A Nebulous Beginning

I knew nothing about crypto, I'd heard there was magical digital money and I had a vague sense it had made some people very rich, but beyond that zilch.

So why would I decide to start sinking my hard earned cash into something I know nothing about? Well we live in strange times but fundamentally this is an experiment with the following motives.

• Fear that my fiat savings are at risk from the future impacts of serious inflation.
• Earn money, passive income, to reduce reliance on employment as a source of income.
• Earn yield from savings currently festering in banks.
• Reinvest any earnings in a further experiment designed to establish if a family can become self-sufficient using Crypto as a primary income while producing all their own food.

Let's be clear from the start this is a madcap adventure - a scheme, an experiment and NOTHING I do or say can be viewed as advice for others to follow. I will tell you what I have done, where I found the resources and if you want you can give it a go too, that's on you.

What is Crypto?

If you are a complete noob, and have only heard of crypto through news stories of kids making millions with Doge Coin, or people buying Lamborghinis using Bitcoin profits, you've probably got the impression that the cryptoverse is some massive digital ponzi get rich quick scheme and are oblivious to what Crypto is, is not, or what it does, and yes, crypto actually does stuff! From processing decentralised investments, to storing personal data such as identity and qualifications, Crypto actually has utility and has the power to change the world. You've already found Publish0x so REGISTER get reading there is a plethora of information here and you can earn coins while learning - more on that in a bit.

Getting started

• Wallets
  
  Realistically you will need a wallet - a wallet is a private place for you to keep your coins safe - lots of people keep their coins on exchanges (where they bought them) but when you do this your money may be lost if the exchange fails or is hacked. Wallets come in different forms, from hardware wallets - essentially a fancy memory stick - to software wallets which can be built into your browser. They vary in complexity but for many people a wallet on your smartphone may be easiest. I use Trustwallet and MetaMask for most coins. Some coins need specific wallets.

• Coins
  
  Before you can do anything in the world of crypto you need some coins - so how does one go about getting some?
  
  It might surprise you to find out you can get some for free and get even more for investing fairly modest sums. Some of these freebies are very modest and may not be considered worthwhile for people in richer nations - but we need to remember that there are millions of people in the world living on just a few dollars.

• Major sources of free coins
  
  Coinbase
  
  The best source, I have found, to earn a decent quantity of free coins has to be Coinbase, within a few day of registering on Coinbase, you will be offered the opportunity to earn coins from several different blockchains, simply by watching a few educational videos and answering some simple questions. The exact value fluctuates but at the time I completed the modules I was awarded $30 of coins. Coinbase also adds new modules from time-to-time. You can swap these coins, right on Coinbase for others once you own them.
  
  If you follow my link to Coinbase, you will also be awarded $10 worth of Bitcoin simply by buying or selling $100 worth of crypto. So for $100 dollars you will be able to withdraw $140 dollars worth of Bitcoin, if you simply swap your free coins for bitcoin.
  
  Tip
  
  Once you've completed these tasks, use your referral link to send to friends and family, they can each earn the free crypto too and earn the referral bonus for each of you. My husband completed the above process giving us $290 of Bitcoin from an investment of $200.

What next?

Next I registered with CakeDefi, Defi is an investment branch of cryptonomics which lets you invest your coins for growth. CakeDefi has an offer where you get $20 worth of DFI when you sign up and make a deposit of $50 or more. If you use my link, you also get an extra $10! There is also a $10 referral bonus available for each person who follows your referral link and does the same, so if you are a couple register separately one referring the other.

I opened a CakeDefi account, deposited my bitcoin from Coinbase, converted it to their native DFI token and invested it in the DFI staking pool, which at this time is paying 134.3% APY (compare that to your bank). Then I sent a referral link to my husband who did the same with his Coinbase balance.

By the time we had both invested our funds in CakeDefi we had run up a total of $360 of crypto for an investment of just $200, and our $360 is now earning fat annual yields too!

I will cover other sources of free crypto coins in future articles.

Easy passive sources from browsing

Whenever you use the internet you are tracked and your browsing behaviour is monetised by the likes of Google. Now you can benefit financially yourself and stop being tracked.

• Brave Browser - earn crypto for using the internet, Brave stops online surveillance, loads content faster, and uses 35% less battery! You earn Basic Attention Token for using Brave.
• Presearch - use this as your default search engine and get paid to search, there is also an app available on your smartphone. Instead of being an asset for Google, you can earn for searching!

Other sources

Earning small quantities of free crypto is pretty easy too, but there is a balance between time invested and earnings, which for busier or wealthier people makes many of them lack real value.

• Faucets - range in complexity from entering a wallet address and clicking submit, to ones with surveys and paid adverts. These platforms often have low payouts and such large minimum withdraw limits, that to me they were not worthwhile. Surveys might be tempting but you can earn far more directly with survey companies paying in fiat. The only faucets I use at this stage are ones where a simple click earns you money.
  
  Bitcoinker - enter your wallet address, click submit earn a small quantity of BTC each time. Refer your partner for added bonuses. You can click every 5 minutes up to 120 times a day. Over time the seniority bonus system increases your rewards.
  
  Freenanofaucet - literally enter your Nano wallet address and click send. For a nano wallet I recommend WeNano, more on that below.
  
  NanoFaucet - another simple click to earn faucet, paying out Nano.

• Apps - there are a large range of apps that pay crypto, my favourites are.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       WeNano - a game like Pokémon, but paying out in Nano, you can earn some Nano while strolling around.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Fold - a website that sells gift cards with cash back paid in Crypto - also has a daily spin wheel that pays out prizes in Bitcoin.

As I learn more, I will share my experiences. Have fun out there my fellow CryptoPlankton.

Thumbnail image by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels