How to Make Money With Crypto, and Keep It - The Definitive Guide

So, I’m generally not one to offer ‘making money’ style articles. Especially with my focus on spiritual processes. But crypto is a means to financial empowerment, which is intimately tied to spiritual empowerment, though few will state this succinctly.

It was BTC appreciation in 2015 that helped me quit my job and travel the world, which I have been doing ever since. And the money also went to ‘spiritual’ pursuits in India, Nepal, and Thailand.

So, I can’t pretend to get too dismissive of finance when cryptocurrencies helped me escape from a banking quagmire that many are still stuck in. You can escape and carve out a new life. Crypto will help you to do it.

Part 1 - See the Benefits

So, the following is a list of ways that crypto can help you on the path to financial freedom, which is a worthy pursuit. When you take the time to look it over, it is a clear winner:

1. Taxation - Put bluntly, crypto is a ‘0%’ tax from the perspective that it is outside existing systems. You would be foolish to report something that cannot be tracked, to pay for an architecture that no government agencies contributed to (unless you include their incessant attacks on the ecosystem as a contribution). Provided you are not given a W9, crypto is ghost money. So, get paid in crypto and save yourself a fortune.

2. Income Potential - There is more money in crypto than in most other sectors, even during the current bust cycle. This includes programming, content creation, copyediting, media relations, graphic design, accounting, project launches, TGEs, project management, etc., etc., etc. It pays more than most other industries, and positions are abundant given the Web3 talent gap.

3. Flexibility- The crypto world is flexible, full of digital nomads and remote workers. Generally, nobody cares when/where you work as long as you meet the end deliverables. There is also huge mobility of positions within crypto.

4. Ease Of Payment - Would you like to be paid in BTC, USDC, USDT, MIM, AVAX, XMR, etc? Employers offer lots of payment options. Payment typically takes less than 10 minutes to hit your wallet. It’s also nice getting paid in full. If you earn 700 USDT, you’ll get paid about 699 USDT. There are none of the ‘deductions’ that we are so familiar with in the legacy banking system.

5. Creative Income- Crypto offers many ways to earn an income. NFTs, startups, yield farming, early investment, NFT breeding, moonshot tokens, etc. It’s possible to make a fortune. You can also take the boring option, as I did, and sit on BTC, ETH, XMR, etc.

6. Quantitative Easing - The value of BTC is somewhat proportional to the foolishness of the financial policy creators. In other words, the more they print, the more BTC will rise. So, it doubles as a safe haven in times of political foolishness, as a moonshot coin, and as a form of money for everyday expenditures. Crypto is incredibly versatile.

7. Low Barriers Of Entry - Following the laws of supply and demand, you will find a low threshold of entry within cryptocurrency. It’s hard to get staff in this booming sector. Once recruited, many don’t stay longer than 3/4 months, and poaching is common.

What's wonderful about crypto is that we are perpetually at the start, as it is built on innovation as opposed to stagnation. The opportunities are just going to grow and grow and grow as Web3 takes over and we enter the future of finance.

Other countries are all going to start adopting cryptocurrencies to develop a crypto-friendly world. So, skills developed in cryptocurrency will last a lifetime and will branch off into other talents. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

All of the above points are null and void if you don’t take advantage quickly. This is where Part 2 comes into play.

Part 2 - Your Work Ethic and Money Philosophy

Law of Attraction and mental processes are valid but they need a strong work ethic and a solid financial philosophy to back them up. Ask any crypto executive. Finding and holding on to talent is extremely difficult. Because people, in general, find it quite difficult to stay motivated and to deliver on time.

I technically fall into the employee class, but I have a lot of sympathy for employers given what I’ve seen. Humans are just kind of flakey. There is no such thing as loyalty; when a better financial offer comes in, they abandon their posts at the first opportunity. If you uproot yourself too frequently, it leads to superficial growth and a lack of deep relations.

So, without further ado, my recommendation would be to stop all of the nonsense and actually immerse yourself in the art of making money in crypto for at least 6 - 18 months, learning what you can. These 6 - 18 months will set you up for the rest of your life. And once you learn how to write white papers and get set up with some top journalistic outlets, you’ll make bank (or whatever area you wish to specialize in, mine being writing).

Commit to working and delivering for a period of time. Cryptocurrency is ridiculously flexible, and there are some fantastic people to work with who respect your time and attention. It’s not like corporate work where you are treated as a battery. But you have to get real and put down the initial time.

You might not understand this, but you don’t want to earn money without genuinely earning it. It’s like a poisoned chalice and it will weaken you as a person as you won’t develop character or discipline.

There is a lot of artificiality in the crypto sphere surrounding the perception of immediate, gigantic rewards; which is why I don’t really mention the more specialized options like Yield Farming, DeFi products, or crypto trading bots. These are best left to those experienced and passionate in these specific areas. So:

1. Apply for lots of crypto positions.
2. Take the position and work as much as you can.
3. Save your crypto and build up your experience & portfolio.
4. Take a break every weekend and every 3 months for a vacation.
5. Repeat, but with greater wisdom and insight.

Part 3 - Securing Your Wealth

Now, we arrive at crypto security, the forgotten aspect of modern finance amidst mindless market greed and FOMO. There are an insane number of hacks and scams to avoid. But I wouldn’t worry about them yet. Your biggest enemy, as always, is yourself. You are more likely to lose your wallet keys than you are to fall victim to a scam.

The biggest rule of crypto security is to make two secure copies of your private wallet keys. Just to repeat that; Make Two Secure Copies Of Your Private Wallet Keys. That eliminates about 50% of the potential risk.

You won’t get locked out of your account, like so many others have. I have never heard of a single instance of a criminal finding a set of private wallet keys and hacking a wallet. But the people who misplaced their keys are manifold.

Other than that, download a secure local wallet (I recommend Exodus), and don’t send your wallet to scammers. The vast majority of scams occur when a scammer tells a person to send them funds to a given wallet address.

The person does it and cannot ever retrieve the funds. Typically, the scammers pretend to be customer support for a given site. No Web2 or Web3 company will ever ask you to send funds to a wallet.

The other way to lose money is by investing in scam coins. These are the ‘moonshot’ coins that are rumored to be going to the moon, right before they crash to the earth. What can I say - use your common sense.

Wrapping It Up

I’m sorry if you thought this article was going to be about all the cool ways to leverage your DeFi product, or how to use an OlympusDAO style scheme to multiply your profits by a factor of 10,000. Sure, a number of people get fantastically rich. But it's typically the scam artists! 👩‍🎨

What I can stand by is the idea that turning your existing skill into the field of cryptocurrency will make you a better person and help you to earn sustainable wealth.

You will probably turn a 20 - 50% increase with a more flexible and rewarding lifestyle. Use the money to take some vacations and to invest in crypto for the long term.

Wealth gained quickly, is quickly lost. It can also turn a person quite superficial if they are given something they don’t really deserve.

We all have a unique set of talents to cultivate and a responsibility to contribute these talents to the world at large.

Give meaning to your money, by earning it.