Have you ever wondered how you can earn bitcoin passively in the modern crypto age? Well look no further, here is the perfect guide to help you get started.
Bitcoin has generated massive returns since it began publicly trading in 2010. BTC has had its bearish periods but the overall trend has remained very bullish. The graph below shows the market cap of Bitcoin from 2014 to date.
It is clearly evident that Bitcoin has garnered much prominence as an investable asset. This can be seen from the various BTC- institutional-grade offerings designed by key industry players like Bakkt and Fidelity, to involve Wall Street market participants.
BTC has gone through quite some market cycles to achieve the market valuation it currently possesses. Hence, it may not be financially viable for a lot of traders to buy large amounts of Bitcoin. Even buying fractions of BTC would require shelling out of generous amounts of cash.
In light of this, here is a list of alternative ways to generate passive income through earning free BTC just before the 3rd Bitcoin Halving in May 2020.
The master list
- Work for Bitcoin
- Earn Satoshis & accumulate BTC
- Shop & Earn BTC cashback
- Affiliate Programs
Working For Bitcoin
Working in exchange for BTC is the easiest and most legitimate way of earning bitcoin.
Whether you are a developer, designer, writer, translator, editor, internet marketer, freelancer or engineer, you can start working for Bitcoin right now.
There are numerous platforms and websites that offer you bitcoin in exchange for your service.
Some of these platforms include:
- Cryptogrind
- Jobs4Bitcoins
- Coinality
- Crypto.jobs
- Cryptocurrency Jobs
- Crypto Jobs List
- bitWAGE
- Angel.Co
Earn Satoshis and Accumulate Bitcoin
Each bitcoin (BTC) is divisible up to8 decimal places, so each BTC can be split into 100,000,000 units. Each unit of bitcoin, or 0.00000001 BTC, is called a satoshi. A satoshi is the smallest unit of bitcoin.
One of the ways to earn bitcoin is to accumulate large amounts of Satoshis through trading altcoins/ all cryptocurrencies except BTC, and then convert them to bitcoin.
Every trading pair is formed as ALTxBTC, not ALTxUSD
When you’re buying and selling an altcoin in sats (Satoshis), if you sell when it’s up in USD but not sats, you end up inadvertently trading away your bitcoin. You must learn to trade relative to bitcoin, as accumulating satoshis is the only way to win this game. The key is to value bitcoin individually and not relative to USD.
Example
Start: 100k sats is worth $5. Altcoin is worth 100k sats. You buy 1 altcoin at 100k sats.
Scenario 1: 100k sats are now worth $4. Altcoin is now worth 100k sats.
Scenario 2: 100k sats is now worth $6. Altcoin is now worth 100k sats.
Scenario 3: 100k sats is now worth $5. Altcoin is now worth 120k sats.
With #1, Altcoin is down 20% in USD but you’ve stayed the same in satoshi value. Which means you have the same value as Bitcoin. Which is good!
With #2, you’re up 20% in USD but not Satoshi. Which means you have the same value as Bitcoin. Which is again good!
With #3, you’re up 20% in satoshi, but the same in USD. Which is better!
Since the value of BTC is higher than USD, always trade in Bitcoin or Satoshi and you reap more profits.
This example highlights the issues in valuing crypto assets in USD. #3, you’d realize your Satoshi gains by converting to BTC. #1& #2 there are no conversions to be made as your sats are the same, but #2, people trading USD value may make a trade, and see a gain in USD but with Bitcoin value, they have neither booked a profit nor a loss. To people trading, USD value for #2 & #3 are actually the same, even though the alt is going from $5 to $6 in USD.
The difference is that in #3 the alt is outpacing BTC growth, which is the outcome we are looking for while in #2 it’s just pacing the same as BTC. #2 is not a trade to be made.#3 is the only trade to be made.
Shop and Earn BTC Cashbacks
Ebates, a popular Google Chrome Extension, offers customers cash-back for their purchases from thousands of websites. They work with almost all major online retailers, including everything from Best Buy to Groupon, to Nike. Once you install the extension and create an account, Ebates will notify you if there are discounts available while you browse a retailer’s website. In one click you can activate the discounts. At the end of every quarter, you get a check from Ebates with your cashback balance. It’s that simple.
In crypto, a company called Lolli is offering similar services. Make purchases on websites like Sephora, Macy’s, CVS or any of the 500+ partner stores, and get cash-back in Bitcoin. Every store has a different incentive amount. Some offer as much as 9% cash-back. Others will offer a set amount of BTC. This is a very easy way to earn free Bitcoin while making your everyday purchases.
Other similar apps are:
Affiliate Programs
Certain companies will pay you (in Bitcoin or fiat) if you invite paying customers on to their platforms. This marketing method, called “affiliate marketing,” has been around for a long time and allows users to establish an additional income stream.
There are different structures provided by firms for their affiliate programs. With a lot of e-commerce brands, you can earn a percentage on your referred customer’s total order amount. For others, you may get a set fee for every person who signs up for a service using your promo code.
Few referral programs offered by well-established Bitcoin and crypto trading businesses are worth looking into this regard.
- Binance Affiliate Program
Binance boasts of harboring the globe’s most actively traded exchanges. It is one of the industry’s most trusted crypto trading platforms and regularly updates its services to give customers new trading opportunities. According to the Binance referral page, some of the top referrals have made commissions of 115 – 186 BTC.
How does the Binance Affiliate Program work?
Step 1: Sign up for a Binance Affiliate
Submit your application by filling a form. Their team evaluates your application and decides whether to approve it or not based on certain criteria.
Step 2: Create and Share your referral links
Create and manage your referral links from your Binance Account. You can track the performance for each referral link you share. These can be customized for each channel and for various discounts you would like to share with your community.
Step 3: Sit back, relax and earn commissions
When someone signs up or registers an account on Binance with your referral link, you can get up to 50% commission every time they complete a trade.
- Coinbase Affiliate Program
San-Francisco based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is one of the oldest and most well-known crypto trading platforms. Coinbase will pay you $10 for every customer who signs up and deposits at least $100. You also receive 50% of your referees’ trading fees for the first 3 months
Step 1: Become an affiliate
After you signed up and your application is approved, you’ll get access to promotional assets and Coinbase’s tracking software.
Step 2: Promote Coinbase
Link to Coinbase in articles, create new content or place ads on your website.
Step 3: Earn commissions
When new customers join Coinbase through your promotions, you earn a commission.
- Changelly Affiliate Program
Changelly is one more known crypto exchange that provides a great affiliate program. The program gives you a 50% revenue share on all the transactions.
Step 1: Join the program
Once you sign up for the affiliate program you receive a referral link that containing your referral ID.
Step 2: Promote referral link
Share and promote your referral link in different channels.
Step 3: Earn commissions
When a new customer joins Changelly and exchanges cryptos, you start earning a commission.
P.S. The 50% revenue share model works for 90 days since your referral’s registration.
- Local Bitcoins Affiliate Program
Localbitcoins.com is an over-the-counter (OTC) Bitcoin exchange where users can trade BTC for fiat cash directly with each other. 20% of the user’s trading fee on each trade (trading fee is 1% of the total trade amount), so essentially .20% of each trade.
Commissions are earned over 3 months from the user’s registration date. Payouts are sent automatically (daily) to your Bitcoin address and are accumulated in your LocalBitcoins account. There is no limit on the value of the payout.
- Paxful Affiliate Program
Paxful is a peer to peer marketplace for buying and selling Bitcoins (similar to LocalBitcoins). Its program offers 50% of all commissions paid to Paxful by your direct affiliates and 10% from your affiliates’ affiliates. You can earn commissions of up to 1 year. Payout is initiated instantly with no minimum earnings for payout
- BitMEX Affiliate Program
BitMEX s a Bitcoin derivatives trading platform that offers a margin-trading service for experienced, professional BTC traders. It offers up to 20% in commissions. The commission model is a lifetime program. Payouts are processed instantly with no minimum earnings for payout.
- TREZOR Affiliate Program
TREZOR is a hardware wallet that allows you to safely store your Bitcoins offline. The company offers a 12%-15% commission from each sale. It can be earned once per sale. The payout frequency is monthly with a minimum earning of 0.1BTC per payout
- Ledger Wallet affiliate Program
Ledger is another hardware wallet that allows you to safely store your Bitcoins offline. It has a variety of commission models available. The most valuable is 10% of the net sale amount (excluding VAT and shipping). The commission can be earned once per sale. The payout frequency is monthly with the minimum earning of 0.1BTC per payout
- eToro partners Program
eToro is an innovative trading platform in which you can trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, currencies, indices, and commodities. It offers a commission per sale with $200-$400 as a payout (depending on referral country). The commission can be earned once per sale. Payout Frequency is anytime (If you’re a trader), otherwise within 15 days from the end of the month. The minimum earning for payout is 3 FTD’s.
Wrapping Up
With this exhaustive list of passive and semi-passive Bitcoin and crypto income sources, it is up to your discretion to choose what options work best for you. Most people usually start with a couple of these and then scale up.
Happy Earnings!
Images via Shutterstock, chart by Coinmarketcap