4 and a Half Ways to Earn Crypto by Writing
Plus get paid for reading too!
Crypto can seem intimidating at first, especially if you’re unfamiliar with things like wallets, private keys, and seed phrases. Between all the memes, hacks, and outright scams, it’s a pretty confusing place, even for more experienced users. Still, crypto is an exciting emerging technology, with plenty of opportunities to take advantage of, if you know where to look.
When I first got interested in this space, I discovered an easy way to get a feel for the technology, without having to spend any money. As someone who tends to immediately put their sceptic’s hat on when encountering new opportunities, this offered me a risk-free way to test the waters before diving in the deep end. I’m talking of course about crypto blogging, which ironically helped lay the foundation for my career as a Freelance Writer.
In this guide, I’ll be sharing 4 ways to earn crypto just by writing. No strings attached, no credit cards, no KYC. All you need is an internet-connected device, some basic writing skills, and you’re good to go. It’s that simple.
If you enjoy writing (or reading, more on that below), and are curious to get your feet wet in Web3, this is a great way to get started.
1. Read.cash
Read.cash is a blogging site that pays writers in the Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) cryptocurrency. Upon creating an account, users are prompted to create a crypto wallet, and keep note of 12 secret words to secure their funds. This means that writers have a wallet linked to their account, enabling them to receive tips and send tips to other writers.
The site has a fairly good editor, with all the typical functions you’d expect from a blogging site. The main highlight is Rusty, a friendly AI bot that comes online occasionally to tip articles that they’ve read.
The total tips show up on the bottom of each article, such as on this example below. You can see that Rusty (the green avatar on the right) visited this particular writer’s article.
Read.cash may not be as popular as it once was, but it’s a great place to start if you’re new to crypto and want to get a feel for managing a crypto wallet.
2. Publish0x
Publish0x is one of the original crypto blogging sites and is still going strong to this day. Compared to other typical crypto blogging sites however, Publish0x does not provide a native crypto wallet. Instead, Publish0x manages a large pool of crypto funds that are distributed to readers on a daily basis. When a reader finishes reading an article, they can choose to split their tips between the author and themselves using a percentage slider.
Yes, you read that right. On Publish0x you can get paid simply for reading.
The tips for reading and writing assemble in your account’s wallet, which you can choose to payout to your personal address on a weekly basis. Over the years, the Publish0x team has paid out its users in a variety of crypto tokens. At the moment they’re supporting content creators with Ethereum ($ETH) and Optimism ($OP).
On top of these daily tips, Publish0x organises regular writing competitions and also has an affiliate program that sends out monthly rewards to its most active members.
All in all, it’s a great place to earn some pocket money for checking in daily and keeping up to date with industry news.
3. Hive
Hive is much more than a simple blogging website; it’s an entire network of front-ends, built above a shared content ledger. If that’s too much to wrap your head around, let’s break that down into simpler terms.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana are all examples of blockchains. Think of them as shared databases of financial transactions. Hive is similar but instead of finance, it’s catered mostly to content transactions. That means people can upload their blogs and audiovisual files to the Hive blockchain, where they are stored by a large, distributed network of computers.
Once published, Hive community members can upvote pieces of content on the network, which then rewards the creators with the platform’s native $HIVE token. The platform also has a stablecoin ($HBD) that’s designed to hold a peg with the US dollar.
While Hive offers many more features and possibilities than a standalone blogging site, the learning curve can be a bit steep. The signup process involves multiple private keys and the different websites displaying the same content, but with a different look and feel, can be confusing at first. If you want a taste of true Web3 content, it’s well worth exploring.
I’ve written a full guide on Hive which you can read for free here: Worried About Twitter Going Down? Give Hive a Try!
4. Superteam Earn
Superteam Earn is a site that helps boost awareness of projects in the Solana ecosystem. Serious money has been making its way into the Solana sector as of late, with numerous projects leveraging Superteam Earn to engage skilled creators and amplify their messages.
The site hosts regular bounties where writers compete for lucrative rewards by crafting posts, threads, blogs, and articles for Solana projects and ecosystem-specific topics.
A few months ago there was a large writing competition (Solana Scribes), with over $100K worth of rewards and several tracks to partake in. I somehow managed to win the $1,000 first prize in the poetry track. A poem!
Solana survived a near-death experience following the collapse of the FTX exchange in 2022, which has only strengthened their community and increased the confidence of investors. If you enjoy creating content and are interested in Solana, you’ll surely enjoy exploring Superteam Earn.
And if you’d like to learn more about Solana’s history and how it works, check out this deep dive I wrote not too long ago: Solana’s Resurrection Is Shaping a New Crypto Narrative
Bonus Way: Freelancing
That’s right, you can always go down the old fashioned route and just work for your money. This route will pay you much more than blogging, but has become harder to crack with the advent of AI tools. Still, writers like myself who are crazy enough to compete against massive GPU clusters continue to earn money shipping words in Google Docs.
Using stablecoins like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, you can support customers around the globe and get paid instantly. Once you have the money in your crypto wallet, there are countless exchanges that can help you to convert the stablecoins into fiat currencies and withdraw to your local bank.
Contra is a great place to start as they can help match clients with high-quality independents. I’m listed as a Top Independent there and am on track to receive my Earned $50K badge soon. Contra enables USDC payments, although KYC is required. The occasional projects I run through Contra are declared as professional income, so the KYC aspect doesn’t bother me too much. Contra covers the transaction costs when sending the money out of their site, so I tend to just ship it off to an exchange and convert to cash. Even with the exchange’s currency conversion and withdrawal fees, this route has proven to be cheaper and much quicker than using Stripe (like 4 or 5 days quicker!).
Request Finance is another platform you can try for billing your clients. It’s not a marketplace like Contra, but offers a streamlined invoicing interface where you can select from a number of tokens on various crypto networks. Many crypto companies use Request Finance for their payroll and for hiring freelancers.
If you’re a bit more experienced, and don’t need a marketplace or invoicing platform, then you can just opt to get paid straight to your own crypto wallet. Remember that blockchain transactions are not private, so in the interest of privacy, it might be worthwhile creating a different address for each new client. If it’s your first time working with a new client, consider getting an upfront payment, or at least a 50% deposit.
Finally, while I’ve spoken about stablecoins, it’s also possible to get paid in other tokens, such as large cap coins like $BTC, $ETH, $SOL, or a particular project’s native token. This is a double-edged sword, as small cap projects can have sudden price movements, in either direction. If you’re strapped for cash, this is probably not a good idea, but if you can spare a bit of change, taking a partial payment (e.g. 80/20 stable/token) can be an indirect way to increase your earnings.
This is not financial advice, just words of experience from my own time in the game. Talk to your accountant or tax advisor first, as rules may differ depending on your region.
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