Can you get free bitcoin? Yes. In fact, it’s probably easier than you expect. Can you get rich off it? That part’s not so easy. Through our research we found six main ways to get free bitcoin and we’ve arranged them from least profitable to most worth your time.
There are a few ways to obtain Bitcoin without spending money:
- Participate in Bitcoin-related activities: Some websites and online platforms offer small amounts of Bitcoin as a reward for completing tasks or participating in activities. These tasks might include taking surveys, playing games, or watching videos.
- Earn Bitcoin through mining: Bitcoin mining is the process by which new transactions are added to the blockchain and new Bitcoin are created. While it requires specialized hardware and a lot of electricity, it is possible to earn small amounts of Bitcoin by participating in mining pools or running a solo mining operation.
- Receive Bitcoin as a gift or payment: If you have a friend or family member who owns Bitcoin, they may be willing to give or send you some as a gift. You may also be able to receive Bitcoin as payment for goods or services that you sell.
- Participate in a Bitcoin faucet: A Bitcoin faucet is a website or app that gives away small amounts of Bitcoin for free. These faucets typically require users to complete tasks or solve captchas in order to receive a small amount of Bitcoin.
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Gambling
This cannot be stressed enough: gambling is typically a sure-fire way to lose crypto instead of gain it. Many gambling sites allow you to withdraw earnings in bitcoin, but you’ll need to win games of luck and chance first.
Bitcoin gambling sites are often just as legitimate as online gambling with any other kind of currency. They might be full of ads or malware, and you’ll typically lose money overall, but it’s theoretically possible to get free bitcoin from it.
Bitcoin faucets
A bitcoin faucet is a feature on websites that steadily drips bitcoin. For example, a website might dispense a fraction of a bitcoin every few minutes. It’s usually an extremely small amount, equivalent to a few cents or a dollar, awarded to one user every few minutes.
This is often done as a promotional feature. If a faucet holds visitors on a website, it may translate to increased engagement, higher ad revenue or other benefits for the site’s owners that make it worthwhile.
Bitcoin games
Games might award miniscule amounts of bitcoin as a prize. They’re typically also filled with advertisements. It works similar to bitcoin faucets. The bitcoin rewards keep people playing and viewing ads, so on paper the game looks like a great way for advertisers to reach people.
If you don’t mind viewing ads and actually enjoy the game you’re playing, the tiny bitcoin prizes might eventually add up.
Mining
A few years ago, you might have been able to make hundreds of bitcoin by mining on a home computer. These days, it’s a lot more difficult. The bitcoin mining network is mostly dominated by big players with hundreds of thousands of dollars of computing power dedicated to bitcoin mining.
To make a profit from bitcoin mining, you need to have a lot of very powerful hardware. Otherwise you’ll end up spending more on power than you earn from bitcoin.
Affiliate programs
This is probably the easiest way to get free bitcoin that’s actually worthwhile. Affiliate programs are used in almost all industries, including cryptocurrency.
For example, you might refer a friend to a service and then you both get a discount, accrue rewards points or get a BTC or fiat currency bonus.
When you can get discounts or free money, it can be worth going out of your way to sign up for a service through an affiliate link instead of signing up directly.
Get paid directly in bitcoin
You have to work for it, so it’s not really free, but technically you’re also working for any bitcoin you might get from a faucet or as a game reward. There are different ways to do this:
- Asking for bitcoin donations on your website through a wallet address and QR code.
- Working for a company that pays directly in bitcoin. For example, if you do freelance work for a cryptocurrency business or have a reputation as a reliable service provider, you could get paid in bitcoin.
- Asking your employer to pay you in bitcoin. If you really want, you might ask for part of your wages or salary in bitcoin. Although it’s safe to assume that at this stage, most employers will say no.