I am in a somewhat difficult situation at the moment, but it's only for want of a little startup capital. I currently am ineligible for getting credit from a bank, because I don't have a Bulgarian ID card. The requirements for anyone (from anywhere in the world) to get residency permission in Bulgaria are as follows:
A lease agreement or land title (foreigners owning real estate now in Bulgaria is completely unrestricted) for address registration.
An employment contract, or alternatively, 5000 BGN (roughly 2500 EUR) in a bank account.
Even quite central locations in the city of Sofia, it is possible to find decent apartments for as low as 300 BGN/month. Without a job, the real estate agents and landlords will accept advance rent payments in lieu of an employment contract, 3 months seems to be acceptable from past experience.
I previously had an internet connection in a somewhat centrally located (in fact, kinda expensive neighbourhood) apartment that I lived at here previously. Back then it was 45BGN for 6 months unlimited 55Mbit ethernet direct into my kitchen. The price has gone up to 70BGN now, but the deal is exactly the same.
Being that the power bills are relatively low also, I remember at my apartment before, it was about 30-40BGN/month for power, with this kind of internet connectivity, I am in a perfect position to run clusters of cryptocoin miners. I know my way around linux very well, so I can also set up, build the miners, and quite easily for an interested investor, I could also give them direct access to administer the rigs directly. I would want some part of the yield of coins by way of rent, of course, but I am pretty confident that outside of China, this is probably the cheapest place in the world to do cryptocoin mining.
I am making little bits of money here and there with my Steem article writing and engaging with my audience, and I expect that as things develop, there will be a steady growth of my Steem assets and thus potential rewards. It's a small part of my bigger plan to get a solid income going, but it's an important, and rewarding one.
I have a friend who I have been coaching and training in ecommerce operations, and he recently has acquired access to seed funding to kickstart his business. For a while this is an income source for me as well. But myself, directly, I have a viable business opportunity to set up a laboratory supplies retail operation. Chinese sources for these things are a bit cheaper than the local bricks and mortar lab supply retailers here, but some of the products I would sell are actually manufactured here. There is a significant industry in laboratory glassware, chemicals and apparatus here in Bulgaria, and the prices of these items is far lower than the rest of the EU, and with the low barriers to intra-EU trade, customers can more easily access this and I know there is a market for it.
Right now, it is touch-and-go whether I will be able to continue to pay my bills and feed myself. Being that so far it looks like I can typically make around $30/wk of SBD (as well as accumulating SP), I am not that far even with just this one activity, already, to nearly cover my rent bill, which is 250BGN/month, or around USD$130. About the same amount again covers my food bills. So right now, I just need to make about USD$260, and I am maintaining a reasonable standard. But the exact location I am now is costing me a lot more for internet access. The electrical wiring in my house is very poor, and there is no washing machine. Yes, I am a bit smelly, washing is quite laborious, and I am not socialising almost at all, pretty much all my contact with humans is business.
But if there is anyone who is looking for a capable administrator and low-cost location for cryptocoin mining, I am your man.
I figure that if someone can front me about 6500BGN, I can get into a better location, with good internet, and once my Bulgarian residence permit and ID card are in my hands, I can probably also get maybe as much as 5000BGN of credit from my bank, or some kind of lender. The 5000BGN requirement for the bank account, once I have that Bulgarian ID card, it can go straight back to whoever helped me with it. With that credit I talked about, probably I can pay 100% back on the loan to get the rental sorted out.
If anyone is interested in helping, I would be most interested in hearing proposals. I have solicited a good friend of mine in Australia about this, and he had already been talking about the idea of me running a mining cluster for him. He may be able to help me out too. Either way, if I can surmount these obstacles, I can also go partners in a mining operation with anyone else also. With a cosy little apartment, and a big shelf full of computers, I probably don't even need to pay heating bills for the upcoming winter also.