Getting started with cryptocurrency is just like making any financial investment. You’re going to need capital. In this case, that means obtaining digital tokens. While it is possible to purchase cryptocurrency outright through a cryptoexchange, there are also ways to earn Bitcoin or other tokens for free. Not all methods are worthwhile, though, so here are some tips on choosing the best opportunities.

Stay Away From Cryptocurrency Faucets

Just do a google search on “Bitcoin Faucets” and you will be presented with a long list of websites which promise you free Bitcoin in exchange for visiting websites, viewing videos, or completing surveys. In almost every case, a cryptocurrency faucet is a type of scam. Advertisers lure you in with the promise of digital tokens, but the actual returns you will receive are insignificant.

A faucet website will reward you with Bitcoin for completing tasks. By completing tasks we mean viewing ads that are attempting to sell you something. The reward is actually given in Satoshi, which is a smaller unit of Bitcoin. You can think of a Satoshi as being a penny if Bitcoin were a dollar, but it’s actually worse than that. 1 Satoshi is equal to 0.00000001 Bitcoin. It takes 100,000,000 Satoshi to equal one Bitcoin. When faucets promise you Bitcoin, what they are actually promising is Satoshi.

How do they get away with this? It’s simple. If someone promises you “free money” that doesn’t mean a promise of $1 or $100. It can mean a promise of $0.01. Faucets prey on people who have little understanding of cryptocurrencies and their value. All these people understand is that they will be getting Bitcoin for free.

To earn one Satoshi you might be required to watch multiple videos or complete a survey that takes ten minutes. You do the math. It is a losing proposition. Furthermore, faucets will only let you cash out your Bitcoin when you have reached a certain threshold. It may be 10 Satoshi or 50. The faucet decides. By the time most people figure out that a faucet isn’t worth it, they have lost hours of their time.

Thankfully, there are much better ways to earn cryptocurrency tokens for free. Some of them take a little effort, but the rewards are much greater. Here are methods you should check out.

Join Steemit

Steemit is something similar to a social media platform that rewards users for making posts. You can think of it as an alternative to Facebook that gives you monetary rewards for making social posts. You can write blogs, share photos and videos, and comment on the posts of others. All of these actions will earn you Steem, the cryptocurrency that powers the platform. Steem has done reasonably well since it was introduced, and it is traded on numerous exchanges.

To get started with Steem you have to register an account. You’ll need to verify your email address just like you would with Facebook or Twitter. Once this is done, you can begin making posts and earning tokens. Be aware that verification is not instant. In our case, it tool almost a week for Steemit to verify our account and allow us to make posts.

For the newbie, the manner in which Steem is awarded to users can be confusing. The best way to learn about it is to follow “whales” on the platform who regularly try to help newcomers. But, in the simplest terms, your earnings are determined by upvotes given by other users. The amount an individual’s upvote is worth is determined by their reputation on the site. This reputation is known as Steem Power. The more Steem Power a user has, the more their vote is worth.

Typically, posts can earn votes for about seven days before a payout is made. At the end of this period, the earnings are calculated and distributed to the creator of a post and those who curated, or commented, on it. Users can also decide to give a full upvote or a partial one.

Earnings are then transferred to the user’s Steem wallet. Once there, they can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies or used to increase one’s Steem Power. Make no mistake, this is not a way to get rich quick. In about two weeks we were able to earn a little over $5. But, we basically did nothing but what we normally do on Facebook to earn it. A side benefit is that Steemit holds the funds for you at the current rate of exchange. This means that your account can go up in value as the cryptocurrency market fluctuates. Of course, it can also go down.

Claim ICO Bounties

Advertising an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) today can be very difficult for developers. Facebook, Google, and Twitter have placed advertising bans on ICOs for cryptocurrency. This means that new tokens have to rely on other methods of advertising to drum up interest in a public token sale. One of those methods is to reward individuals who promote an ICO with digital tokens.

You can earn bounties by making social media posts, writing blogs or articles, and retweeting posts from the development team. Some bounties are awarded for arranging local meetups to promote awareness of an ICO. There is no set way that developers can offer a bounty, and they will vary with each ICO.

The way that you can participate in bounties is very simple. You must first identify new ICOs. Your best way of doing this is to follow Bitcoin forums and cryptocurrency news websites. Once an ICO is announced, you can visit the tokens official site to receive details on any bounties that are being offered. You will usually be required to follow the token’s Facebook or Twitter account, and you will probably be asked to join something called Telegram. Telegram is a messaging app that is widely used by the cryptocurrency community. It is free to download and use.

You will also need to have a wallet in which to receive your bounties. This wallet will generally be an Ethereum one because most new tokens are based on the Ethereum blockchain. You will provide a receive address, complete the tasks, and receive your reward in the form of units of the new token. The process usually occurs after the public token sale has concluded and can take a few months to a year depending on the length of the ICO.

Collect Cryptocurrency Airdrops

A final way to earn free cryptocurrency tokens is to participate in something known as airdrops. An airdrop is a distribution of free tokens to individuals who already hold Bitcoin or Ethereum. To qualify for most airdrops you will need an Ethereum wallet which contains Ether. You will register for the airdrop on the new token’s official site. At some point after the ICO, the tokens will be distributed.

Sometimes you may be required to complete simple tasks in order to receive an airdrop. At other times, you don’t have to do anything but hold Ether. Why would new tokens do this? The answer is promotion. By giving away free tokens, a new offering is drumming up interest. Individuals will spread the word, and the developers hope this will encourage others to participate in the public token sale.

Once again, your best method of locating airdrops is to join forums or follow cryptocurrency social media channels.

You now have three ways that you could potentially earn cryptocurrencies for free. Some of the tokens you earn could rise in value and leave you with a nice profit. At the very least, you will be able to join the cryptocurrency movement and discover for yourself what all the excitement is about.

*** Here at CryptoSwede you will find information on Crypto Mining the different cryptocurrencies as well as the best cryptocurrency exchanges. You can trade or you can set up trading bots instead and then store the crypto on crypto wallets. Later, spend them using crypto debit cards!***