Let me start by saying, Bitcoins can't truly be gained for free - if we are technically speaking - but you can certainly get them in a few different ways without investing any real money. Let’s explore this...

The reason I say they "can't be gained for free" is because they have to be granted by someone in return for some work or action even with the free options – true, you aren’t putting in any of your hard earned money, so they aren’t costing you anything, but you still have to do something – so they are costing you time or resources of some sort, which means they aren’t technically free.

The only exception would be if someone literally just decided to give you Bitcoins for some reason - which is like a 1 in a billion chance, unless it’s your parent or another family member – so you're going to have to get them the "old fashioned way" even if you plan to get free bitcoins. This typically means that you're either going to have to work for them, or use “tricks” to obtain them.

This article is going to cover 3 ways to obtain BTC without any money down on your part. Whilst they're certainly not "free" in the truest definition of the word, they will give you access to Bitcoin - or any other cryptocurrency - without the needing to actually buy them. Not only would this allow you to profit from their growth, but also ensures that you are leaving as many options open as possible in regards to how they are able to be used moving forward, and not worrying about losing any sort of monetary investment on your part.

These methods are thrice:

• Mining (yes, it's old, and MUCH more difficult than it used to be, but it works – sort of)

Bitcoin mining is a system which allows users to contribute their computing power to the Bitcoin network (or any other crypto system which supports mining). Now, this isn’t really free because you have to purchase the equipment, pay for the electricity, etc… but you also aren’t directly buying the BTC, so it is “sort of” a way to get free bitcoins. Though, I really would NOT recommend this method in this day and age for Bitcoin, it’s just not worth it anymore. Its glory days have definitely passed by.

• E-Commerce (you've probably not heard of this one exactly)

This is quite an interesting idea. Basically, you sell real products in an ecommerce store and then accept payment for them in Bitcoin (or other "crypto" tokens). You'll then transfer the BTC/cryptocurrency out to your business' account to cover the cost of the goods sold, but will keep the "profit" as crypto. This means that the profit can grow (or drop) with the price of the various crypto “assets” you may have.

• Faucets / Surveys / Giveaways (kinda lame but it works)

Finally, the most common way for people to get "free" money was to fill out surveys. Basically, large companies like Coca Cola or McDonalds want to hear what the market thinks of their brand or product. To do this, they will distribute surveys and pay their respondents $50+ for each completed one. The same idea works in crypto, just with it being mainly digital.

Whilst each of the above methods requires "investment" up front (either in time, materials or connections) - the underlying reason why you may consider them for your business / life is because of their potential to help improve your bitcoin holdings.

The volatility in the cryptocurrency markets - particularly the likes of Bitcoin - has left many opportunities open for millions of traders. However, the issue for many is they have bought into the ecosystem with a specific amount of "fiat" currency. This means they have a "loss" level through which it's going to be difficult for them to make any money.
To this end, if you're able to obtain the coins without any sort of precursor to their lowest price, you're actually in a position to do a lot more than most traders. This is what we're looking at with this article...

How Bitcoin / Crypto Actually Retains Value

So the big misconception with bitcoin, or indeed any other cryptocurrency, is that the various "coins" are actually worth anything. They're not...

The prices you see on the likes of CoinBase and CoinMarketCap are basically the sum of the trading price of different crypto tokens, multiplied by the various tokens that are available for each system. This has no bearing on the underlying economic makeup of the system as a whole.

The reason I am saying this is because most idiots have confused Bitcoin with being a "new economy" or some other type of currency-busting system to try and get people to trade an asset that's tied neither to a government or country. They think that BTC is a valid competitor to USD, and thus the "price" of a Bitcoin could reach levels as high as $100,000.
Whilst there's nothing to suggest its price won't reach those levels, you have to ask yourself WHY. Why would BTC be "worth" $100,000? Does it have some magical property that only it can deliver? Can it cure diseases that afflict millions? Can it bring billions out of poverty?

The answer to these most basic of questions is an emphatic; NO!

Bitcoin is a decentralized payment network - basically the equivalent of Visa / Mastercard without the need for a central processing facility. Its main claim to fame is that it's built using the "blockchain" technology-set, which essentially means that it's able to provide users with peer-to-peer functionality using a global data-set.
Without getting into specifics, the way Bitcoin is able to retain its "value" is based predominantly on how it's able to facilitate transactions with people who perhaps don't have access to banking infrastructure, or if they don't want their financial information available to governments / banks.

The concept becomes more pronounced when considering humanity as a multi-planetary species. If we get to Mars, what are you going to be paying for your galactic-burgers with?

The USD might not be effective there because the US would not have as much influence as it does on Earth. As such, the only way to ensure that users would be able to "trade" with ALL forms of currency (irrespective of their origin) would be through using some sort of digital, decentralized ledger. This is what we're seeing with Bitcoin.

Obviously, getting to Mars is another question entirely. The point is that the technology exists for Bitcoin and has been proven to work even under immense strain as a service.

This means that if you're looking at "investing" into cryptocurrencies - what you're essentially doing is buying the "coins" cheaply, in the hope they will rise in price.

You're seeing many of the early adopters of bitcoin / crypto coming out of the woodwork now, where they may have purchased the coins at $200 - and are now selling them at $10,000+. This is where the profit comes from.

However, if you managed get ahold of a bitcoin for free... or at least for a small amount (either in the form of an electricity bill or some of your time) - imagine how much profit you'd make from selling the coins for the same price.

This is where the lure of the following steps comes from...

Methods Explained In Detail

As mentioned at the start of the article, there are 3 methods which give you the ability to earn free Bitcoins / Cryptocurrency.

Again - the "price" / "value" of these tokens will depend entirely on the market, and this is not some sort of endorsement for crypto as a whole. Whilst a novel idea that's obviously got merit, the current economics do not add up because no assets have been enlisted under the ecosystem.

Say what you want about "fiat" currency - at least there's economic growth behind them all.

With crypto, it's very much about trying to create economic growth out of relatively little in terms of an asset base. Therefore, getting the coins for free is certainly an effective way to ensure this works well.

So, how do you get bitcoins for free?

Let's see...

• Mining

The most common way to earn free Bitcoin is by mining them...

Mining is basically the process of utilizing your computer resources for the Bitcoin network. You run a small software package, it will accept inbound requests from the Bitcoin network, and will calculate the next hashes in the system.

If your system successfully processes a number of transactions (known as a block), you'll be rewarded with a number of Bitcoins as a form of payment (the Bitcoins come from the transaction itself).

The reason this is quite a popular method is because it's necessary for the operation of the BTC network, and thus was encouraged by the early adopters as a way to create adoption on the system. As I explained above, the Bitcoin system's main claim to fame is its ability to operate without any central provider.

This cannot happen in a void; each time a Bitcoin transaction is processed, it has to go through a larger network / system that will essentially take the place of a bank. This is done by utilizing a massive global network of miners who compile any new transactions made on the system into new blockchain blocks.

I won't get into the blockchain stuff (it's too in depth) - the point is that in order to keep BTC (or any other digital currency system running), it requires a network of processing systems. Without this, they cannot work.

To this end, if you want to earn Bitcoins (or other crypto tokens), you may wish to try mining them. However, it's not as simple as plugging your PC into the Internet. That's so 2011. You're basically competing with millions of other processing nodes for the transactions - meaning that you need to be able to process the incoming transactions much faster / more accurately than others.

This has led to an "arms race" in the form of ASIC's, huge mining farms, and the likes of cloud mining - all of which pushed the "hashing" power of BTC through the roof. This means that if you want to get "free" Bitcoins from mining, you're going to have to make a substantive investment in either infrastructure or hashing capacity... neither of which are cheap or easy. If you are going to go this route nowadays, you will almost certainly have to do it with a much lesser known, and newer, altcoin.

• E-Commerce

Next is a little-known method whereby you accept payment for goods through an ECommerce store in Bitcoin...

Obviously, this means you need to have an ecommerce store to begin with... and find customers who are actually going to want to pay you for whatever you sell. If you have neither of these, you'll need to look at how to do this before being able to adopt this method.

If you do have an ecommerce store, you can actually make your money work for you with a very simple "trick". By accepting payment in bitcoin (or other crypto-currencies), you're able to keep some of the money in the digital form.

You should take out any of the cost associated with selling the product by way of a transfer to your wallet, but keep the profit as crypto. This allows you to ride any waves of growth the currency may have.

You can use a service such as BitGo to do this - this allows businesses to accept payments online in the crypto format. By doing this, it gives you a direct way to earn / get free crypto dollars without actually having to rely on their spot prices.

Please remember, though, when looking at this method that crypto prices can go down as well as up, and your staff / products probably cannot be paid for with Bitcoin.

• Faucets / Micro-Earnings

Finally, you have Faucets & Microearnings...

Bitcoin Faucets have taken over where the surveys, click to win, and other “get paid to” sites reigned the past in the world of making money online. Basically, they are sites/apps where people can earn a very small amount of Bitcoin for performing particular tasks (perhaps playing a game, signing up for a free offer, viewing ads, etc).

These do work but require an investment of time before they will actually provide you with any real income or bitcoin holdings.

And that, my friends, is three ways for how to get free bitcoins right now.

For 7 more methods in addition to these 3 ways to get bitcoin - plus more in depth information on them - check out: http://www.gr1innovations.com/how-to-make-money-with-bitcoin.html