Faucets are a fairly simple way to get free cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Cardano. Taps generally only require you to click a button that has a time limit on it, for example you can only click once every hour. Each click gives you a random free amount of the cryptocurrency offered by the site, generally a fraction of a cent per click, with chances of getting larger amounts, but the odds are very low.
These sites generally have ways to earn more free clicks by filling out surveys, looking at ads, or clicking links, which generate website revenue and allow them to give away free cryptocurrency.
Taps will generally have a reasonable withdrawal threshold that you must reach before you can put the free cryptocurrency into your preferred wallet, but this means that you must be consistent in visiting the site to earn your free cryptocurrency.
Why do cryptocurrency companies offer faucet programs? Generally they are actually earning money through advertising and link clinking. You never get anything for nothing.
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Earn BAT with Brave Browser
If you wish you could earn money watching ads while browsing the Internet, then Brave Browser and Brave Rewards might interest you.
Brave Browser is an extremely fast internet browser compatible with all Chrome extensions. The only difference is that instead of complaining through ads while browsing the internet, you can actually earn money by watching them on Brave Browser through Brave Rewards by earning yourself the Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrency. Brave Rewards comes with Brave Ads, which is how you earn BAT for free.
Brave ads are presented separately from your web content and keep your personal data completely private and anonymous. Brave Ads appears as system notifications or sponsored images on the “new tab” page. You can control how often these notifications appear and whether you want to hide sponsored images. But every time you choose to see the ad, you earn 70% of the ad revenue that Brave receives from advertisers in the form of BAT, which can be exchanged or returned to sites you like, with more options coming soon. The ads shown on Brave are on an opt-in basis, so if you really don’t want to see ads, you won’t.
Cryptocurrency Staking
Staking is becoming an increasingly common way to earn free cryptocurrency, the caveat being that you’ll need to invest a certain amount of money in that cryptocurrency first. Staking is the process of holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network. In essence, it consists of blocking cryptocurrencies to receive rewards. This can only be done with coins that use proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms, such as Stellar.
So, to
get free cryptocurrencies through staking, like getting free Stellar Lumens (XLM), you need to buy some XLM first. Once you have XLM in your preferred wallet, you can bet it and earn more XLM to do so. Prizes are paid at varying intervals depending on the encryption.
Staking processes in all cryptocurrencies vary, but in general you need to delegate your bet to someone unless you have a large enough portion to bet. Tezos, for example, requires 10,000 tokens to participate in staking, so most holders delegate their coins to a pool to earn rewards. This can be done directly through some wallets such as a Ledger Nano X. You are not transferring ownership of your tokens, but you are giving your consent voting power to the pool.
Hard Fork
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Hard forks are another way to get free cryptocurrency, but just like staking, they already require you to own cryptocurrency. A fork occurs when users of a network disagree on how the network should be updated, and then the two parties “fork” the network into two paths. Forks are often considered a network upgrade. Hard forks mean that the two networks are incompatible with each other.
Ethereum
underwent a hard fork when it split into Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC), which means that ETH blocks and transactions cannot take place on the ETC network and ETC blocks and transactions cannot take place on the ETH network.
When a hard fork occurs, you often receive the equivalent amount of the newly created token for free. When the Bitcoin network forked on August 1, 2017, the newly created Bitcoin Cash network took on the value of about 10% of what Bitcoin was worth at the time. Bitcoin was valued at around $5000 USD, so if you were holding 1 BTC right now, you would have just received 1 BCH worth $500.
Coinbase learns how to earn cryptocurrencies
Coinbase offers you free cryptocurrencies like EOS in exchange for spending some time learning about cryptocurrency and how it works. Just sign up for Coinbase, get approval through the Know Your Customer process and proceed to the Earn page, choose the cryptocurrency you are interested in and get some for free to know it.
In most cases you simply have to watch a video lecture to receive the free cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Cashback Services
There are several ways to earn free Bitcoins as a cash reward for shopping, both online and in person.
Stormshop is a mobile app and browser plug-in that administers rewards known as Bolt for online shopping with over 400 merchants and is available in over 187 countries. You can earn up to 40% crypto cashback paid in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, DAI or STORM. You can exchange your Bolt loyalty point for cryptocurrency paid directly to your wallet.
Lolli is a Bitcoin cashback plugin for your browser that notifies you whenever you shop at one of its partner stores, such as Expedia and GAP. You can earn up to 30% cashback and it is delivered to your Lolli wallet where you can send it to a Bitcoin address to exchange it for USD and send it to your bank account.
Pei is a cashback system that offers rewards in Bitcoin or fiat currency, but unlike Lolli or Stormshop it works with your existing credit card and works in-store or online. Once connected you receive a refund in your choice of Bitcoin or fiat, there are no membership fees and occasionally you will receive special offers for further cashback.
You can also earn crypto cashback via crypto debit cards like Wirex and the Crypto.com card, with cashback percentages ranging from 0.5-5% cashback depending on certain conditions met like Wirex staking tokens or Crypto.com MCO tokens.
Work for cryptocurrency
While not necessarily getting Bitcoin for free, there are ways to earn Bitcoin as payment for completing freelance work in fields such as engineering, design, writing, singing, translation, editing, and marketing to name a few. There are many platforms and websites that offer Bitcoin for your services such as Cryptogrind and Coinality.
GitCoin is a popular platform to contribute to projects on the Ethereum platform. GitCoin allows you to link your developer profile from GitHub and list your skills and rental services.
Loan
Lending is a fairly reliable and secure way to get free cryptocurrency, again first requiring you to hold cryptocurrency to lend. There are many peer-to-peer lending platforms for Bitcoin, Ethereum, DAI, and Tether to name a few. In exchange for borrowing your cryptocurrency you can earn a variable percentage return that depends on market conditions and the coin you are lending.
It should be noted that the lending space is highly unregulated, so do your due diligence before choosing a partner to lend with. If you’re looking to lend, look for companies that have 3rd party security audits, long track records, and guarantees on your funds.
Scams to watch out for
There are many potential scams to watch out for.
With staking you may find a scam where a delegation pool will ask you to send your tokens from your wallet directly to them, this should never be required. Instead there should be a smart contract involved, and staking should be possible from the security of one’s wallet. Do your homework before you stake.
Free giveaways where they ask you to send some cryptocurrencies to register are also a scam to watch out for. There is no gift, they are simply going to keep everything that is sent to them. The only reason faucets give away cryptocurrencies for free is because you’re actually earning money through advertising and clicking links, there are no truly free giveaways.
Similarly, giveaways to rewards
where they want certain personal information to receive your reward are a phishing way for personal information so that a hacker can try to impersonate you, not give addresses, emails, or phone numbers to anyone who claims to give away crypto rewards or free giveaways.
In the end you need to be vigilant and do your due diligence when dealing with cryptocurrencies, regardless of whether you are paying for them or trying to get some for free.
