How newcomers may use bounties, airdrops and affiliate programs to get their feet wet in crypto. In developing countries, financial rewards are higher due to the exchange rates with the dollar.
Honestly, this is not a get rich quick scheme. But for crypto junkies connected to a laptop or their phones all day, there’s some money to be made in bounty programs and airdrops. The goal: crypto companies will pay you a few dollars (or in their own tokens) for spreading the word about them on social media. In some countries, that’s the plugged-in crypto enthusiast’s perfect side hustle.
Crypto is making a comeback. Months ago, Bitcoin has bottomed out in the $3,000s and now is oscillating around the $10,000 mark. Despite the flame-out in the ICO market, new tokens are still being launched by startups. The playing field is not dead.
Companies like Airdrops.io and Bounty0X are designed to allow even novice cryptocurrency investors a chance to earn new coins or hard currency by completing simple marketing or other tasks. Startups issuing their new coins will usually ask you to set up an account so they can send you their token payments. Bounty participants will have to do their own due diligence as to how easy it is to transfer those coins into dollars, or at least into Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Telegram airdrop
Here’s an example of an airdrop for Telegram users: Cloud computing startup CUDOS is airdropping $7 worth of their tokens to people who join their Telegram community. Chat with their Telegram bot, complete easy social tasks and submit your details to the airdrop form to claim the tokens. They also pay $0.7 worth of CUDOS coins for each referral. The best referrers who have given the company at least 500 real live bodies interested in investing in their cloud computing startup have a chance to get a one-time payout of $2,500.
Not all airdrops and bounties are available in the United States. That’s where platforms like Bounty0X can serve a purpose. Potential bounty hunters can search for programs available at home.
Tokens for posting
Take TeleCoin for example. It’s open to the U.S. You can earn their TELEX tokens for simply posting about their initial exchange offering on LinkedIn.
“Once you get good at it you can do non-public campaigns,” says Diego Santos from Brazil. “I made a lot of connections and fortunately my services often get requested now.” He says he is currently dedicated to some new startups as their official representative in Brazil. “I’ll help them with some translating and taking care of some communities online. Opportunities are still out there. A lot of campaigns are appearing daily at BitCoinTalk. For those jumping in right now, I’d say: welcome to the game and good luck!”
Crypto fans and newcomers to the market, especially those in developing countries, have a chance to make some real money here.
Brazilians are big users of bounty programs. Other countries where this is becoming a nice way to make some crypto cash include Turkey, Colombia, Argentina and South Africa.
For example, a small $100 a month in bounty and other program income is the equivalent to R$400 a month in Brazil. That’s a car payment. And it is roughly 45% of Brazil’s minimum monthly wage!
Bounty types
There are two types of bounty programs that startups use, the pre-offering bounty and the post-offering bounty. The pre- is carried out before the actual launch of the project and is focused on marketing the concept to prospective investors. The post- bounty campaign is aimed at fine-tuning the project (best for techies finding bugs), communication and building the community on social media.
Most airdrops are “bounty” offerings. Airdrops create a win-win scenario because the company gets free marketing, and you get free crypto. Other airdrops will reward you for simply holding a specific coin without expectation of any reciprocal consideration.
The problem with bounties and airdrops is that coins may be hard to sell for BTC or fiat currency. Or might just be outright scams.
Referral programs
That’s where referral programs come in. They do not require any upfront investment to be a part of these programs. All you have to do is open an account on the cryptocurrency exchange offering the affiliate program – there are a number of solid exchanges out there you can trust. They are legitimate companies, not startups, whose exchanges are already in use.
Of the 44 top cryptocurrency exchanges, 26 give out financial awards for referrals and 18 have affiliate programs. Of the two new exchanges launched in 2019 — Currency and VinDAX — both have referral programs. Worth noting, of the 26 exchanges that offer referral awards, 24 of them also have affiliate programs, meaning you can be a money making partner in the growth of that business.
In lower income countries, that partnership comes with a higher financial reward due to the exchange rates with the dollar.
“The exchange affiliate program is really a special offer to partners who have wide distribution channels and can therefore bring in more business, potentially,” says Anti Danilevski, CEO & Founder of Kick Ecosystem. “Otherwise, the exchanges will just use a referral program because they are more universal, open to anyone.”
Exchanges with referral programs offer one-time rewards for certain actions on the platform, and the pay is a percentage of the trading commission collected from a referral transaction. The most popular way to get paid is by commission.
Among the 14 top exchanges, the highest percentage value without fulfilling additional conditions is 30%. The exception is Coinbase, as their affiliate program offers a 50% commission for 90 days.
None of the top 14 referral programs offer a multi-level structure system, that allows your network to grow exponentially with the referral connections going all the way to 10th level. In terms of profitability, a whooping 50% of the exchange’s revenue will be directed to reward KickEx Referral Program participants.
The use of people’s networking
Kick combines best MLM practices in the program. Danilevsky explains:
“I believe what we are creating is a unique feature. Around 15 years ago, my wife-to-be has worked in multilevel marketing and that was how I first encountered the principles of MLM, its pros, cons and challenges. In Cambodia, Vietnam and other Asian countries, rumour mills are essential parts of daily life that helps create huge networks needed for MLM. The product distributed by the company was good and in great demand, especially by the well-to-do. As a result, the people involved in MLM networking could add significantly to the income of their families.
I personally like the MLM principles – they represent decentralized trade in real life and their principles existed long before cryptocurrencies. That helps avoid intermediaries such as shops or distributors, that wind up the prices many times.
One disadvantage of MLM is that it usually requires from participants an “activation purchase”, so to join the team and earn on future clients they refer they need to buy the product themselves. In contrast, our referral program does not feature any required purchases and by doing so provides an opportunity for anyone to earn from referrals. All participants need to do is invite users that will use KickEX exchange. Members of KickRef do not need to know how to trade, what they need is just stay active and build their network, which is doable by anyone”.
Kick Ecosystem is shifting from being mostly an ICO service provider platform to launch an exchange later this year. It will also offer a multi-level referral program to get people on board. The KickEX referral program involves great bonuses for active early birds and big rewards in Kick for inviting people to personal networks. The program may be considered as a mix of airdrop-bounty-referral-multi-level marketing techniques, making it one of the most attractive programs ever.
Danilevsky adds:
“We created KickRef for ourselves and for our other services. As a result, we implemented the constructor for various referral programs. The technology behind it is looking pretty good and we already hold several requests for its use from third-party companies. KickRef is currently migrating to being a B2B solution and we will offer it as a SaaS solution. Most of the Kick Ecosystem products are first developed as B2C solutions and then transformed to B2B solutions, and it had happened with KickRef just a little sooner than we expected”.
Opportunities for the developing countries
The key part of making serious money is referring as many people as you can, with hopes that a few of them will open an account. Commissions are paid in cryptocurrency, with the KickEX Exchange handing out up to $20 in Kick for joining the program. Before the exchange launch the participants have the chance to earn $3,000 or more.
Going back to the Brazil example, $3,000 is over R$12,000. A nice chunk of change.
“For me, I think I will always be a bounty guy,” says Santos, who does a lot of work translating for crypto projects. Some of the companies he did bounties for went out of business in the 2018 ICO market crash.
“I’m always looking for opportunities to get more involved with crypto,” he says. “I’m looking much more to the future (of crypto) than at the present.”
KickICO used crowdfunding to fundraise successfully for over 35 startups, raising 800.000 ETH from around 70,000 investors worldwide.
“We think that bounties, airdrops and affiliate programs are great ways for newcomers to get their feet wet in crypto,” says Anti Danilevski. “This will be our first endeavor in the exchange space and like the other exchanges, we know how rewarding both amateur investors and serious crypto traders creates loyalty to your platform. You get a little bit of money; we hopefully get some new clients and some promotional value as well. That’s what these things are all about. They’re definitely making a nice comeback. It’s why we are investing heavily in the exchange now.”