The cryptocurrency community has slowly been building an alternate universe where everything is incentivized. For every task, there's a site or an app that wants to pay you with their token.
My purpose here isn't to recruit you or trick you into signing up using referral links--I want to let people know about all these cool things!. That said, I'll include referral links at the bottom if you do want them. (But seriously, that's not why we're here.)
Do you like using the internet?
Use the Brave browser. When you opt-in to their Brave Rewards program, you'll get ad notifications that earn you BAT. You don't need to look at the ads or do anything; you get paid just for receiving the notifications. You can use Brave on all your computers and Apple & Android devices to earn more rewards.
BAT has gone from around $0.20 three months ago to more than $0.70 now. Brave has an ambitious roadmap that will reward users who keep BAT in their wallets and use them to pay for fees in their upcoming DEX. Earning a few dollars each in BAT could easily turn into $100 or more with a bit more time.
Do you like searching for things on the internet?
Use Presearch. Presearch is a decentralized search engine that rewards you with PRE for every search you do, up to a limit per day. Like BAT, PRE has seen significant growth in the past 90 days, going from $0.01 to $0.08.
Last month, Presearch released an update that reduced its static 0.25 PRE per search to a variable amount that's been mostly at 0.12 PRE. While this is a decrease in earnings, it suggests to me that Presearch is adjusting for future growth and sustainability--a good sign for PRE earners & holders.
Do you like microblogging, like Twitter?
Use Noise.Cash--built by the same folks as Read.Cash! I particularly enjoy Noise because a lot of the community is focused on cryptocurrencies and related projects. These are subjects my real-life friends & family aren't into, so Noise really scratches an itch.
Noise gifts you a balance of free tips every so often, and you receive a cut of the tips you reward to others. It's fun, and it's easy to earn a few dollars per week just by talking with friends.
Don't get greedy, though, and don't try to game the system, or they'll cut you off from free tips. Just be yourself, enjoy the experience, and you'll find the earnings pile up quickly. Much like Read.Cash, everything you earn on Noise is paid in Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Do you like watching videos?
Use LBRY. It's the cryptocurrency world's version of YouTube. If you're a creator, you can even link your YouTube channel to import your videos. Using LBRY will earn you their token, LBRY Credits (LBC).
It shouldn't surprise you to hear that LBC has gone up significantly in value this year, going from $0.03 in December to nearly $0.20! You earn rewards for signing up and doing simple things like visiting daily and following others.
What about streaming, like Twitch?
Use Theta.tv. Theta provides a mix of video game streaming and other programming, but it feels very Twitch-like. The cool thing about Theta is that while you watch, your unused bandwidth is used to re-broadcast the stream to others--and you earn Theta Fuel (TFUEL) for your contribution.
And guess what? TFUEL has gone from less than $0.02 to $0.15 in the last three months.
Conclusion
There's increasingly a crypto alternative for everything, and if the thing you want doesn't exist, give it a minute. There are projects for finding jobs that pay you in crypto. There are plenty of games that reward you in crypto. There are social media projects. The things I've listed above are just scratching the surface.
The services aren't as polished and robust as their mainstream counterparts, but they're made up of growing, vibrant communities. And more importantly, they serve their purposes well.
Individually, these applications and services may not pay very much, but nearly all of them are experiencing tremendous growth. You might as well start earning a few dollars here and there for all the things you're doing, anyway. After a few months, those few dollars from those few things will turn into more dollars, and as these projects take off and grow, they'll turn into even more dollars.
I'm looking for feedback! What other services should be part of the list? Do you like learning about offerings like this, or are these things that everybody in the community already knows about? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
Lead image by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash
Referral links
Here's another thing about the crypto community: everything's got a referral code. If you're interested in trying the above services, consider supporting me by using the following links!
