I use to crypto mine at home, but no more. Currently I crypto mine through crypto yield farming.
How I Started Mining Crypto Currency.
As I posted earlier, I learned about bitcoin through discussions at my Don’t Scout Troop. I was chatting with the Scouts about cryptocurrency after a discussion about Minecraft mining. It was purely accidental but lead to some exciting times.
I learned that Cryptocurrency was a digital currency that had some legitimacy. Now I was a crypto-newb, so I was taking suggestions from teens, fueled by my ability to engage with my son, and decided to learn more. As I learned about Bitcoin, what I initially focused on, I was intrigued by how bitcoin is an actual currency to pay for products and services.
Further intrigued by mining at home, my Son and I build a Raspberry-pi based Crypto Mining Rig. ( How I Crypto Mined At Home). It was an experiment that came and went, and the only actual lasting value was from the memories. My Son and I are working on something together and sharing the experiences with his peers. I will not deny the idea that getting rich with crypto mining didn’t cross our minds. 😀
Just because we abandoned the mining at the home idea and repurposed it, our crypto mining rig didn’t have to leave cryptocurrency as a means of investment. I saw a place in our (retirement) portfolio for crypto.
I am not a financial expert, and what I do is learn through experimentation. So please read my story for inspiration on creating your own crypto Passive Income Generator(PIG), but understand this is not financial advice. I am not selling you any securities or services, just telling you how I am profiting off BlockFi services. You must do your due diligence since all investments have risks.
Short Version Of My Earning Crypto At Home Plan.
If you want the short version, I deposit money into free services that pay higher than expected(based on bank savings rates) returns and direct those returns into purchasing other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin is my crypto coin of choice.
I am old-school. Till recently, I was focused only on retirement by using only growth stocks. Plus very highly diversified with my choices. It smells like an S&P500 index nut, right? Yes. I was. With the events of 2020 and continuing now, I see more value in focused diversification. I’ll talk stocks later, but now only about crypto.
Side Story: How I Understand About Making Cryptocurrency For Free.
When I was in another country, I bought a couple of beers. I ran out of the local currency. It was getting late and didn’t get time to convert my money into the local currency. When I was paid with American dollars and waited for my change, I saw the cashier pull out the whole money draw and put it on the counter. The cashier asked me how much I wanted? I was confused, perplexed by his actions and question.
The cashier explained how he saw I had additional American dollars and wanted to make a deal. It was the end of the day, and the cashier didn’t want to hold on to his local currency since the value of the local currency lost value every minute. He wanted to store his surplus overnight money as a more stable currency, American dollars, and convert back into his local currency tomorrow to operate his store. I was intrigued by this and understood his concerns for his and his family’s savings.
I was only going to be in this country a couple of days, and he had to live his life there his whole life, so exchanging US dollars for local currency early wasn’t a big deal for me. I overpaid for my beers and got a bunch of change for the rest of my stay there in return(wink, wink).
This was my first exposure to this process of temporarily converting depreciating local currency into a more stable currency. This process makes sense now, but then I was an American that only saw low inflation rates, so I didn’t know the importance of the process entirely.
Fast forward to the twenty-first century. Specifically 2020…
Large Companies Store Assets In Crypto Too?
That story sounds weird, but it has a basis here. Our currency is only worth the image of the stability our government has. Deep breath, I too almost panicked when I understood this. However, many other governments are in far worse situations, leading to their local currency losing measurable value every day.
So people will try to convert into actual money(gold, silver, etc.), but holding physical assets is risky—robbery, laws against gold ownership, etc. So many people realized crypto is the way to go. Not money, but another form of ‘stable’ currency. Yes, I will allow you to laugh at that last statement. If done now, different types of crypto are more stable than others. So if you can convert your local currency into a ‘stable’ currency, you can preserve your buying power with any savings you have.
This works! Or at least it works well enough. Many large companies(Even US-based) buy, hold, borrow, and stockpile cryptocurrency to avoid fluctuations in country-based currencies. Remember this, the borrow part.
So if you can lend cryptocurrency, you can get paid back in with the collateral and interest. Due to the fluctuations of crypto, the interest rates are high, but people/corporations are willing to pay for it where a service like BlockFi comes in.
My Understand Of BlockFi Methods, Please Correct If I Am Wrong.
BlockFi doesn’t have access to massively printed money like our typical US banks. So BlockFi relies on investors turning over their cash to them, investing, you can say. That cash is converted to a cash/commodity-based cryptocurrency, referred to as “stable-coin.” Standard crypto is based on buyers, sellers, and availability. Stable-coin is based on its underlying asset.
The stable-coin is used to lend out to borrowers at a specific interest rate. That interest rate is higher than I get as an ‘investor,’ and BlockFi keeps the rest. I am making 7.5%(annually) of my money. Yes, it’s August 2021, which is the rate I am receiving on my invested capital. Rates can change, but I feel my money is doing better under this system than sitting in a bank savings account earning nothing. Read on, please.
Now How I Actually Earn Free Bitcoin.
BlockFi pays every month based on your current balance in whatever crypto you have. What I am doing…
I invested a few thousand into BlockFi, which converted my US Dollars into Gemini USD, a stable-coin, a cryptocurrency based on the US dollar. Now that the original investment sits there and earns interest, I have a setting to convert all interest payments into more bitcoin purchases.
For math, let’s work out a scenario of just using $500; I trust BlockFi’s system well enough; I have more than this, but for this exercise, I will use $500.
This Example: BITCOIN VALUATION WARNING!
Now Gemini is 1:1 with the US dollar, so it doesn’t fluctuate, but Bitcoin does base on market influences. For easy math and understanding, I will not calculate the actual amount in bitcoin, or calculate for the changes in the value of bitcoin, just how much interest each account contributes in returns. So the bitcoin values can be higher or lower base on market conditions. Let’s keep this example easy for now, so also using simple math.
This BlockFi Bitcoin Example Assumptions/Rules:
- I started earning returns on $500 US dollars invested at begging of the month.
- Based on August 2021 rates, Gemini USD is making 7.5% annually.
- Based on August 2021 rates, Bitcoin is making 4% annually.
Start of 1st Month with BlockFi.
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Start of 2nd Month with BlockFi
(paid $3.13 interest from Gemini balance as Bitcoin)
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Current Value: $3.13 worth of Bitcoin.
Start of 3rd Month with BlockFi
(paid $3.13 interest from Gemini balance as Bitcoin)
(paid $ 0.01 interest from Bitcoin balance as Bitcoin)
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Current Value: $3.27 worth of Bitcoin.
Start of 4th Month with BlockFi
(paid $3.13 interest from Gemini balance as Bitcoin)
(paid $ 0.01 interest from Bitcoin balance as Bitcoin)
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Current Value: $6.41 worth of Bitcoin.
Start of 5th Month with BlockFi
(paid $3.13 interest from Gemini balance as Bitcoin)
(paid $ 0.02 interest from Bitcoin balance as Bitcoin)
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Current Value: $9.56 worth of Bitcoin.
Start of 6th Month with BlockFi
(paid $3.13 interest from Gemini balance as Bitcoin)
(paid $ 0.03 interest from Bitcoin balance as Bitcoin)
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Current Value: $12.72 worth of Bitcoin.
Finally, the start of the 7th Month(6 months of growth)
(paid $3.13 interest from Gemini balance as Bitcoin)
(paid $ 0.04 interest from Bitcoin balance as Bitcoin)
Current Value: $500 worth of Gemini USD
Current Value: $15.89 worth of Bitcoin.
Now I can go on and on, but you get the point. The Gemini USD continues to generate 7.5% interest annually, feeding into your balance of Bitcoin, and the Bitcoin balance generates 4% annually, feeding into itself.
BlockFi is one of my favorite types of Passive Income Generator(P.I.G.); it’s on autopilot and continues to grow without my interference. It’s how I can earn bitcoin for free—no out-of-pocket expenses. I earn crypto without mining, without worrying about hardware or software issues.
A couple of things that need to be addressed.
h3-Did I Earn Free Bitcoin Without It Costing Me Money?
I use this method to generate bitcoin only with money; I would have just left a bank savings account. So did I lose bank savings account interest to earn this bitcoin? No. My bank offers no-interest payments for balances < $1,000. So my example using $500 would have earned nothing.
So if you do the math, the $500 left in a savings account would still be only $500 at the end of 6 months. While, $500 left in BlockFi, and directing all interest payments to Bitcoin left me with almost $16 in Bitcoin.
Could My Example Bitcoin Be Worth More In The Future?
Now I could not track the valuation of bitcoin due to market fluctuations, but I believe if you are reading this, you know the value moves up and up. So the dollar amount of Bitcoin in my example could be double or triple; who knows. Bitcoin could also be worth nothing, but even with this incredible value, your money would be worth the same as leaving it hopelessly in a savings account.
This is why I use BlockFi for money I don’t have earmarked for a bill and was going to sit in a savings account till so. It’s hopeful.
Can BlockFi Change The Interest Rates?
Yes, BlockFi has changed interest rates. They lowered only a few months ago, and this kind of angered me. I was outraged and kept thinking about pulling my money out completely. Which I did, a free withdrawal of each crypto class per month is allowed. So it cost me no money, but then after I looked at what the bank was giving me in return, I redeposited money into my BlockFi.
Is This The Best Way To Mine Crypto Without A Miner?
So far for me, yes.
My Crypto Mining experiment(My Mining Rig Post: How I Crypto Mined At Home(Winning!)) cost money and time to set up. Also, I know it was using a but-ton of electricity. I had to put a fan on it since the AntMiners were hot to the touch. The AntMiners I used had passive heat sinks.

So crypto mining costs money. BlockFi, for now, is making me crypto, Bitcoin in this case, without it costing me money. I am living the dream; I am earning crypto for free!
Now, If You Too Are Interested In Earning Cryptocurrency For Free…
Hey, I Am Intrigued By Cryptocurrency. I am still a stock guy, but I like to diversify and gain more upside to my investments. If you have a way to better earn crypto for free or a way to multiply my crypto returns, please leave a comment below.
Good luck!
![]() Myself with an interesting Bull Sculpture. Notice: No Lambo’s. :/ | Hi I’m Tom, A Blogger And A PIG Farmer. PIG Farmer as in I grow Passive Income Generators(PIG’s). I’ve been playing with stocks, mutual funds, and options for decades, as well as always working on my side hustle stacks. Unlike what you read online, I’ve yet to find a way to get rich quickly. Get Rich Quick isn’t happening for me. My journey has been long and continues. I hope to have so many PIGs I can stop working at my current job and volunteer as a medical worker overseas. Still waiting, but getting there. I still am a family man, and while on this Journey of Growing PIGs.  I wanted to share my adventures(ups and downs), hoping you will contribute with your feedback and comments. Fun Fact: In my spare time, I am a Band-Dad! |