware of the benefits that bitcoin payments can provide for them. Today, it’s easy to set up your company to accept cryptocurrencies and have them instantly transformed into whatever currency you need later on.
No state (or privately owned, for that matter) financial intermediary can interrupt or freeze bitcoin accounts or operations, and the transaction fees are quite low, which is particularly good for travelers. Mobile phone payments only require an internet connection, a wallet, and a few minutes of your time.
With this being said, have a look at a very small sample of companies that are accepting Bitcoin and/or crypto payments:
- Amazon
- Oakley
- PayPal
- Vimeo
- Overstock.com
- Expedia
- Dish
- KFC Canada
- Subway
- Microsoft
- Virgin Galactic
- CheapAir.com
- Newegg.com
- Whole Foods
- Bloomberg.com
But it doesn’t stop with the companies. At this point almost every major city in the world has their own crypto markets, making it extremely easy to locally exchange crypto for cash and use that cash to purchase whatever it is that you need. Although not decentralized, it’s still an effective method to get what you need or want from the regular economy.
Page 5 – How Does a Bitcoin Transaction Work?
How Does a Bitcoin Transaction Work?
A Bitcoin is made up of three parts. A public key, a private key, and an address. All these are are just long strings of characters like in the picture below.
To receive bitcoin you have an address. If you imagine sending an email you’d tell someone your email address, they send the email to you and you receive it on your email app.
While bitcoins also get sent to an address, there are two main differences. The address is a long set of characters that would be next to impossible to remember and the address changes each time you receive bitcoin. You don’t need to think about these changing addresses as your wallet takes care of it for you.
Public key – Your single key that generates bitcoin addresses to use for each transaction.
Bitcoin address – This is what you give out to people to send you money. The address is automatically generated by your public key so you don’t have to do anything to get a new one each time as your wallet does this with each new transaction.
Private key – This is the one you have to keep safe and confidential. If someone gets a hold of this, they can get a hold of all your coins.
Sending and Receiving Bitcoin
After opening up your account with a wallet provider, the best way to understand bitcoin payments is by getting your feet wet right from the get-go and making a transaction. But what does making a transaction entail exactly?
Sending – To send bitcoin you simply copy and paste someone’s bitcoin address into your wallet then send it.
Receiving – To receive it you just give out your address to the sender and you wait awhile (usually less than an hour) until your transaction is verified then you check your wallet.
Read our wallet guides for step-by-step details on how to send and receive bitcoin according to each individual wallet.
Transaction Fees
With Bitcoin, the sender pays the fee for the transaction, which is not the case with traditional credit cards where the recipient takes responsibility for the cost of the transaction.
Transaction fees depend on how many other transactions are waiting for confirmation. Once sent, Bitcoin payments are irreversible, and cashback is only possible with a willing receiver on the other side.
Read our Guide to Bitcoin Transaction Fees to learn more about how these fees work and how to save money on fees.
Page 6 – What is the Blockchain?
What is the Blockchain?
We can’t understand the underpinnings of Bitcoin without referring to the backbone technology that facilitates bitcoin transactions: the blockchain.
The blockchain is a decentralized database that is immutable, meaning its contents are impossible or very resistant to change, and that can hold various types of information for a long time — a perfect tool for financial systems, tracking and maintaining ownership, managing identities, and enabling students to safeguard their achievements.
There are thousands of possible applications for blockchain technology, and every day it seems new use cases are being created for it.
How the Blockchain Works
‘Blockchain’ and ‘distributed ledger’ are synonyms, and can be understood to represent a single concept.
Imagine the ‘ledger’ as a sheet of paper with many transactions written on it, i.e. ‘Stephen paid Josh $10; Josh paid $5 to Sarah, etc…’ and this sheet of paper is the only account of the transfer of value.
In a traditional financial system, there’s only one copy of this sheet of paper, and it’s being monitored and managed by a financial institution such as a bank. In Bitcoin, everyone has a copy of this sheet of paper, and nobody, in particular, is a trusted authority that everyone comes to when there’s a dispute about the state of affairs.
Instead, there are special nodes (people running specialized computers) called ‘miners’ who compete with each other to check and validate the transactions by solving complex mathematical problems on their computers. As soon as a mining node validates a transaction, it broadcasts it to everyone in the network so they can edit their sheet of paper with the latest information.
Since multiple people are validating a transaction it’s that decentralization that provides the real benefit of the blockchain. It provides a record of transactions that are transparent and cannot be changed unlike a centralized system that can be tampered with.
As a reward for the work that the miners have invested into the maintenance of the network, or using our analogy, for the ‘editing of the sheet of paper’, they’re rewarded with newly created bitcoins in what is called a ‘generation transaction’. This is essentially how new bitcoins are created ‘out of thin air’.
The Double Spending Problem
From the get go, Satoshi Nakamoto faced the demon widely known as the ‘double spending problem’. Solving this problem through a trusted third party (such as a bank or a clearinghouse) is more than possible, however, it does not allow for other important principles to be followed.
Third parties would significantly compromise anonymity, present a centralized point of failure, and would not completely prevent censorship.
Having a peer-to-peer network managed to solve this double spending problem, by asking each and every one of the participants on the network to help with confirming, collecting, and tracking all of the information related to transactions.
Miners have the job of calculating the proof-of-work algorithm that is necessary to create new blocks on the blockchain, while nodes are responsible for collecting new transaction information and packing it into blocks.
Nodes are also responsible for communicating with the rest of the network and achieving consensus, based on the longest blockchain available.
Thus, the very design and underlying operating mechanism of the blockchain inherently takes care of the double spending problem.
Page 7 – Trading and Investing Bitcoin
Bitcoin Investing and Trading
Trading Bitcoin
Owning Bitcoin enables you to trade it for more than 1,500 cryptocurrencies on the cryptocurrency markets. Many of these ‘altcoins’ provide only a BTC/ALT (Bitcoin/Altcoin) currency pair, since they’re not rooted in the traditional financial system.
This means that you can’t buy them directly with fiat and you’ll first have to sign up to an exchange that deals in fiat, buy yourself some bitcoins, and transfer them to the exchange that sells the altcoin you’d like to purchase.
TIP: When signing up for exchanges, make sure to activate Two-factor Authentication as it significantly increases the security of your account.
Some reputable cryptocurrency exchanges specifically designed for trading:
Beyond being purely theoretical, trading is also an acquired skill, so practice is very important. Before you begin to gamble your life’s savings, you should consider honing your skills on real markets with fake money.
The intricate workings of trading are beyond the scope of this guide, and there are many articles, videos, books, guides, and courses available on the internet designed explicitly for newbies.
Information is power, and especially as a trader you’re going to need to be on top of your game if you’re going to produce amazing results for yourself.
Please note that we’re not encouraging trading without a proper understanding of the fundamentals. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Bitcoin Investing
People get really excited once they start to understand why Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general) have a lot of value. For many, this understanding causes significant drive for action, combined with a fear of missing out.
Before taking those first crucial steps to buy Bitcoin, take a moment to mentally prepare yourself for the rollercoaster that is ahead of you. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, and many people’s wallets have been drained due to the panic selling that occurs when significant price dips happen.
Intro to ICOs
There are a lot of things to consider when exploring the possibility of investing in Bitcoin, or using Bitcoin to invest in some other crypto project. Typically, cryptocurrency projects use a special model called ‘initial coin offering’ (ICO for short) to raise funds.
ICOs are a new form of crowdfunding based on cryptocurrency tokens; the early investors are motivated to purchase the tokens with hopes that later on they’ll be widely adopted, and their investment will pay off.
How to Invest in ICOs
Treat ICOs from an investor perspective. Educate yourself on the investment mindset. Try to understand what they’re aiming for, and emulate the behaviour. Analyze their white paper, and reach out to their team with any questions you might have. See how fast they respond, and in what manner. Every little detail matters, and businesses with a well-developed model have no qualms to explain what their product/service can do for you.
There are no rules regarding ICO timing. Sometimes the team develops the product to prototype level before asking for an investment; other times the team kicks off the project with a fundraiser; some projects have multiple ICOs over their lifetime.
Use tools that rate ICOs based on features and code, inform yourself (from multiple sources) on what the most important aspects to consider before investing are, and do research on the team behind the project.
Questions to assess the outlook of the project:
- Does their idea make sense?
- Who is on their team?
- Have they confirmed their participation on Twitter?
- What blockchain platform is this new cryptocurrency based on?
- Does their whitepaper explain the process and the idea in detail?
- Do they have a dedicated security team?
Want reliable, in-depth knowledge on coins and ICOs? Visit our reviews section»
ICO Investing Precautions
There are no guarantees in Bitcoin, and there are usually no refunds either, so make sure that your decisions to take action (invest) are 100% solid before going through with them. Make sure to fully understand the rules, terms, and conditions of the project that you want to support.
As a rule of thumb, individuals who use the veil of anonymity (although they have every right to do so) and vaguely address their responsibility for the success or failure of the project could be using initial coin offering to try to steal the investments. It could be impossible to track them down so show caution and do your due diligence before investing in an ICO.
But, this does go both ways. The fact that a project doesn’t have a face is not a significant indicator of whether the person running the show is an honest human being. Projects with a face can also go ‘bankrupt’ under dubious circumstances and cause investors to lose money in a completely transparent, legitimate way.
In a way, this double-edged sword is reminiscent of the real-world economy; what you need to look for in a potential investment opportunity is the ability to create value, and a convincing enough way to present it.
We have to raise caution here:
1. Research thoroughly
2. Be patient
3. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose
Investing Resources
- Bitcoin Resource List
- Track the price of Bitcoin
- Forums with informative discussion about Bitcoin
- Bitcoin news, podcasts and forums
Page 8 – Understanding Bitcoin Forks
Understanding Bitcoin Forks
To make things easy for everyone, let’s treat a fork just as it is, a fork in the road. Since we’re recording all of our steps in our journal (the blockchain), we can easily track the decisions we’ve made on our adventure. Let’s say that our adventurer group consists of 5 different people (miners) who all have an equal vote over the decisions we make as a group.
3 of the people in the group believe that it’s better to start using bigger backpacks so that they can carry more goods and travel for longer times.
The 2 who are remaining prefer to keep their packs light and don’t mind making frequent stops at towns and villages.
The group decides to split up, simply because of convenience and 3 of the people continue, while the other 2 remain and stock up on everything they need for the journey.
This is where the similarity ends with real life. In terms of crypto, the group would split up into two groups of 5. A fork in the road does not mean the same thing as an actual fork in real life, but it signifies that the blockchain has split into two, most likely due to a change in the consensus model or some important features, such as block size.
In cryptocurrency, if you have 1 bitcoin in the original blockchain, you will still have 1 bitcoin after the fork, plus an additional 1 bitcoin fork token. For example, when Bitcoin forked into Bitcoin Cash, BTC owners instantly had some BCH on their accounts.
Bitcoin Classic (BTC)
The first Bitcoin fork occurred in 2016 due to its scalability problems and led to the creation of the first hard fork — Bitcoin Classic. It sustained the software reliability of the original Bitcoin but improved by doubling the blockchain capacity to 2 MB (Bitcoin has only 1 MB), and it functioned only for the first eight months.
Since this wasn’t a satisfactory solution, later the same year the blockchain limit operation was handed over to a larger community of businesses, developers, miners, and users, thus starting with decentralized governance for the first time since the creation of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
In 2017, when the transaction capacity hit a brick wall, fees skyrocketed due to the significant increase in Bitcoin’s value. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was launched in August 2017 as a hard fork trying to solve Bitcoin’s limitations by increasing the block size to 8MB.
Bitcoin Cash was published by splitting the main Bitcoin chain on block 478558, creating an identical copy of the blockchain, and changing the block size to 8MB as a means of solving the scalability issue on-chain.
This move enabled Bitcoin Cash to maintain low costs, fees, and fast confirmation times, becoming 30% more profitable to mine. Miners were able to easily move the hash power between the BCH and BTC because of the identical encryption system and the additional high replay protection.
Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
Globally cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular as a means of making ‘easy money’, and so another hard fork broke away — Bitcoin Gold (BTG).
This fork advocates decentralized mining of Bitcoin and provides steady income to the everyday mining enthusiasts by a rather simple divergence from Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm SHA256 to Equihash.
The individual miners who mostly use middle range GPUs can now mine Bitcoin Gold, because Equihash makes it ASIC resistant. The BTG developers are devoted to keeping the coin to a 21 million limit.
Bitcoin Diamond (BCD)
Quite expectedly, another high-volume coin emerged out of the original Bitcoin blockchain as a hard fork named Bitcoin Diamond (BCD). Most distinguished features of BCD are that it has a mining pool of 210 million tokens, and it operates on X13 hashing algorithm which means that it supports GPU mining.
Other Bitcoin Forks
In December, 2017, Bitcoin God was launched, followed by Super Bitcoin, Bitcoin X, Bitcoin World, Lightning Bitcoin… the list goes on. The comforting truth is that hard forked currencies can exist and develop independently without obstructing or mixing with the Bitcoin core’s community, concept, and development.
Earning Bitcoin
As cryptocurrencies became widely popular, many websites started popping up with various ways to earn Bitcoin. But, let’s get down to brass tacks. The crypto-craze it’s over, and the days when you could get 10,000 BTC in exchange for two pizzas are gone. Nowadays, the amount of Bitcoin you earn depends on the risks you’re willing to take.
High-risk Ways to Earn Bitcoin
Bitcoin trading – Although placed in the high-risk part of this guide, experienced traders know how to mitigate risks through diversification, proper order setups, fundamental analysis, and conditionals. For the rest of us, trading is almost equal to gambling, mainly because we cannot foresee or understand market movements properly. Trading in itself is an art form that takes a lifetime of dedication to master. It’s a kind of psycho-economic warfare against ‘the market’. For every winner there’s a loser, and you will, for sure, find yourself at both ends of the spectrum.
Bitcoin lending – Owning bitcoin is a prerequisite for lending. If you want to increase the value of your portfolio, you can lend bitcoin to people, websites or any crypto-related project and have them returned with interest. In this way, you can manage higher interests and multiply your earnings. However, trust is a crucial element in bitcoin lending, so you’ll have to choose wisely or lose it all.
Medium-risk Ways to Earn Bitcoin
Mining – Bitcoin mining, the process through which transactions are verified on the blockchain (and new coin created) has shown to be profitable for many people over the years. The risk is that you will have an ever decreasing return on investment, due to the way the mining difficulty of the network is set up and the cost of the hardware that you’ll have to invest in to mine the coins.
Bitcoin affiliate marketing – If you have an advertising platform or a website with high and steady traffic you can advertise someone else’s crypto-related product (e.g. crypto exchange) and get a commission for it if they have such a program available. The risk is in going through the effort of building a site and promoting a product/service and then the market for that product/service changes dramatically or the company you’re promoting ends its affiliate program.
Low-risk Ways to Earn Bitcoin
Writing about BTC – While this requires time, knowledge and skill, it’s the most cost-effective way of earning bitcoin, because there are lots of websites that are in need of content written about bitcoin, some of which will pay in bitcoin. Usually, writers are in high demand, and the good quality ones can earn exceptionally well. Writing for a blog, or a website that is starting up can be hugely profitable for the capable writer, without any significant capital investment. However, mastering this niche is a gruesome and time-consuming process.
Provide bitcoin-related services – Provide services that people are willing to pay for in bitcoin. Most sought after positions are: blockchain developer, website content manager, graphic designer, mining expert, writer, social media manager, and advertising expert. However, the list doesn’t stop there: you can always get creative and offer something new to the market. Crypto-based marketplaces are everywhere, and you can easily get projects if you can add value to your client’s needs.
Bitcoin faucet – It’s a reward system for visiting a website or an app and watching ads or videos. Payout is minimal — typically 100 to 10,000 satoshis (0.000001 BTC). You can create your own faucet or rotator if your website or app has good traffic, and the main risk here is that you’ll waste a lot of time for relatively little coin.
Users should be aware that if they click on a cryptocurrency link and sign up for a product or service, we will be paid a referral fee. This in no way affects our recommendations, which products we choose to review or our advice which is the sole opinion of the authors.
The opinions provided in this article are those of the author and do not constitute investment advice. Readers should assume that the author and/or employees of Grizzle hold positions in the company or companies mentioned in the article. For more information, please see our Content Disclaimer.