While owning cryptocurrency has many benefits, you may not have the capital or expertise to know which ones are worth investing in. But that’s not the only way you can earn and own cryptocurrency. Several projects allow you to earn cryptocurrency without any initial investment or offer you a good opportunity for your existing holdings.
In this article, let’s explore the exciting and beginner-friendly ways you can earn cryptocurrency with no initial investment.
Play to earn games
The play-to-earn model is one of the most fun ways to earn free crypto. There are certain games developed on web3 that allow users to earn for playing games. Your earnings in these blockchain-based games are tied to the in-game progress. You can earn digital tokens that can be traded or invested for your achievements and progress. Many popular games such as Axie Infinity, Splinterlands, Gods Unchained, Decentraland etc offer the play-to-earn model. You can explore these various games and start playing them to earn cryptocurrency. While the amount of money that you earn is not a lot, it does offer an opportunity to earn cryptocurrency.
Move-to-earn
Built on a similar foundation of play-to-earn, move-to-earn platforms gamify your physical activities and reward you for living a healthier lifestyle. These activities can be walking, running, going to the gym or playing sports. While some of these apps require an initial investment before you can earn, other apps are free to play and you can earn free crypto by using them daily.
Fitmint is one of the best apps that use GameFi and SocialFi to help you build a sustainable daily walking habit while also rewarding you in cryptocurrency. The gameplay starts with a 3D avatar with some attributes. The progress of your avatar is linked with your physical movement and also with your daily earnings. By completing your daily movement goals, and participating in challenges, you can increase your daily earnings.
Learn and earn
If you’re a beginner with zero knowledge of crypto, this is a great way to learn about crypto and web3 space while also getting rewarded with cryptocurrency. Industry leaders run many such programs in the web3 space such as Binance, Coinbase, CoinMarketCap, Revolut, Robinhood, etc. The main idea behind running these programs is to raise awareness about these trading platforms and encourage people to use them for trading cryptocurrencies.
Binance has offered Binance Learn and Earn in the past and offered rewards in cryptocurrencies such as KNC and VOXEL. Right now, the users have redeemed all the available rewards but you can keep an eye out for any upcoming projects.
Another great website for Learn and Earn Crypto is Bitdegree. It has listed various new crypto projects. You can start watching videos for any project that you find interesting and answer a few questions after completing the module. Your rewards are credited after you answer the questions correctly.
Similarly, you can check out other websites and find out the best projects that are offering Learn and Earn currently.
Airdrops
Airdrops are one of the easiest ways to earn cryptocurrency if you are in the right place at the right time. Airdrops are used by various companies as a part of their marketing strategy to raise awareness about the project and grow the community quickly. In Airdrops, the native token of the project is directly sent to the most loyal and valuable users. Airdrops can be free or can be delivered for a small action such as following the project page, joining the Discord server or as small as liking a tweet.
While there is no single place to find all the available Airdrops, you can be active on social media websites like X or check some websites such as CoinDCX, CoinGecko, and airdrops.io to know about the various Airdrops happening in the space at any point in time.
Crypto Faucets
Crypto faucets are apps and websites that reward users for completing easy tasks such as signing up on a website, downloading apps, solving captcha, watching videos etc. The purpose of these faucets is to raise awareness for crypto projects, allow users to learn about the token and eventually make them mainstream.
The operation of a crypto faucet is very simple. All you have to do is register on a crypto faucet website and complete the tasks listed by them. By completing each of these tasks, you earn a minuscule amount of cryptocurrency that is sent to your crypto wallet. Generally, you need to reach a threshold amount before you can cash out your earnings from the wallet.
Unlike Airdrops, a crypto faucet can be started by anyone and not only by the project creators.
Many crypto faucets offer well-known cryptocurrencies such as BTC(Bitcoin), ETH(Ethereum), LTC(Litecoin), XMR (Monero), ZEC(Zcash), TRX(Tron), etc.
Some of the well-known websites for crypto faucets include Cointiply, Dutchy Corp, Firefaucet, BlockFi, Monerofaucet, Globalhive faucet, etc.
Lending, Staking & Yield Farming
Lending, staking and yield farming are great ways to use your existing cryptocurrency holdings to generate more money. The fundamental idea here is that you lock your holdings which are then used for various purposes and you earn an interest on your holdings or earn a part of the fees charged by the intermediary platform.
Let’s understand each of them:
Lending
Lending in crypto is no different from lending in a traditional bank but it offers higher interest compared to its traditional counterpart. In this process, you lend your money through a centralised(CEX) or decentralised platform that offers loans to people looking for them. In exchange, you earn a decent interest of up to 7% and sometimes as high as 17%.
Binance, Aave, Arch, Nexo, Aqru, etc are some of the platforms that you can use to lend your cryptocurrency.
Staking
Staking is used as a consensus mechanism or a way to validate transactions in some blockchains such as Ethereum 2.0, Cardano and Solana. Since blockchains are decentralised, no central body validates the transactions. This responsibility is distributed among the users and you can also participate in the validation process.
Staking acts as a collateral against which you can participate in the validation process. Staking can be a complicated process for beginners if you have to do it on your own. However, several platforms allow you to add your holdings to a staking fund and they participate in the staking process. You need to deposit your holdings to these crypto platforms which are locked in for a certain period and then form a pool that is used in the consensus mechanism.
Gemini, KuCoin, Binance.US and Coinbase are some of the well-known platforms that allow you to participate in the staking process.
Yield farming
Yield farming which is also known as liquidity mining is a way to earn rewards on your cryptocurrency holdings by depositing it on a DeFi platform. DeFi platforms need liquidity or a free supply of cryptocurrency to offer smooth trade between different coins and tokens. DeFi yield farming platforms incentivise users to contribute their holdings to these liquidity pools for their smooth functioning.
In exchange for providing liquidity, such platforms reward users in various forms such as the platform’s native token, transaction fees or a combination of both.
The well-known DeFi yield farming platforms include Uniswap, PancakeSwap, SushiSwap, BlockFi, Coinbase, OKX, etc. Some of them are centralised exchanges (CEX) while others are decentralised exchanges (DEX).
The earned interest in this technique is known as the annual percentage yield or APY. Different platforms offer different APYs that can be as high as 20%.
While the upside potential in yield farming is promising, you should also consider the volatility of the crypto space and invest accordingly.
Precautions
While the free opportunities in the web3 space look enticing, there are certain precautions that you should consider in mind before investing your time and money in crypto projects.
You should spend time checking the project’s website, whitepaper and social media. Most of the web3 projects have communities on platforms such as Discord and Telegram. Check the sentiment of the users on these servers and find out what people are saying about the project. You can also check whether the developers of the project are active in the community and answering the questions.
Additionally, you should always use a secure wallet, and be sceptical about rewards that sound too good to be true.
Conclusion
Web3 is a booming industry which is still in its infancy. There are many opportunities for beginners to learn more about this space while getting rewarded for that. However, the space is quite volatile right now which leads to sudden changes in the value of a cryptocurrency. By carefully understanding the fundamentals of various projects and avoiding greed, you can earn a small passive income through these methods.
Mar 8, 2024
