Mining
Despite claims that bitcoin mining is no longer profitable due to the high cost of the energy required to get the miners powered, the increasing difficulty rate and the recent halving of the bitcoin block reward, mining activities are still being carried out though at a more larger scale and with sophisticated mining equipment.
Mining pool
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The current difficulty level of mining bitcoin which has become so high that it’s practically impossible for soloists – individuals – to make a profit mining has made joining a mining pool a great way to reap a small reward over a short period.
A mining pool allows miners to pool their resources together and share their hashing power while splitting the reward equally according to the amount of shares they contributed to solving a block. It is also a way to encourage small-scale miners to stay involved in mining activities.
Though the calculation of share of the bitcoins mined can be complex, the two most popular calculation schemes to ensure fairness for all parties are the Pay-per-Share (PPS) – offers an instant payout for each share that is solved by a miner from a pool’s existing balance thus transferring much of the risk to the pool’s operator – and the Double Geometric Method (DGM) in which the operator receives a portion of payouts during short rounds and returns it during longer rounds to normalize payments.
Some popular mining pools include Antpool which is currently the largest Bitcoin pool controlling 30% of the network’s hash rate; BTCC which currently controls around 15% of the network hash rate; Slush Pool the first mining pool and maintains around 7% of the network hash rate; Eligius; and BitMinter which both control about 1% of the network hash rate.
Faucets
For those who don’t mind doing easy tasks or playing games, a bitcoin wallet is what they need to go to certain websites to solve captchas and be rewarded with satoshis which are small amount of bitcoin. Generally, these websites make money from advertisements placed on their pages. Those who visit their pages to either solve captchas or answer short questions will receive a fraction of what the web operators collect from advertisers.
Each reward round lasts about five minutes in most cases. While it may take a longer to gather a meaningful amount of bitcoins, these faucets sure gives especially anyone new to Bitcoin to get bits of the digital currency for free.
CCN recently started our own bitcoin faucet, with the goal of introducing our readers to bitcoins by letting them experience the currency directly, for free.
Some large and reputable faucets that have consistently made their payouts for a long time include Free Bitcoin, Bitcoin Zebra, and Moon Bitcoin. Pocket Dice is also a free satoshi faucet and referral program.
Mobile Games
Some important applications have come about in the Bitcoin Android space. Some of them have been written about on CCN before. One of them is Oh Crop!, a game much like Plants vs. Zombies in which the player must defeat evil plants. Players earn free bitcoin in the faucet-like scenario where they view a video advertisement and receive a disbursement. There is also Coin Flapper which presents a situation for the recovering Flappy Birds addict to play and get rewarded for the time spent with a freely earned bitcoin balance. With multiplayer PvP game, BattleCoin.org, a user can earn bitcoins by referring new users.
Read Books
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In CCN’s coverage of PaidBooks.com, a site run by folks behind Bitcoin Aliens, it touched on its having the same functionality as a regular faucet, but instead pays users for reading classic books. Aside its being interesting and engaging methods of giving away free money, giving the user the opportunity to engage in more ways than simply getting around a CAPTCHA and pressing a couple of buttons, PaidBooks, for example, also pays more than usual faucets. It currently pays 400 satoshi every 10 minutes, with an 800 satoshi jackpot. This rate is actually higher than 90% of the free bitcoin faucets.
Earn free bitcoins by watching short videos
One of such platforms is vidybit. All you need is an email for a Xapo account or bitcoin address. Then watch a short video for less than a minute and get free bitcoins. Your account will instantly be credited for each video watched. Those who opt to use a bitcoin address will need to earn 5430 satoshi before payment is sent.
vidybit is the first and only video system that instantly pays users bitcoins offering instant payments, unlimited videos, privacy, and higher payouts. It offers unlimited videos and multiple channels which makes watching videos for bitcoins all day every day.
BitcoinGet also enable a user to earn bitcoins for watching videos, completing tasks, and completing offers.
Earn Bitcoins as a regular income
There is nothing like working and getting paid in bitcoins on a regular basis. This is the surest way to earn the digital currency steadily though not many organizations have been making paychecks in bitcoin except or by special arrangements. The bitcoin acceptance and adoption level is gradually improving though and several startups such as cashila and Bitwage have sprung up to bridge the gap between companies to be able to pay their salaries in bitcoin if they so wish.
Aside working and getting paid in bitcoin by an organization, one can also work from home for others on a freelance basis. Some sites where bitcoin-paying jobs could be searched for include Bitcoin-vacancy, BitGigs online job board, Coinality which lists bitcoin jobs and also display their locations on a map, and XBTFreelancer job board. Bitcointalk Forum Services Section and Jobs 4 Bitcoins on reddit are good starting points to look for job listings that are paid in Bitcoins. Some of the jobs are done easily within a short amount of time so it’s a good way to earn bitcoins.
According to a Canadian payroll firm, ten firms have signed up for their salary to be paid in Bitcoin. The CEO of Wagepoint, Shrad Rao, said the firm added the option in November of last year and was not expecting very many people to sign up.
Play dice
With sites like PrimeDice and 999Dice, it is possible to play dice with a free balance even though it may be a very small amount. A good understanding of it through a thorough research into dice strategies could enable the user take the free amount and turn it into a substantial amount of money if the user is willing to invest the time.
Earn money from trading bitcoins
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Aside the fear of exchanges being attacked by hackers and funds stolen as it was the case with Bitfinex and others, one can earn bitcoins by trading in it as well as with other digital currencies. Basic speculation would do – buy when it is lower, wait until the price increases then sell it at a higher rate to generate profit. Repeat the process over and over again. Understanding market trends and price patterns are key in this regard. Trading in bitcoin could also be through arbitrage – buy it cheap here and sell it at a higher rate there.
Earn Bitcoins by accepting it or getting tipped
Overstock, Dell, Tiger Direct, and Expedia are some of the largest firms that now accept Bitcoin. Just recently, Germany’s Enercity announced that users can now pay for their energy use with the virtual currency. This support a belief that the growing level of acceptance among big firms will trickle down to more smaller businesses and trigger massive adoption. When that happens, more users will surface as their will be more use points.
So will it popularize the concept of being tipped – which is not new to most adults – in bitcoin. Bitcoin tips could be received by a shop owner who accepts bitcoin as a form of payment in the shop. Or at a restaurant, hotel or at a coffee shop. Tips could also be accepted online on a blog or in a discussion forum such as Reddit where anyone who likes a comment or a featured article will send some bits to the author. ChangeTip is a very popular service for tips across major social networks. bctip offers a free service that enhances tips as it makes it possible to print paper vouchers with little amounts of bitcoin balance for customers to pick and give out.
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There are other ways to emerge with time. The Bitcoin revolution is changing several aspects of our lives especially with how we handle finances, payments and every other services that may be offered across the border.
Earn bitcoins with offer programs
Some offer programs can also earn a user some bitcoins. They include: TryBTC whose interactive tutorials teach the concepts wallets, addresses, transactions, and the blockchain and give a small amount of bitcoin for charitable causes and share with friends; Bitalo.com which lets users earn $5 of free bitcoins by signing up and get a verified account or by referring new users; and Bitcoinreward which helps users earn bitcoins by completing simple tasks such as watching videos, checking search engine results and small surveys.
