Apprentice Justin – Blockchain Tech, and How To Acquire and Store Cryptocurrency.

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Apprentice Justin series on TheCryptoGarage.com. As promised in my last post, this time I spent learning about different blockchain technology, the various ways to acquire cryptocurrency, and finally how and where to keep it and keep it safe. Let’s jump in.

Mining, Buying, & Earning Cryptocurrency

When it comes to finding ways to acquire crypto you’ll find that there are a few main ways that you can do it. The main ways are Mining, Buying, and Earning. Earning crypto is where things get very varied in terms of ways to earn and we’ll go over them, some in more detail than others.

Mining Cryptocurrency

There are four types of mining that can be done. These are ASCI mining, cloud mining, GPU mining, and CPU mining.

ASIC Mining

ASIC mining involves an investment of time, money, and requires you to learn and master a skill set that in itself requires the mastering of other technical skills to be able to provide maintenance and troubleshooting.

This type of Minning is mostly left up to those with a good budget, who can afford large electric bills and $1,000 units specifically designed for crypto mining.

Cloud Mining

Cloud mining is something relatively new in the cryptocurrency mining arena. It was born from a need to make mining more accessible to everyone and not just an exclusive few who can afford to mine with specifically designed units.

As I just mentioned this is for everyone. All anyone who would like to try out cloud mining has to do is simply download crypto mining software and it will run in the background while you use your PC, utilizing unused resources to quietly earn you cryptocurrency while you go about your normal online routine.

GPU Mining

If you’re a dedicated gamer, GPU mining may be for you. You can use your gaming computer’s graphics processing unit to mine for many different types of cryptocurrency. It works by using its power to solve complex mathematical problems on the blockchain to confirm a transaction.

This is one of the entry-level ways to start mining Bitcoin, Ethureum, and many, many other types of cryptocurrency with the equipment you already have.

CPU Mining

CPU mining is a process that utilizes your computer’s main processor unit to complete complex math problems on the blockchain. It can sometimes require an upgrade in your processor to be able to compete.

Continue reading about Mining Cryptocurrency

Buying Cryptocurrency

There are a million and one websites where you can purchase cryptocurrency, even in your wallet, which I’ll talk about in a moment you are able to buy whatever you like.

I was a bit lost at first and discovered that you really must pay attention to the gas fees when purchasing and transferring to a wallet.

I have not bought any cryptocurrency yet. My focus is on earning. They say you should never invest anything that you can’t afford to lose and I have always followed that method.

Now perhaps sometime in the future, I will be purchasing something and I need to know where to go and how to perform everything. I want to get the most out of my purchase. I mentioned earlier that fees for using blockchain are something to pay very close attention to.

I made the mistake of transferring some earned crypto to metamask from Coinbase learn and earn and now it is stuck there because I’m not going to pay $21 in-network fees for $6 dollars in crypto. I would end up having to transfer ETH to cover the fees anyway and that transaction would incur fees as well.

Make sure you think ahead of where and what you’ll be doing with your crypto so you aren’t transferring it here and there losing money to fees.

After having researched places to buy crypto, I’ve seen many websites and many, many comments and reviews.

I like Coinbase, mainly because I had been introduced to Coinbase by their learn and earn crypto program and while there I had a chance to look around and it seemed like it would be an easy process to purchase crypto with a credit or debit card. They also say that the value you hold in Coinbase is insured.

Continue reading about Buying Cryptocurrency

Earning Cryptocurrency

Delving into the world of earning crypto seems almost endless. There are dozens of ways to use your time and skills to earn various types of cryptocurrency.

The forms I use, which I’ll focus on here are faucets, staking, and using skills I’ve learned throughout my life to create a flow of cryptocurrency that continues while I sleep.

Cryptocurrency Faucets

A cryptocurrency faucet is a website that pays you a small amount of either a set or chosen cryptocurrency for viewing a webpage. The webpage you are visiting is heavy in advertising and will usually have 2 or 3 times (or more) the number of banner ads that you would see on a normal website. This method gives the site owner enough income above what they hand out to each visitor that uses the faucet to make a profit and continue to keep paying these small deposits of cryptocurrency.

These faucets are a good way to collect cryptocurrency. I’ve acquired a few different types and reached withdrawal limits to cash out into my main wallet a number of times.

Another great thing about these faucets is the ability to earn rewards for referring new members. This is where I have had the most success so far with Faucets. The more I write articles introducing new websites to others and include my referral link the more deposits I get from the percentage I earn from those referrals also collecting from the faucet, each time they do it! Each morning I always have new deposits of different types of crypto. It’s a wonderful thing.

Faucets are great but they aren’t going to make a substantial impact on your balance quickly but they are an excellent way to obtain many different coins and tokens without ever spending a dime. For example, in the last three days, I’ve earned and withdrawn almost 300 BTT (Bittorrent) and 200 TRX (Tron) just from doing faucets for a few days. It’s not millions, but it’s more than I had before and I’m happy with that!

Staking Cryptocurrency

This is a new method for me. I wanted to try it but didn’t have anything to use to take part in it. Because of using the faucets mentioned above, I was able to acquire 10 TRX. I did this because in my wallet (something I’ll talk about later) I am able to stake TRX for a reward each day or TRX equal to 4.45%.

Because this is new to me I don’t have tons of my own data to talk about yet but, everything I read says it is one of the best ways to make crypto earn you more crypto in turn creating a passive income.

After having the 10 TRX staked for 24 hours I had earned $0.01 in rewards. I was pretty thrilled with that. That was just 10 TRX, I can see how having 100,000 trx could turn into an income stream that is life-affecting.

TRX is my tryout before I start doing the same thing with anything else I can acquire and stake for passive income earnings.

Continue reading about Staking Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency From Publishing Content

If you can tell, I like to write and produce content in many forms. Because of this, I have a few different websites in different niches such as banner ad design, search engine optimization, and fashion. All of these receive a little bit of traffic and that traffic can be converted to bitcoin and even ethereum simply by placing banner ad code on the web pages.

Each day, I earn around $0.25 in Satoshi just for having them up on the page to be seen by visitors. It is a simple way if you publish content on your own hosted blog or publishing platform to earn more deposits of cryptocurrency. My earnings aren’t high by any means but if you have a lot of visitors each day, it will add up quickly.

Earning crypto with my life skills.

The most profitable use of my time has proven to be using the skills that I’ve learned during my life and providing services such as writing, graphic design, and SEO. There are a great many people that need things completed but don’t have the skills or time to get it done.

This is a fun and rewarding way to put your skills and knowledge to work to earn greater amounts of cryptocurrency than you’ll ever get the faucets.

Finding new clients isn’t hard to do either. There are tons of sites that have member chat rooms and websites that you can publish on. These websites will be able to bring you the traffic needed to get yourself in front of thousands of users per week. Make sure you mention that you are available for hire and accept payment for your services in cryptocurrency.

To give you an example, I joined an airdrop and decided to post an article discussing it. I then published it and also included a link in their telegraph channel. They were so pleased that I now provide writing, graphic design, SEO, and marketing advice along with other various social media tasks. I do this in exchange for their branded cryptocurrency, as well as BNB milestone rewards. That is just one example of how easy it was to find clients to provide services to.

Think about your skills and start writing about what you know. It doesn’t have to be about the topics I write about. Soon you’ll find among your viewers, clients that like your style and want to hire and you’ll soon be adding more cryptocurrency to your wallet.

Continue Reading About Earning Cryptocurrency

Choosing A Cryptocurrency Wallet

Now that I’ve discussed the blockchain and the various ways you can acquire cryptocurrency, we need to discuss where you’re going to keep it. There are several types of cryptocurrency wallets. They all serve different needs and offer varying levels of security. I’ll discuss each one so you can determine which wallet type best fits your needs.

In order to interact with the blockchain and move your crypto to a storage location, you’ll need a wallet. Your wallet will allow you to send/receive cryptocurrency and some offer investment options as I discussed above called “staking”. These are the main types of wallets currently available.

Hot or Cold Crypto Wallet?

The terms hot and cold are referring to the device’s internet connectivity.

A “hot” wallet is going to be a wallet that is held on a device that has an internet connection, thus allowing for the possibility of being compromised by malicious software and hacking attempts.

A “cold” wallet is a wallet that is not connected to the internet and only interacts with the hot wallet to transfer smaller amounts of funds for trading or selling whilst keeping the bulk of an investment in a hacker-proof, offline cold storage. Cold wallets provide the highest level of security.

Web Wallets

A web wallet is exactly how it sounds. This is a wallet that is hosted or self-hosted and is accessed online with a web browser. They are convenient and easy to use but come with downsides such as security risks, and potentially high fees but serve their purpose of letting you buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrency quickly.

Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallets are little devices that resemble a USB stick. They have a few buttons and an OLCD screen and can be connected to a pc. They range in price but cost around $100. Hardware wallets offer great security but can be difficult for beginners.

Mobile Wallets

This type of wallet is pretty similar to the desktop wallet but instead is used on your mobile phone. Something to consider however is that mobile phones are highly prone to malware and security breaches.

Choosing a wallet is really a personal preference. If you like to trade a lot then a web-based wallet may be a good fit. If you want to lock your crypto away where only you know where it is you may want to pursue a cold storage unit hidden away from the internet and hackers.

Continue Reading About Cryptocurrency Wallets

My next learning

Building upon the knowledge so far my next learning is going to look into the following and answer some questions which I am sure that many others are going to have.

I will look at the different use cases for blockchain and crypto, such as the differences between them such for example stable coins and non-stable, what are their purpose and what are they? This will include covering typical use cases such as means of payment, holding or storing of value such as ‘digital gold’ DeFi and NFT’s – but what do these even mean? I’ll look at that and more in detail in the next learning post.

I’m also going to look at how we can use such technology today such as:

• What are smart contracts and dApps?
• How do we use DeFi?
• How do you own an NFT and store it for example
• What is built upon de-centralisation?