Bitcoin currently trades for about $649 for 1BTC and for most people; it might be somewhat pricey to buy Bitcoin with USD. Yet, it is important to own Bitcoin because of the impressive upside potential that it offers. However, if you want to own Bitcoin without having to clear out all the funds in your bank account, you can go through the slightly long process of earning Bitcoin.
Nonetheless, you should note that it might take some time before you have a sizeable amount of Bitcoin. If you don’t mind the long process, here are four straightforward ways through which you can earn Bitcoin.
1. Mining Bitcoin
The most traditional way to earn Bitcoin is to become a miner. Miners are saddled with the task of providing computational power needed for the verification process of Bitcoin transactions. Miners are then rewarded with some Bitcoin for their efforts. Mining is the “original” way of getting Bitcoin with an allegory similar to how the miners of old got gold by mining it.
Of course, mining Bitcoin is different from mining gold because you’ll need a powerful computer, superfast Internet connection and a dedicated mining program. It should be noted that it is becoming increasingly harder to mine Bitcoin because of the inbuilt strategies for keeping the supply of Bitcoin in check. More so, miners now earn lesser Bitcoin for their troubles because the Bitcoin reward block has been halved. Yet, mining is a great way to earn Bitcoin and immerse yourself in learning how Bitcoin works.
2. Join a Bitcoin Mining Pool
As mentioned above, mining Bitcoin is becoming increasingly less profitable for the individual miner. However, you can join a mining pool in order to leverage the strength of numbers to your earn more Bitcoin from mining. A mining pool is a mining community in which miners combine their computing power to solve a mining block. The miners in the pool the share the Bitcoin reward equally based on amount of hashing power contributed.
Joining a mining pool is a better way to get involved in mining activities on a small scale without incurring exorbitant upfront costs. Antpoll is currently the biggest mining pool in the world and it controls about 30% of the blockchain hash rate. You might also want to consider Slush Pool, which is the first mining pool in the market. Slush Pool controls a 7% hash rate.
3. Trade Bitcoin for a multiplier effect
If you understand how the financial markets work, you might want to consider earning more Bitcoin by trading. Trading Bitcoin is probably the smartest and fastest way to increase the number of Bitcoin that you own exponentially. Bitcoin currently trades at 1BTC to $649 yet it has traded as low as 1BTC to $11 in 2012. In the last one year, Bitcoin has gained an incredible 109%. In contrast, the S&P 500 has only gained 3.18% within the same period and gold has gained 7.79% in the last one year.
Hence, you’ll be better off trading Bitcoin than trading stocks or gold if you are interested in profiting from upside potential. Nonetheless, you should note that Bitcoin prices are still subject to wild swings and high volatility. You should be ready for a high-risk high-reward scenario if you want to earn more Bitcoin by trading.
4. Accept Bitcoin tips
Another smart way to earn Bitcoin is to collect your tips as Bitcoin. If you work in the service sector where the culture of tipping is acceptable, you can elect to have patrons reward you for your service by getting tipped in Bitcoin. You’ll find it much more easier to get your tips in Bitcoin if you employer already accepts Bitcoin as a form of payment. However, you can still request patrons to tip you in Bitcoin if making such a request doesn’t flout your terms of service.
However, being tipped by Bitcoin is not restricted to people who work in bars, restaurants, and hotels alone. You can also get tipped in Bitcoin if you offer valuable advice on a blog or in an online forum. You can request other users to tip you for your expertise/time in Bitcoin. BCTip is smart way to get tipped in Bitcoin. You may also want to consider Changetip if you’d like to get tipped in Bitcoin for your social media acitivities.