I have been in crypto since the beginning of 2021. I'm aware this is not a very long time so I thought instead of giving investment advice, I would share how I earn and buy crypto. As we all know, college isn't cheap and I use many popular methods among this sub to earn and buy crypto but I also think I have found some lesser-known ways to fund my investments. I especially recommend some of these methods for other college students because I find they're easy to do during small breaks in my day.

I will be breaking this post into two parts:

• How I "Earn" Crypto
• How I Earn Money Online to Buy Crypto

Before I begin, I do want to touch on GPT sites because I will be referencing them throughout the post. A GPT (Get-Paid-To) site is a website where users are paid to complete a variety of tasks such as taking surveys, playing games, and watching videos. I want to emphasize that the vast majority of these sites are not worth your time and are not as good as they might seem to be. That being said, there are some gems out there that I use consistently.

How I "Earn" Crypto

These are all methods of how I "earn" crypto, rather than buy it. This means that none of this comes at any monetary cost to me and as a college student, I believe many of these are well worth your time to take advantage of.

Moons:

I think most of us, if not all of us know what Moons are. It's literally free crypto. I would say I do my fair share of shitposting with some actual quality content thrown in there but who doesn't? Hell, it's half the reason I'm making this post.

Coinbase Earn and CMC Earn

Like Moons, Coinbase Earn and CoinMarketCap Earn are literally free crypto. Both involve learning a little about a cryptocurrency or token, taking a short quiz, and receiving a small amount of the coin or token. I can't say a lot about CMC earn because it isn't available in the US but for Coinbase earn, the offers don't come around very often but they're worth doing. All in all, I have made about $44 in various coins and tokens from Coinbase Earn and I highly recommend using it.

Brave Browser:

This is another popular one among this sub but for those who don't know, Brave is an open-source Browser built on Chromium that rewards its users in BAT to view small ads within the browser. Being built on Chromium, its UI is identical to Chrome but Brave comes with some other features including a built-in ad-blocker. I tend to make between 5-10 BAT per month and could not be happier with Brave.

Presearch:

I don't think Presearch is quite as popular as Brave but it's basically a search engine that rewards you with the PRE token for using it. The amount you're rewarded with tends to be higher as the price of PRE decreases and lower when the price of PRE increases but I tend to get 0.05-0.12 PRE per search. However, one thing to make note of is there is a maximum amount of paid searches per day of 30 and you need a minimum of 1000 tokens to cash out. I have used it for about 4 months and have accumulated ~100 PRE. It is slow earning but I have no complaints.

Coin Hunt World:

There are a lot of crypto games out there but my favorite is Coin Hunt World. It is a free-to-play play-to-earn mobile game in which users explore their real-world area to search for keys to open vaults; think Pokemon Go but for crypto. When opening a vault, you are presented with a trivia question and if answered correctly, you are awarded a small amount of BTC or ETH.

I especially like this game for college students because college campuses are full of keys and vaults and it's easy to earn a little crypto on your way to class. Coin Hunt World is in Beta on iOS and fully released on Android. The game is currently available in the US, Canada, UK, El Salvador, and is coming to the Philippines in the near future.

Mining/Folding:

As a broke college student, I don't have the money to go buy an expensive mining rig so I want to emphasize that this section is about utilizing what you already have available to you. This brings me to folding@home.

Folding@home is a distributed computing project where users can use their computer power to simulate protein folding to contribute to scientific research for a number of diseases including Covid-19, Alzheimer's, Cancer, and more. To encourage people to participate, a number of cryptocurrencies award users based on how many "points" they earn by completing folding projects. The most popular of these cryptocurrencies is Banano (BAN).

Obviously, the better computer specs you have, the faster you will complete folding projects and the quicker you will earn crypto but by no means do you need very new and expensive computer hardware to participate. The earnings aren't huge, I tend to earn between 10-20 BAN per night but it does contribute towards a good cause.

I will also say that this method may not be for everyone as it requires some level of computer hardware, electricity usage, and the installation of the folding@home client.

Staking

I got a couple of requests to include staking so for those who don't know, staking is the process of participating in transaction validation on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. Most major wallets and exchanges offer staking opportunities and you will basically earn a percentage of interest on the coins you hold.

There is almost no reason not to take advantage of staking for PoS coins and some of the most popular coins to stake are ETH(ETH2), ADA, ALGO, and DOT but there are many more.

GAIN.GG and Gamermine:

I will touch on more GPT sites in the next section but I wanted to include GAIN.GG and Gamermine here. These two sites are like most GPT sites in that the offers don't pay very well but what differentiates them is the daily reward offers.

Both of these sites offer a daily reward, but in the beginning, it is quite low ($0.01/day). However, as you complete offers, you can level up your account which then increases the amount of your daily reward. GAIN.GG has a maximum account level of 100 and a maximum daily reward of $0.10/day but Gamermine's daily reward appears to be higher. I currently claim daily rewards of $0.10/day from GAIN.GG and $0.15/day from Gamermine.

These earnings aren't huge but they are consistent drops in the bucket for only clicking a few buttons every day.

How I Earn Money Online to Buy Crypto

There are a lot of guides out there on how to make extra money online but the problem with them is they are too dependent on each person's situation. Not everyone is able to get a side job, not everyone has things to sell online, not everyone has skills they can market for extra cash, and the GPT sites these guides recommend are almost always not worth your time. This section is about lesser-known, consistent ways for anyone to make money online in a way that doesn't waste your time.

Prolific Academic:

Prolific is a crowdsourcing community in which researchers from universities around the world post paid, online, academic studies and recruit participants. This is by far my favorite way to make money online because not only is it consistent and reputable, but the pay is consistently at or above the typical pay for a part-time job.

Under each study, it lists a summary of what the study is about, how many slots are available in the study, how much it pays, the estimated time it will take, and how much the pay would be if equated to an hour. For example, if a study pays £ 2.00 and takes 10 minutes to complete, it would list it as £ 12.00/hour.

Of course, you can only complete studies when there are some available and they do fill on a first-come, first-serve basis. However Prolific does have a browser extension that will give you a desktop notification when there is a new study available. Because the studies are conducted by universities, the months of the school year tend to have more studies while the summer months are rather slow.

I especially like Prolific as a college student because I spend most of my day working on my laptop anyway so when I receive a notification about a new study, I treat it as a break.

Prolific pays out via Paypal and although it pays out in GBP( £ ), you can convert this to the FIAT of your choice within Paypal. You need a minimum of £ 5.00 to cashout and you can cashout once per 24 hours.

I have used Prolific for just over a year, have made over £ 1000, and could not recommend it more.

UserTesting:

Another one of my favorites is UserTesting, a platform in which companies receive feedback on their websites, features, products, and designs from users. I will say that every test I have completed has required the use of a microphone and some have required the use of a camera/webcam so if this makes you uncomfortable, UserTesting may not be for you.

During a typical test, you will be presented with a prototype design or feature for a website or product and asked to think out loud and respond to questions about it. A typical test takes anywhere from 5-30 minutes and pays $10. There are shorter tests that pay less, and longer, live tests that pay more but I don't have experience with them.

When a new test is available, a small screening questionnaire will appear in your dashboard to determine if you qualify for the test. I will say that I do only tend to qualify for a few tests each week but for the pay and time required, I think it's well worth it.

Although UserTesting doesn't have a browser extension, if you have your dashboard open on a tab somewhere, you will hear a small *ding* when a new test is available. UserTesting also has a mobile app that some tests are conducted exclusively through.

UserTesting pays out via Paypal and the payment is sent exactly 7 days after the test is completed. I have used UserTesting on and off for a few months, have made well over $200, and highly recommend it.

Others:

There are a number of other GPT sites I use but I will emphasize that these do not pay you as well for your time as Prolific and UserTesting. I tend to only use these sites on a second monitor while I play video games or watch TV, but I thought I would include them if anyone is interested.

• Microsoft Rewards: Anyone with a Microsoft account can earn points each day by completing small quizzes and searching the web with Bing. If done consistently, I tend to cash out a $5 Amazon gift card about once every 10 days.

• Swagbucks: This is one of the oldest and most popular GPT sites out there. There are many ways to earn but the pay usually isn't very high. Once in a while, I'm able to find something worthwhile and they do have a daily reward of $0.01/day. You can cash out to Paypal along with a variety of Gift Cards with a minimum cashout of 500 SB ($5.00).

• Paidviewpoint: This is a survey-only site with mediocre pay but consistent and decent earnings. It cashes out to Paypal with a minimum cashout of $15.00. I tend to cash out once every month or two from semi-consistently doing surveys.

• Forthright: This is another survey-only site with decent-paying but fairly infrequent surveys. One unique aspect is that you get a loyalty credit for each survey, even if you are disqualified midway through. For every 3 loyalty credits, your account is awarded $2.00 so each one is worth about $0.67. It cashes out to Paypal with a minimum cashout of $10.00 and I would say I cash out about once per month.

• Crowdtap: Crowdtap is a site where you can complete short, multiple-choice questions to earn points. It pays decently, consistently, and is probably one of my favorites on the list. You can redeem your points for a variety of Gift Cards with a minimum redemption of 1000 points ($5.00).

I know this is a bit of a long post but I hope some of you are able to find it helpful. If anyone has other recommendations for how you earn crypto or money online, I would love to hear them.

Please let me know if you have any questions and happy earning!

Edit: Edited for mobile formatting Edit 2: Added Coinbase and CMC Earn and Staking