When Bitcoin (BTC) was launched in 2009, it was pretty hard to get hold of, it required computer skills. The infrastructure was still primitive, with very few cryptocurrency exchanges to buy Bitcoins and even fewer wallets to store the coins once you had them.
According to CoinMarketCap, there are now over 500 exchanges where you can buy Bitcoins. But this isn’t the only way to earn Bitcoins these days since cryptocurrency has become more popular and widely accepted. In fact, there are a dozen ways to get your hands on free Bitcoin today if you know where to look.
How to get free Bitcoins? Keep reading to learn more about it!
| Method | Difficulty | Conditions | Bitcoin rewards |
| Buy Bitcoins | Easy | Capital | Variable |
| Accept Bitcoin payments | Easy | Selling goods and services | Variable |
| Crypto reward programs | Intermediate | Quickly identify valuable rewards | Low |
| Bitcoin Mining | Pro | Capital for mining equipment | Average |
| Staking off-chain de BTC | Intermediate | Already have BTC | Average |
| Lending Bitcoins | Intermediate | Owning BTC to lend | Average |
| Doing micro-jobs | Easy | Time to complete micro-tasks | Low |
| Online games | Intermediate | Gambling powers | Variable |
| Affiliate marketing | Intermediate | Get followers/visitors | High |
| Freelance crypto sites | Intermediate | Having a talent | Average |
1) Buy Bitcoin
This is the easiest way to obtain Bitcoins, as it involves a direct transaction where you convert your fiat currency into Bitcoins. There are several ways to buy Bitcoins using fiat currency, depending on your experience and purpose.
Cryptocurrency exchanges
A cryptocurrency exchange is a platform that offers several cryptocurrencies for trading; just like a stock exchange where you can buy and sell shares. Cryptocurrency exchanges offer Bitcoins for sale directly from their reserves to guarantee the availability of cryptos whenever needed. For example, Binance Exchange holds the largest supply of Bitcoins in its reserves according to CryptoQuant, 582,054 BTC as of November 19, compared with 529,544.83 BTC held by Coinbase Pro.
As a result, you can buy Bitcoins directly from these exchanges using your credit card or a bank transfer. Some exchanges even offer local payment solutions based on your location to make selling even easier. There are usually transaction fees, such as 0.10% on Binance, but this is a small price to pay if you need to acquire Bitcoins for any reason.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges
P2P platforms only act as intermediaries between Bitcoin buyers and sellers. Today, there are many such platforms, such as LocalBitcoins, which enables you to find a Bitcoin seller near you. Once you’ve identified a seller, you can complete the transaction using the payment methods they offer.
Of course, this type of agreement entails risks for both seller and buyer if one of them fails to honor the agreement. This is why P2P platforms have put in place measures such as opening an escrow account and releasing the cryptocurrency only after both parties have verified that the transaction has been completed successfully.
2) Accept Bitcoin as payment for your goods and services
Despite a decline of over 60% since the start of 2022, Bitcoin has not completely lost its appeal to investors. According to Coinbase’s 2022 Institutional Investor Digital Assets Outlook Survey, 72% of respondents believe that digital assets are here to stay. Respondents included 140 institutional investors with $2.6 trillion in assets under management (AUM), meaning the market is still bullish on Bitcoin among other cryptos.
That’s why you don’t need to worry about accepting Bitcoin as payment for your services and products, even if the market is in the doldrums – crypto winter.
Many people are bellicose about the cryptocurrency market, including Elon Musk, who tweeted that “Bitcoin will make it, but it may be a long winter”. Even Tim Draper, the billionaire venture capitalist and serial investor in blockchain, still expects the price of Bitcoin to reach $250,000 in early 2023.
So don’t worry about the future of Bitcoin and its acceptance as a means of payment. In fact, with the expected rise in Bitcoin’s value, you could make a valuable investment simply by holding Bitcoin in your wallet. Bitcoin has reached an all-time high of around $69,000 in 2021 and could approach this level over time.
3) Take advantage of crypto rewards programs and earn free Bitcoin
On February 13, 2022, the Coinbase application crashed for a few minutes, resulting in a 5% drop in Coinbase shares when the market opened on February 14. The crash was not caused by a hacker or application failure, but by the traffic spike following a 60-second advert broadcast during the Super Bowl and featuring a QR code.
Coinbase product manager Surojit Chatterjee reported on Twitter that Coinbase’s homepage received 20 million hits within a minute of the ad’s airing, and that the app had jumped from 186th to 2nd place in Apple’s App Store. The reason was that Coinbase’s ad promised $15 in Bitcoins to anyone who signed up to the exchange before February 15, and we all love a bargain.
While this is a unique case, it’s not the only time a company has offered free Bitcoins for signing up to its platform. FTX, now defunct, also offered to give away up to $1.5 million in Bitcoins during the Superbowl, as did Crypto.com to new registrants.
Crypto.com
- Free crypto card
- Reputable exchange
- Competitive fees
Crypto.com
How to get free Bitcoin? It’s not strange to receive free Bitcoins when you sign up to other crypto exchanges either, making it one of the easiest ways to earn Bitcoins. Therefore, you should always be on the lookout for these offers on social networks such as Twitter.
However, you should always be cautious when joining a platform offering or promising free Bitcoins, as not all of them are trustworthy. Major exchanges like Coinbase may only be looking to increase their customer base, but other malicious platforms could be out to get your personal information. With this in mind, never share your Bitcoin wallet’s private key or seed phrase, or any other sensitive financial data, such as credit card information.
4) Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin supply is capped at 21 million coins, and at present only 19.2 million BTC are in circulation according to CoinMarketCap at the time of publication. The remaining 2 million or so BTC will be created through mining, a process that involves validating transactions on the blockchain using complex algorithms.
Miners solve complex equations to verify the validity of each block on the blockchain, thus guaranteeing the maintenance of the network. They then receive “new” Bitcoins as a reward, which are added to the current supply in circulation. Around 900 BTC are issued every day and added to circulation.
Since Bitcoin is intended to be accessible to everyone, you too can become a Bitcoin miner, provided you know how.
Bitcoin mining pools
Even if you have powerful mining equipment at your disposal, the chances of successful solo mining are slim, due to the existence of large, competitive mining farms on an industrial scale. To increase your chances, you can simply contribute your hardware power to an existing, well-established pool of miners. Essentially, you’ll be part of a conglomerate of miners that can increase your chances of success.
Membership of a mining pool is free, and all you have to do is devote your material resources to the pool rather than to your own account. In return, you receive a share of the Bitcoins mined according to your contribution to the pool’s hashrate, just like a shareholder who receives dividends.
Stelareum.io compares mining pools.
Cloud mining
In the case above, you need to buy, operate and maintain the mining equipment. Obviously, this represents a bit of work and requires some understanding of blockchain technology. But what if you have no crypto skills or no time?
The solution is to consider cloud mining is to rent the mining equipment remotely and let an operator take care of it. All you have to do is pay a subscription fee for the service and you become a member of a pool. You’re still a miner, but you don’t have to take on the day-to-day responsibilities of a miner, while still receiving the rewards of mining.
Naturally, this form of mining doesn’t generate as much revenue as pools, but it’s more suitable if you don’t have the time to devote to cryptocurrency mining.
5) Bitcoin Staking
Yes, Bitcoin is staking itself! Staking is the process of locking your crypto assets into a blockchain network in order to become a validator, similar to cryptocurrency mining described in the previous section, except that no equipment needs to be purchased. Instead, one of many “stakers” is randomly selected to validate a block on the blockchain and receive newly mined coins or tokens on the network.
This is usually done on a blockchain network such as Ethereum, which uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, but not a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism like Bitcoin. Nevertheless, some platforms can still accept PoW cryptos like Bitcoin and use them as part of an off-chain staking program. For example, the Bitcoin you stake can be exchanged for PoS tokens and staked on a network such as ethereum to earn rewards.
So you can even stake PoW-based cryptos like Bitcoin and get rewards in the form of BTC or other tokens, which is another way to earn Bitcoins. You can also bet PoS tokens like Ethereum (ETH) and exchange the rewards for Bitcoins (BTC).
Bear in mind, however, that the rewards for off-chain Bitcoin staking are far less than those for on-chain staking using tokens like ETH. On Kraken, for example, the reward for staking in Bitcoins is just 1.5%, compared with staking in ETH, which ranges from 4% to 7%, or Cosmos (ATOM), which can generate up to 15% annual return.
6) Bitcoin loan
Do you have Bitcoins in your wallet that you’re not using and don’t plan to sell? If so, you’re not alone, as data from Bitinfocharts suggests. According to the cryptocurrency analysis platform, over 90% of Bitcoins currently in circulation are in dormant addresses belonging to either long-term investors, hackers or lost accounts.
Unfortunately, Bitcoin wallets are not like a bank account where you can expect to automatically receive interest on your deposits. What you can do, however, is lend out your cryptocurrencies, as long as you don’t have immediate use for them. And just like a loan, you can charge interest, which can be quite high given the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies.
Today, there are many cryptocurrency lending platforms on which you can deposit your tokens. Some act as brokers, listing your Bitcoin loans and their terms and conditions, notably on DeFi apps, while others offer borrowers only a fixed rate on all Bitcoin loans.
Whatever your preference, the aim is to earn extra Bitcoins for free on those you already own. And lending platforms go out of their way to ensure that loans are recouped, mainly by using over-collateralization. Borrowers are usually required to provide collateral worth 50% or more of the loan they’re applying for. By doing so, you can be almost certain that your loan will be repaid and that you will earn interest in the form of Bitcoins.
7) Micro-tasks and Bitcoin taps
Earning money online has become popular in recent years as working from home has become more widespread. This is true for traditional jobs, but a micro-tasking industry has also emerged for those who can handle small tasks. For example, you can perform tasks such as answering surveys, watching ads, subscribing to newsletters, playing mini-games, downloading mobile apps and so on.
Such tasks don’t offer huge returns sufficient to become a main source of income, but they can provide decent rewards if you have the time to do them. Platforms such as adBTC, Bitcoinget, CoinPayU and Coin Tasker offer such tasks and remunerate their users in free Bitcoins rather than fiat currency.
8) Play online games and get free Bitcoin
Another industry that flourished thanks to the COVID pandemic was online gaming. As traditional casinos closed their doors, many gamblers turned to online gaming, where they could continue to play their favorite games from home or on their cell phones.
At the same time, cryptos were booming and many players began to use digital currencies rather than facts, either for fun or to remain anonymous. Whatever the reason, online gaming platforms quickly began to cater to players’ needs by accepting and rewarding them in cryptos.
Playing online games can therefore be a way to earn Bitcoins if you have the skills to beat the house or, at least, other players. What’s more, you can have fun while getting paid to do what you love to do.
9) Affiliate Marketing
With 9.1 million online retailers worldwide according to Tridion surveys, competition is fierce and sellers are constantly on the lookout for advertisers.
If you have a strong audience on social networks or a blog/website, you can advertise a retailer’s products on your platform and receive payments in Bitcoins. You can also become an affiliate of such merchants, enabling you to direct your followers to the retailer’s website and receive a commission on each sale.
10) Freelance crypto sites
There are freelance sites that pay their service providers in cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoins. As with traditional freelance sites such as Upwork or Freelancer.com, you’ll find coding, copywriting, design, coaching and other trades. If you’re already an expert in a particular field, you can offer your services on these sites; maybe here you can’t get free Bitcoin, but you can be paid in Bitcoins. Others include Blocklancer.net and Crypto.jobs.
