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Sep

2021

What Is a Paper Wallet? How Paper Wallets Work

By Brian Nibley | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

A paper wallet is just what it sounds like – a crypto wallet made from a piece of paper. It contains a private and public key pair for making crypto transactions. Typically, a key generator program creates the key and prints it on paper in the form of two QR codes and two strings of alphanumeric characters.

A paper wallet is among the oldest kinds of noncustodial, cold crypto wallets, but it is an outdated method that has security flaws.

History of Paper Wallets

In the early days of Bitcoin, paper wallets may have been the most secure form of Bitcoin storage. There was no other mechanism to take coins offline and put them into cold crypto storage.

Still, investors realized that having a safe method of holding onto their crypto was a necessity for crypto investing. Over time, as crypto exchanges, institutional-grade custody solutions, hardware wallets, multi-signature wallets, and other secure forms of storing crypto became more commonplace, crypto paper wallets became less popular.

How Does a Paper Wallet Work?

When created correctly, a paper wallet is immune to hacking. There’s no way to access a piece of paper via the Internet. But certain parts of the process could still make users vulnerable.

The problem is that users have to be very careful when creating paper wallets. The process requires using a computer, and there could be traces of evidence left behind that a sophisticated attacker might be able to access.

How to Keep a Paper Wallet Secure

There are several steps that investors can take to protect their paper wallet. For starters, create the wallet entirely offline, but following these steps:

• Download the wallet generator software to a USB drive

• Plug the USB drive into a new device that has never been connected to the internet

• Create the wallet keys and print them out using a wired connection to a printer

What about when you want to take funds off of a paper wallet and spend them? Things can get a little tricky here, and users who don’t know exactly what they’re doing could lose most or all of their funds.

Taking coins out of a cryptocurrency paper wallet requires either sweeping or importing the private keys into a software wallet. Sweeping keys and importing keys don’t result in the same outcome, however.

Importing Keys

Users who import their crypto private keys, essentially creating a copy of them, could lose funds if they fail to first set up something called a “change output.”

A change output, or change address, is the destination where the remaining funds on a paper wallet will go when a user only spends a portion of the wallet’s balance. If this address hasn’t been set up beforehand, the unspent portion of a paper wallet will disappear forever after the first transaction from that wallet.

For example, if a user has 0.1 BTC on a paper wallet and decides to spend just 0.01 BTC, the remaining 0.09 BTC would automatically go to a change address. If no change address has been established before the transaction, the Bitcoins would simply be lost.

Sweeping Keys

“Sweeping” the private keys from a paper wallet into a software or mobile wallet avoids this problem, as the keys are transferred to a new location in their entirety.

How Do You Use Paper Wallets?

Using a paper wallet doesn’t involve a lot of hassle. Users simply have to:

• Create the wallet addresses

• Print out the paper wallet

• Deposit coins to the public key address

Paper wallets typically include addresses in both QR code and alphanumeric format.

When a user wants to spend the funds stored on a paper wallet, they import or sweep the private key. To do this, a user must install a digital wallet on their desktop or mobile device that allows private keys to be imported (Electrum would be one example).

Crypto exchanges generally do not support this function.

Pros and Cons of Paper Wallets

Paper wallets represent a simple and inexpensive way to put small amounts of crypto into cold storage. But the cons outweigh the pros.

A paper wallet is, of course, made of paper, which means that water, fire, or the family pet could damage or destroy it. This could result in total loss of funds.

Pros of paper wallets	Cons of paper wallets
Inexpensive	Not suitable for holding large amounts of coin
Easy to create	User error can result in total loss of funds
Secure cold storage	If someone gets hold of the wallet, they will have the private keys and can steal the coins
	It can be difficult to bring the funds back online
	Vulnerable to water or fire damage

Alternatives to Paper Wallets

In addition to paper wallets, there are several other, more common types of virtual vaults to store different types of crypto.

Web Wallets

Web wallets are hosted online in a web browser. These wallets can be convenient but are among the least secure types of hot wallets. They can be easily hacked and if something goes wrong with the web browser, the wallet could be lost.

Wallets like these have great utility value in that they are easy to use and can enable users to participate in different crypto applications.

Software Wallets

Software wallets are basically desktop applications that come with a simple graphic user interface for sending and receiving transactions. While somewhat more secure than web wallets, software wallets are generally not considered good options for long-term storage of large amounts of crypto.

Funds held in a software wallet on someone’s personal computer can be vulnerable to hacking, a user could lose their password, or the device could be stolen or damaged.

Hardware wallets

Hardware wallets have been growing in popularity ever since a company called Trezor created the first one back in summer 2014. Later that same year, Ledger also created a hardware wallet. Both companies are still leaders in this space today.

Hardware wallets keep a user’s private keys securely stored offline in cold storage, like paper wallets. The big difference is that a user can easily bring a hardware wallet online and use it to make transactions. Hardware wallets are also much more durable than paper wallets.

Most users will find all of the wallet types listed above much easier to use than paper wallets with Bitcoin.

Exchange Wallets

Some crypto exchanges also have integrated wallets, which allow users to store their crypto on the exchange. Exchange wallets are easy to use, but their security depends on the overall security of the exchange. Ideally, an exchange will offer users the option to use cold storage or multi-signature wallets.

The Takeaway

A Bitcoin paper wallet isn’t recommended in the modern age of hardware wallets and other secure forms of cold storage. Paper wallets with Bitcoin are too vulnerable to human error and other factors to make them risky, especially for investors who want to use them over the long term and HODL their crypto investments.

These types of wallets represent a bygone relic of crypto’s earliest days. Unless someone is on a strict budget with only a small amount of coin to store, it’s hard to justify using a paper wallet to store your private keys.

Photo credit: iStock/Vladimir Sukhachev

Sep

2021

What Is Dogecoin?

By Colin Dodds | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

What is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin (DOGE) is a an altcoin launched in December 2013, possibly as a joke. But cryptocurrency investors consider Dogecoin’s blockchain, derived from Litecoin, as reliable, which is one of the many reasons for the cryptocurrency’s rise to prominence.

The “Doge” in Dogecoin comes from the Flash cartoon “Homestar Runner,” in which Homestar calls another character his “D-O-G-E,” deliberately misspelling the word “dog.” In the early 2010s, a blogger posted a picture of her dog smiling excitedly, which struck a chord on Tumblr and Reddit. Then, a Redittor called the image “Doge, “creating a meme.

» Looking for more guides? Check out our crypto glossary.

How Does Dogecoin Work?

That code for Dogecoin is based on Litecoin, and early versions of the coin incentivized block miners through a randomized reward system. But the coin would soon change to a static-reward system for miners in March 2014. Being based on Litecoin, Dogecoin uses scrypt technology. It’s a proof-of-work coin, which is the reason for its low price and virtually unlimited supply.

That scrypt technology set it apart from other kinds of cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, which uses a different proof-of-work algorithm called SHA-256. While the differences between the two are complicated, the upshot is that Dogecoin’s scrypt allows for an unlimited supply of coins. This makes Dogecoin a so-called “inflationary coin,” whereas Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies are considered deflationary, because there’s a fixed limit to the number of coins miners can create.

Who Created Dogecoin?

Jackson Palmer, an Australian project manager, created Dogecoin, which he originally thought of as a way to make fun of the media frenzy around cryptocurrencies. But he did purchase the dogecoin.com domain. At the same time, Portland, Oregon-based software developer Billy Markus looked up from his desk at IBM, and noticed the social-media attention that Dogecoin was gathering. Together, Palmer and Markus began to write the code that would underlie the first actual Dogecoin.

Two weeks after Palmer and Markus launched Dogecoin in 2013, its value rose by a staggering 300%. In those days, Dogecoin marketed itself as a “fun” version of Bitcoin. Its smiling-dog logo fit the playful atmosphere mood of the crypto community at the time, while its underlying code kept it relatively cheap to buy.

That playfulness showed up in the Dogecoin community’s 2014 donation of 27 million Dogecoins (roughly $30,000 at the time) to bankroll the Jamaican bobsled team’s expenses at the Sochi Winter Olympic games.

What Can Dogecoin Be Used for?

Once you have some Dogecoin, you can put it in a BitPay wallet, and via their partnership with Mastercard, you could put it on a prepaid crypto card, which you can spend anywhere Mastercard is accepted. That means you can use your Dogecoin to buy just about anything.

BitPay has also added Dogecoin support for Apple Wallet, which allows you to store their BitPay Card – and the Dogecoins within it – in your iPhone to make Apple Pay purchases.

How Did Dogecoin Become So Popular?

Born from a Reddit meme, Dogecoin had a ready audience of supporters ready to buy into the cryptocurrency, especially on the WallStreetBets subreddit. But it reached a far wider audience through its celebrity endorsements.

How Many Dogecoins Are There?

There were more than 129 billion Dogecoins in circulation on May 21, 2021, according to CoinMetrics. That made it the highest-circulation cryptocurrency in existence. The closest contender is Stellar (XLM), with 105 billion coins in circulation. By comparison, Bitcoin has just over 18.5 million in circulation.

Dogecoin has no limit as to how many coins miners can create. This is a stark contrast to Bitcoin, which is designed to never exceed 21 million coins in circulation, a level it should reach in the year 2140.

Why Is Dogecoin So Cheap?

Dogecoin is so cheap because there are so many of them, and because so many more are coming into existence, without limit, for the foreseeable future. The founders have decided not to cap the amount of Dogecoins in existence. And the law of supply and demand means that, without scarcity, the coins will remain inexpensive.

But that same low price is also why Dogecoin is so liquid, and can trade so quickly. While the price remains low, it has gone up substantially, increasing 12,000% from January to July, 2021. That’s an incredible return for those who managed to HODL their cryptocurrency through the volatility.

Dogecoin Price Prediction: Will It Reach $1?

Of course, it’s impossible to predict the future, but at present, it is very easy and inexpensive to mint new Dogecoins. As a result, one could reason that it is unlikely to reach $1 per coin until it becomes harder and more expensive to mint new Dogecoins.

Is Dogecoin a Good Investment?

While Dogecoin has gone up in recent years, it’s very hard to predict the future of any form of crypto. But if crypto is a big part of your investment strategy, then Dogecoin could make sense as part of a diversified crypto portfolio. It is a popular currency, and has a unique set of investors behind it.

That said, Dogecoin comes with risks. Critics say that Dogecoin, as a cryptocurrency, doesn’t have many advantages built into its code or its applications. They also point out that beyond the popularity of Dogecoin, there’s not much that differentiates it from a new crypto competitor that could emerge tomorrow next year. But boosters point to Dogecoin’s popularity and growth as the kind of first-mover advantage that new competitors may have trouble matching.

How Can I Buy and Sell Dogecoin?

You can invest in Dogecoin through a crypto exchange, like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, or another platform. After opening an account and funding it, you can use those funds to trade Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies.

The Takeaway

Dogecoin is an altcoin that has gained a significant following, despite its origins as a joke currency. It is just one of many types of cryptocurrencies that crypto investors might consider adding to their portfolio.

If you want to invest in Dogecoin without opening an account on a crypto exchange, you can open an account on the SoFi Invest® brokerage platform. You can use the app to purchase stocks and exchange-traded funds as well as to build a crypto portfolio.

Photo credit: iStock/Irina Vaneeva

Aug

2021

How to Start a Cryptocurrency: Can Anyone Create a New Coin?

By Brian Nibley | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

Despite ongoing crypto volatility, there’s nothing to stop people from launching new crypto projects. In fact, anyone could start a cryptocurrency, but not everyone has the knowledge or resources necessary to take on the task.

Even after someone manages to create a new type of crypto, one that offers new features or aims to solve existing problems, there is still work to do in terms of promotion, listing on exchanges, never mind ongoing maintenance and upgrades.

Table of Contents

Understanding Coins vs Tokens
Ways to Create a Cryptocurrency
How to Make a Cryptocurrency in 7 Steps

Understanding Coins vs Tokens

Before getting started, however, it’s important to know the difference between a token and a coin. Both fall under the blanket term of “cryptocurrency,” but while a coin like Bitcoin or Litecoin exists on its own blockchain, a token like Basic Attention Token, functions within an established blockchain technology infrastructure like Ethereum. Tokens also do not have uses or value outside of a specific community or organization.

Cryptocurrencies function like fiat currencies, without the centralized bank. Users typically hope to use their coins to store, build, or transfer wealth.

Meanwhile, tokens usually represent some kind of contract or have specific utility value for a blockchain application. Basic Attention Token for example, rewards content creators through the Brave browser. Tokens can also serve as a contract for or digital version of something, such as event tickets or loyalty points.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represent a unique piece of digital property, like artwork. And DeFi tokens serve many different purposes in that space.

Ways to Create a Cryptocurrency

There are three primary ways to create a cryptocurrency, none of which is fast or easy. Here’s how each of them works:

Create a New Blockchain

Creating a new blockchain from scratch takes substantial coding skills and is, by far, the most difficult way to create a cryptocurrency. There are online courses that help walk you through the process, but they assume a certain level of knowledge. Even with the necessary skills, you might not walk away from these tutorials with everything you need to create a new blockchain.

Fork an Existing Blockchain

Forking an existing blockchain might be a lot quicker and less complicated than creating one from scratch. This would involve taking the open source code found on GitHub, altering it, then launching a new chain with a different name and a new type of crypto. The developers of Litecoin, for example, created it by forking from Bitcoin.

Developers have since forked several coins from Litecoin, including Garlicoin and Litecoin Cash. This process still requires the creator to understand how to modify the existing code.

Use an Existing Platform

The third and easiest option for those unfamiliar with coding is making a new cryptocurrency or token on an existing platform like Ethereum. Many new projects create tokens on the Ethereum network using the ERC-20 standard, for example.

If you’re not familiar with writing code, you might consider a creation service that does the technical work and then hands you a finished product.

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How to Make a Cryptocurrency: 7 Steps

After considering everything above, you can start taking the steps to build the cryptocurrency. Some of these steps will be less relevant when paying a third-party to create the new coin. Even then, anyone undertaking the task should be familiar with these aspects of how to create a cryptocurrency.

1. Decide on a Consensus Mechanism

A consensus mechanism is the protocol that determines whether or not the network will consider a particular transaction. All the nodes have to confirm a transaction for it to go through. This is also known as “achieving consensus.” You will need a mechanism to determine how the nodes will go about doing this.

The first consensus mechanism was Bitcoin’s proof-of-work. Proof-of-Stake is another popular consensus mechanism. There are many others as well.

2. Choose a Blockchain

This goes back to the three methods mentioned earlier. A coin or token needs a place to live, and deciding in which blockchain environment the coin will exist is a crucial step. The choice will depend on your level of technical skill, your comfort level, and your project goals.

3. Create the Nodes

Nodes are the backbone of any distributed ledger technology (DLT), including blockchains. As a cryptocurrency creator, you must determine how your nodes will function. Do they want the blockchain to be permissioned or permission less? What would the hardware details look like? How will hosting work?

4. Build the Blockchain Architecture

Before launching the coin, developers should be 100% certain about all the functionality of the blockchain and the design of its nodes. Once the mainnet has launched, there’s no going back, and many things cannot be changed. That’s why it’s common practice to test things out on a testnet beforehand. This could include simple things like the cryptocurrency’s address format as well as more complex things like integrating the inter-blockchain communication (IBC) protocol to allow the blockchain to communicate with other blockchains.

5. Integrate APIs

Not all platforms provide application programming interfaces (APIs). Making sure that a newly created cryptocurrency has APIs could help make it stand out and increase adoption. There are also some third-party blockchain API providers who can help with this step.

6. Design the Interface

There’s little point in creating a cryptocurrency if people find it too difficult to use. The web servers and file transfer protocol (FTP) servers should be up-to-date and the programming on both the front and backends should be done with future developer updates in mind.

7. Make the Cryptocurrency Legal

Failing to consider this last step led to trouble for many who initiated or promoted ICOs back in 2017 and 2018. At that time, cryptocurrency was in a kind of legal grey area, and they may not have realized that creating or promoting new coins could result in fines or criminal charges depending on the circumstances.

Before launching a new coin, it a good idea to research the laws and regulations surrounding securities offerings and related topics. Given the complexity of the issues and their regular updates, you might consider hiring a lawyer with expertise in the area to help guide you through this step.

The Takeaway

This is only the beginning of what someone needs to know about how to create a cryptocurrency. In addition to the technical aspects, creators of a new coin or token will have to figure out how their cryptocurrency can provide value to others, how to persuade them to buy in, and how the network will be maintained. Doing so often involves many costs like hiring a development team, a marketing team, and other people who will help keep things going and perform needed upgrades.

Creating a cryptocurrency can take a lot of time and money, and there’s a high risk that it will not succeed. There are more than 5,000 different types of cryptocurrencies listed on public exchanges according to data from Coinmarketcap, and thousands more that have failed over the years.

Simply participating in cryptocurrency trading might be a better route for those who don’t have the time, money, or interest in creating their own. A great way to do that is by opening an investment account on the SoFi Invest brokerage platform, which makes it easy to trade crypto, stocks, and exchange-traded funds.

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Photo credit: iStock/MF3d

Terms and conditions apply. Earn a bonus (as described below) when you open a new SoFi Digital Assets LLC account and buy at least $50 worth of any cryptocurrency within 7 days. The offer only applies to new crypto accounts, is limited to one per person, and expires on December 31, 2023. Once conditions are met and the account is opened, you will receive your bonus within 7 days. SoFi reserves the right to change or terminate the offer at any time without notice.

First Trade Amount		Bonus Payout
Low	High	Bonus Payout
$50	$99.99	$10
$100	$499.99	$15
$500	$4,999.99	$50
$5,000+		$100

Aug

2021

Everything You Need to Know About GRT (The Graph)

By Samuel Becker | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

GRT, or “the Graph” is a relatively new kid on the block when it comes to cryptocurrency. And like some other cryptos, it’s not merely a digital currency—there’s a little more to it than that.

Read on to learn what “the Graph” is, GRTs role, how to buy it, and whether it’s a good investment.

What Is GRT?

The Graph Network, also known as “the Graph” allows users to build APIs, known as subgraphs, to allow applications to talk to each other, and it also makes querying networks fast and secure. While it may require a further deep-dive to really understand the ins and outs of APIs and querying, we’ll save that for another time.

In technical terms, the Graph is a decentralized query protocol built for use with blockchains. More specifically, it works with Ethereum and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to make it easy for users to build and publish APIs, or application program interfaces. Applications built on the Graph do not need a centralized server.

Users also use the Graph to query specific networks (again, like Ethereum or IPFS) to collect data without a third party.

GRT is an ethereum token that runs on the Graph Network. GRT is central to the Graph’s economy. Users swap it to keep things running.

History of the Graph (GRT) Crypto

The Graph Network and its token, GRT, are a very new type of cryptocurrency. As of spring 2021, GRT has been on the crypto markets for less than a year.

The team behind the Graph Network includes a slew of industry veterans, and the founding team consists of Yaniv Tal, Brandon Ramirez, and Jannis Pohlmann. They started working on the Graph back in 2017, finally seeing the project come to fruition a few years later.

In October 2020, The Graph Foundation sold roughly $12 million worth of GRT during its initial public sale, comprising 400 million tokens. The Graph protocol launched in December 2020, giving GRT utility.

Some traders or investors have not yet heard about GRT because it’s still very new to the market, but it has gained ground with larger investors. Ten holders control more than half of GRT’s supply.

How Does GRT Work?

In effect, the Graph Network works as an intermediary between blockchains and decentralized applications—it helps the two communicate in a secure and efficient way using a query language called GraphQL. The Network comprises users who need queries to be processed, and who are willing to pay for it. As such, there are indexers, curators, and delegators who make it all happen on the back end.

Some of these users act as GRT stakers, supporting the others, who run nodes and process those queries. To run nodes, however, users must hold a certain stake of GRT token—which is where the token comes into the mix.

GRT allocates resources within the Graph Network, and acts as an incentive for users within the network to keep the Network up and running. That can mean processing queries, improving APIs, etc.

Effectively, the Graph Network is similar to networks like Ethereum in which users use the network for their own purposes, and use GRT tokens to facilitate transactions on the network. GRT also has value outside of the Graph’s ecosystem, although not much utility. It’s the utility on the network that gives it value, and why crypto traders and investors may want to add it to their wallets.

Subgraphs

Users can create open APIs, known as subgraphs, to index and store data pulled from the Ethereum blockchain, like Google indexes data from the Internet. Developers query via GraphQL to build on blockchain with these subgraphs.

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GRT Price

Having been in existence on the market for only a handful of months, as of spring 2021, GRT’s price history is short, but fairly volatile.

GRT hit crypto exchanges back in December 2020, as you’ll recall, and its value soon shot up to around $0.70. When many other cryptos started to see values start to skyrocket in February 2021, GRT’s followed suit—although not quite to the lofty heights as some of its crypto cousins.

GRT prices hit their all-time peak (so far) in mid-February 2021, reaching more than $2.70 per token. Since then, prices have slowly declined, and as of July 2021, are hovering around $0.66 per token. So, in a matter of months, GRT’s value has nearly quadrupled, and then fallen by more than 75%.

Recommended: Crypto Bear Markets: What Are They?

Investing in GRT: Benefits and Disadvantages

For investors and traders, GRT won’t have much utility outside of the Graph Network’s ecosystem. Like many other cryptocurrencies, it’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to find a business willing to accept GRT in exchange for goods or services. But you can always trade your GRT for US dollars if need be, via an exchange.

Benefits of GRT

For investors or traders, GRT is yet another cryptocurrency that can help diversify a crypto portfolio. GRT’s value is currently down, but there is potential for it to go up in the future, depending on adoption of the Graph Network in the future. But that may require investors to HODL for some time.

Drawbacks of GRT

GRT is a cryptocurrency, which means it comes with a slew of risks. Cryptos are incredibly volatile (as is easy to see with GRT’s price history), and risk-averse investors may have trouble handling daily or weekly price fluctuations. Additionally, there is always the potential that the government could institute or change crypto regulations and rules, which could throw the crypto market into flux.

How to Trade GRT Cryptocurrency

Seasoned crypto traders: You know the drill when it comes to buying GRT or other cryptocurrencies. For newbies, it’s time to go over some investing in crypto basics:

Step 1: Choose an exchange and fund your account

If you want to trade cryptos like GRT, you’ll need to do so on an exchange—it’s pretty much the same thing as choosing a broker to buy stocks. Pick one, fund your account, and get yourself a crypto wallet (if one isn’t offered by the exchange) to store your holdings.

Step 2: Make the trade

Log in to your crypto exchange, and look up GRT—of course, you’ll want to make sure your chosen exchange offers GRT on its platform, first. Assuming it does, the process should be as simple as looking up GRT, deciding how much you want to buy, and executing the trade.

Step 3: Transfer your holdings

With your trade executed and GRT listed among your account holdings, you may want to transfer your tokens to your crypto wallet. Do some research into different types of wallets, and see which is right for you depending on how long you plan to hold onto your GRT.

The Takeaway

GRT is a relatively new ethereum token that powers the Graph, a decentralized protocol that indexes and queries blockchains. Users can build subgraphs, known as APIs, that can collect data without a third-party.

Photo credit: iStock/Eva-Katalin

First Trade Amount		Bonus Payout
Low	High	Bonus Payout
$50	$99.99	$10
$100	$499.99	$15
$500	$4,999.99	$50
$5,000+		$100

SOIN0521213

Aug

2021

8 Ways to Make Money With Cryptocurrency

By Samuel Becker | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

With the rise of Bitcoin over the past decade, and new alternatives like Ethereum and Litecoin springing up in recent years, cryptocurrency, as a whole, has become an investment category that more are considering. If you’re new to the asset class, however, you may be wondering just how to make money with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

There are numerous ways to potentially make money with cryptocurrency. Read on for some suggestions on how to make money with cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Bitcoin.

Ways to Make Money in Crypto

1. Investing in Cryptocurrency

Investing is, perhaps, the most obvious and common way that some people are making money with cryptocurrency.

The idea here is simple, though: Investors buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. with a traditional account or a Bitcoin IRA. Then, they let it accrue value over time, with the goal of selling it for more than they purchased it. That is, this really only works under the assumption that cryptocurrencies will continue to see their values increase.

However, cryptocurrencies are a risky and volatile investment, so it’s important for investors to consider that before undertaking this strategy. In general, crypto investors may want to make sure that their crypto holdings are just one part of a diversified portfolio that includes other types of investments.

2. Day Trading Cryptocurrency

One could make the argument that trading and investing are the same thing. But they’re often differentiated, to a degree, by time horizons—traders are looking to make a relatively quick profit, while investors may only make a handful of changes to their portfolios per year.

Nonetheless, day trading can be another way to make money with cryptocurrency, just like it is with stocks or other securities. Day traders buy and sell assets within the same day, in order to try and score a quick profit. This is a risky strategy, since it’s hard to know how cryptocurrency values could change in any given day or over time. It should be noted that day trading is an extremely risky activity, and most day traders tend lose money. As with any investing strategy, it is smart to consult with an advisor, and only ever trade with extra money you don’t need to cover your lifestyle costs.

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3. Stake Your Crypto

The process of crypto staking is similar to locking your assets up in the bank and earning interest—similar to a certificate of deposit (CD). You “lock up” your crypto holdings in exchange for rewards or interest from the platform on which you’ve staked the assets.

4. Mining

Crypto miners use any available processing power to solve complex equations, producing the next block in a blockchain, and earning new coins or tokens as a reward. If you don’t have the computing power to become a Bitcoin miner on your own, you may be able to join a Bitcoin mining pool—in which numerous miners “pool” their resources—to mine Bitcoin.

Recommended: How Bitcoin Mining Works

5. Earn Crypto Dividends

Another way to make money with your crypto assets is to earn dividends. If you’re at all familiar with trading stocks or bonds, you’re probably at least somewhat familiar with dividends. In short, dividends are small cash payouts to shareholders. If a company turns a profit during a quarter (or year, it depends on the individual company), it’ll chop those profits up and return them to the company’s ownership (shareholders!).

While it’s unlikely you’ll see a huge proverbial tidal wave of dividends hit your crypto account without a huge balance, it can be a way to make money with cryptocurrency that you already have. That said, you’ll need to do some research to see which cryptos indeed pay dividends, and if the dividends they do pay are enough to make it worth it to you.

Some cryptocurrencies that do shell out dividends in the form of more coins (or tokens) include VeChain, NEO, Reddcoin, NAVCoin, Decred, and Komodo—and their annual dividends vary wildly. So, crypto dividends differ from stock dividends in that they’re not paying out cash, but rather, additional tokens.

6. Earn Dividends on Crypto-focused Funds

There is another way to earn crypto dividends, however, and it involves investing in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in the technology or platforms powering cryptocurrency. (To date, the Securities and Exchange Commission has not approved any ETFs that invest directly in cryptocurrency.)

While investing in crypto-related funds is not technically making money with cryptocurrency directly, it does allow you to generate passive income from the crypto and blockchain markets.

7. Crypto Lending

A final way to make some additional coin from your crypto investing activities is to get into cryptocurrency lending. Crypto lending basically involves a borrower and a lender, and an agreement between the two. There are several platforms that facilitate crypto lending, including Nexo, SALT lending, Oasis, and Celsius.

More specifically, cryptocurrency loans involve a borrower who offers their own crypto holdings as collateral, a lender who accepts the terms and offers either cash or another cryptocurrency, and an agreement that the borrower will pay the lender interest.

Generally, the lender and the borrower in a crypto lending agreement are both individuals, not institutions like banks. The key point is that a cryptocurrency is the focal point of the loan, either being used as collateral, or as the primary source of value that’s being borrowed.

So, for lenders, it’s possible to lend out crypto assets or holdings, and in turn, generate returns via interest payments in the form of additional crypto assets. This isn’t without its risks, of course, and it may take some time to research platforms that connect potential borrowers and lenders together. But again, if you’re looking for ways to put your cryptocurrency to work and earn you some additional money, lending it out is one possible avenue worthy of exploration.

8. Work for a Cryptocurrency Company

As crypto has expanded into the mainstream consciousness, so has the opportunity to work in the crypto industry. You could work for any of the hundreds of cryptocurrencies themselves, or for other companies or industries looking to take advantage of the crypto boom. In addition to developers, crypto companies need to hire for all the other roles of a growing business, including marketing, human resources, and cyber security.

The Takeaway

There are several ways to put crypto holdings to work to earn returns and additional money. All have their risks and potential rewards, but for enterprising crypto investors, there can be more to a return-boosting tactics than simply a “crypto HODL” strategy, or starting up a Bitcoin IRA.

Photo credit: iStock/filadendron

SoFi Invest®
INVESTMENTS ARE NOT FDIC INSURED • ARE NOT BANK GUARANTEED • MAY LOSE VALUE
SoFi Invest encompasses two distinct companies, with various products and services offered to investors as described below: Individual customer accounts may be subject to the terms applicable to one or more of these platforms.
1) Automated Investing and advisory services are provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser (“SoFi Wealth“). Brokerage services are provided to SoFi Wealth LLC by SoFi Securities LLC.
2) Active Investing and brokerage services are provided by SoFi Securities LLC, Member FINRA (www.finra.org)/SIPC(www.sipc.org). Clearing and custody of all securities are provided by APEX Clearing Corporation.
For additional disclosures related to the SoFi Invest platforms described above please visit SoFi.com/legal.
Neither the Investment Advisor Representatives of SoFi Wealth, nor the Registered Representatives of SoFi Securities are compensated for the sale of any product or service sold through any SoFi Invest platform.

Crypto: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t endorsed or guaranteed by any government, are volatile, and involve a high degree of risk. Consumer protection and securities laws don’t regulate cryptocurrencies to the same degree as traditional brokerage and investment products. Research and knowledge are essential prerequisites before engaging with any cryptocurrency. US regulators, including FINRA , the SEC , and the CFPB , have issued public advisories concerning digital asset risk. Cryptocurrency purchases should not be made with funds drawn from financial products including student loans, personal loans, mortgage refinancing, savings, retirement funds or traditional investments. Limitations apply to trading certain crypto assets and may not be available to residents of all states.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): Investors should carefully consider the information contained in the prospectus, which contains the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other relevant information. You may obtain a prospectus from the Fund company’s website or by email customer service at [email protected]. Please read the prospectus carefully prior to investing.
Shares of ETFs must be bought and sold at market price, which can vary significantly from the Fund’s net asset value (NAV). Investment returns are subject to market volatility and shares may be worth more or less their original value when redeemed. The diversification of an ETF will not protect against loss. An ETF may not achieve its stated investment objective. Rebalancing and other activities within the fund may be subject to tax consequences.

External Websites: The information and analysis provided through hyperlinks to third-party websites, while believed to be accurate, cannot be guaranteed by SoFi. Links are provided for informational purposes and should not be viewed as an endorsement.

²Terms and conditions apply. Earn a bonus (as described below) when you open a new SoFi Digital Assets LLC account and buy at least $50 worth of any cryptocurrency within 7 days. The offer only applies to new crypto accounts, is limited to one per person, and expires on December 31, 2023. Once conditions are met and the account is opened, you will receive your bonus within 7 days. SoFi reserves the right to change or terminate the offer at any time without notice.

First Trade Amount		Bonus Payout
Low	High	Bonus Payout
$50	$99.99	$10
$100	$499.99	$15
$500	$4,999.99	$50
$5,000+		$100

SOIN0621266

What Is a Paper Wallet? How Paper Wallets Work

History of Paper Wallets

How Does a Paper Wallet Work?

How to Keep a Paper Wallet Secure

Importing Keys

Sweeping Keys

How Do You Use Paper Wallets?

Pros and Cons of Paper Wallets

Alternatives to Paper Wallets

Web Wallets

Software Wallets

Hardware wallets

Exchange Wallets

The Takeaway

What Is Dogecoin?

What is Dogecoin?

How Does Dogecoin Work?

Who Created Dogecoin?

What Can Dogecoin Be Used for?

How Did Dogecoin Become So Popular?

How Many Dogecoins Are There?

Why Is Dogecoin So Cheap?

Dogecoin Price Prediction: Will It Reach $1?

Is Dogecoin a Good Investment?

How Can I Buy and Sell Dogecoin?

The Takeaway

How to Start a Cryptocurrency: Can Anyone Create a New Coin?

Understanding Coins vs Tokens

Ways to Create a Cryptocurrency

Create a New Blockchain

Fork an Existing Blockchain

Use an Existing Platform

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6. Design the Interface

7. Make the Cryptocurrency Legal

The Takeaway

Everything You Need to Know About GRT (The Graph)

What Is GRT?

History of the Graph (GRT) Crypto

How Does GRT Work?

Subgraphs

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GRT Price

Investing in GRT: Benefits and Disadvantages

Benefits of GRT

Drawbacks of GRT

How to Trade GRT Cryptocurrency

Step 1: Choose an exchange and fund your account

Step 2: Make the trade

Step 3: Transfer your holdings

The Takeaway

8 Ways to Make Money With Cryptocurrency

Ways to Make Money in Crypto

1. Investing in Cryptocurrency

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3. Stake Your Crypto

4. Mining

5. Earn Crypto Dividends

6. Earn Dividends on Crypto-focused Funds

7. Crypto Lending

8. Work for a Cryptocurrency Company

The Takeaway

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