No introduction, let's start.

CryptoHeroes

Well, any of PixeldApps game might work; but one only plays crypto heroes so... Initially, you need to put in some money to buy some equipments. Most easy equipments are cheap, selling for only 1 PXT (currently, PXT to NEAR is about 250:1). Then, you can participate in easy raid with others to earn some PXT every week. However, the more harder the raid, the more you can earn. People tend to abuse the easy raid, reaching the state where you pay more (for gas fee) than you earn. Only from medium onwards you can really earn a bit every week. You could also sell equipments; but only rare equipments onwards with better stats for a cheaper price are worth; seldom do people buy rare equipments, but compared to common equipments, they're still sellable. To join harder raid though, you need better equipments, at least (for knights) a sword and an armor rare (not sure what stats for others).

(my current stats and heros)

Farming on Ref.Finance

You could earn some passive income farming on Ref.Finance. Farming requires you first provide liquidity on the farming pair. For example, USDT-wNEAR. If one is willing to spend 1 NEAR on the farm, one first converts 1 NEAR to 1 wNEAR. Then, one will convert 0.5 wNEAR to the equivalent USDT, because providing liquidity requires you have about equal values on both tokens to stake. This way, we could maximize the tokens staked. Finally, return to the farm and stake your LP (liquidity pair) share and starts earning. The exact APR for each pair are seen on the farming page.

Please, before you continue, check out the risks. It's mentioned that holding might earn you more than providing liquidity, so it's encouraged that you play small: small enough that even if you lose everything, you can accept the loss. Furthermore, don't just look at APR; choose the coins which doesn't continue degrading and provide liquidity, otherwise when you solidize the liquids (tokens), they might have lost their values. Even though you seems to earn a lot from the farm, each unit of the coin might worth much much less now, and you lose more than earned.

(currently ongoing USDT-wNEAR and USDC-wNEAR pair on Ref.Finance)

Learn Near Club

Believe it or not, LNC provides redeem period every 15th of the month, if you're eligible (user for at least 1 month, earn 64 nLearns since the last redeem period, and earn at least 1 nLearn per week). The exact ratio of nLearn to NEAR changes every month, depending on the price of NEAR; and how much you can redeem each month is fixed. Think of it as a sponsorship to continual learning. Because it's a sponsorship, the prize pool is fixed every month, and only this much people can redeem. Last month, they increased redeem wallets from 250 to 500, 1 NEAR each, at 32 nLearns. Note to redeem, it's a fight, and the website crashes frequently; so ensure you're lucky (to click the correct buttons, load the correct webpage, when the traffic is slightly lower than peak during the day), for "slightly smoother" redeem experience.

A better way to earn is participating in feedback. Just today, a new beta testing came out. If you are a good feedback giver, getting out top 20 allows you to earn some NEAR for each feedback. These projects are offered by participants of (LNC's) NEAR Fortified Developer course (which they also called "projects brewing in the LNC Barrel"). Unfortunately, one isn't a fortified developer (yet?), so one don't know how it works. Nevertheless, just participating in beta testing other's projects and get into top 20 (or sometimes top 10) earn you some NEAR.

(a snippet of current campaign on LNC website)

NEAR Campaigns

Yes, this post is for wedNEARsday, one of NEAR campaigns to onboard more users to NEAR. Participating in one of NEAR campaigns can earn some NEAR if you win. It has a range of ways you can earn, and participate on those you are strong with. For example, Tuesday's "invite a friend" is for anyone, to onboard 3 new friends that week, with 2 sets of winners (8 people) on Telegram (the image below says telegram, discord, reddit; it isn't really true, it's announced and held on telegram, and perhaps you can onboard to other channels, I don't know; but that's where you take the challenge and submit) sharing a prize pool of 40 NEAR (so 40/8 = 5 NEAR each person). You could participate in Meme Monday if you're strong at making funny memes. If you're a content creator, you could participate in NFT Fridays (if you're good at making NFTs, not sure if it must be drawings or could be music, etc) and writer (like myself, an amateur writer), on wedNEARsday. And if you're very familiar with a topic, try out Sat NEAR poll!

(P.S. it isn't really announced explicitly, and one isn't really sure whether it's true; but it seems like you cannot win twice in a row. That is, if you win this week, you can only win 2 weeks later, so more people can win rather than same person always)

Conclusion

NEAR offers lots of opportunity to earn. One isn't very sure about other protocol like Bitcoin Cash or Ethereum; but NEAR surely is very generous with earnings. As one of slightly above average participant + developer in the protocol (ahem ahem after top performers found work and I'm still struggling with questioning whether my skills pass to apply for a job, without any previous working experiences except for hobby projects), it's easier to earn some NEAR in some fields (of lots of fields). Do try it out! Start small and check your progress with detailed records on Excel, if it's extremely risky, to ensure you're earning albeit slowly; otherwise go and try something you're strong with and see if you're lucky (plus effort) for the week!

Remember to Like and Subscribe! .

(you could skip the story below, this is the end, if you don't have time to read)

Again, some unrelated story

Its very funny. Previously, one went to study abroad and register with a bank there. First, the APY is 0.01% with the bank's saving account. After studying for a year, the bank reduces APY to 0.0075% for one's account. Very little eh!

Just this year (perhaps a few months back? One can't remember exactly when), perhaps cryptocurrencies's APY have put such a burden on local banks, that when people realizes they could earn much much more on crypto safely (ignoring the greediness of human wanting to pursue every fake airdrops, and the human greediness of taking more and more risk until they lost everything) (in chinese, 苟着), my bank announces:

(rephrased) After surveying local banks in (the country's name goes here), we decided that our APY is lower than most banks and will now raise your interest (from previous 0.0075%) to 0.1%!

You bet! I go Ha Ha Ha... (Hey! Are you really competing with other banks or cryptocurrency?)