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Low-hanging fruit

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@mrhill
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Low-hanging fruit is a strange expression - but it is pretty self-explanatory -

the most easily achieved of a set of tasks, measures, or goals

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There are a few simple tasks I complete to earn easy money. These are things that don’t directly cost any money and take little or no effort and time. These are the low-hanging fruit (LHF). I will describe a few LHF examples and also discuss the indirect costs. The financial rewards I get from these tasks in today’s money are very very small because I’m being paid in small amounts of cryptocurrency (mainly BTC, DGB, BAT, STEEM). However these small bags of crypto worth pennies today (when converted to FIAT) could one day be worth dollars. I probably would not be willing to complete these tasks for the same amount of FIAT - so it’s the possibility of what they might one day become* that makes them desirable for me.

When services like Google and Facebook began people (myself included) got very excited because these ground-breaking uses of technology changed our lives and came at no cost. That is, we didn’t pay money for them. But we later found out that we paid a price for them in other ways. We allowed these companies access to our data and monetise them. Still, most of us still didn’t care and carried on using them anyway.

twitter

I discover so much on twitter every day! I currently have two twitter accounts - one with professional connections where I extend my professional learning through what others share and one that started exclusively as a ‘crypto-twitter’ (CT). On CT, I’m regularly spotting new opportunities - some bounties, some airdrops and some LHF.

coinkit

Coinkit’s main use-case is to receive and give tips on social media platforms. I posted about this the day I discovered it on twitter because I was absolutely mind-blown that programmable tip-bots exist inside DMs on twitter! The premise is that people tweet offers for people to retweet their link and tip a specified amount of cryptocurrency (say 1 DGB) when the task is completed. Inside the tip-bot you’re able to withdraw earned crypto to external wallets by inputting commands. The most popular cryptocurrencies used inside coinkit are Digibyte and one called TrezarCoin (which I’d never heard of before coinkit) but I’ve also earned small amounts of PivX, Nexus and Dogecoin.

Some people give tips just because they want to share the love in a particular cryptocurrency they are passionate about. This is really *pure generosity. However, I’m noticing that nowadays it’s usually people sharing referral links. This is not pure generosity - the tipper is expecting a greater return from folks taking up their referral. This adds a layer of complexity to the decision to retweet. Is this link I’m retweeting something I approve of? Am I happy spamming my twitter followers with a random person’s Coinbase Earn referral link or a referral link to a Litecoin faucet? Do I need to check that this link I’m retweeting is not a scam? Do I care that the return they could is multiples more than the fraction of a penny I will get? So there are costs - opportunity costs to consider. Still, I go on using this service and, if I’m honest, I’m addicted to checking twitter for @coinkit_ opportunities!

wallet of satoshi

Wallet of satoshi is a custodial lightning wallet available for free as a mobile app. It was developed by an Australian company - the same folks that developed Living room of satoshi, which allows you to pay for household bills directly with crypto. They regularly post offers to twitter under the twitter handle @bitsahara to win satoshis. Sometimes there is a task to complete and sometimes it’s a simple retweet. I started following them a couple of days ago. Just today I won 10,000 satoshis (about 74 cents in US dollars) for being one of five randomly selected people that retweeted the link to the offer. Woop! It looks like hundreds of people usually enter but if they’re doing five or six of these a day the odds are favourable that you could win once a week if you keep your eye on the ball. At what cost? It’s unclear. The more people that retweet their links, the more installs of their custodial wallet. The more fees they take. The more people on twitter get annoyed by spammy links appearing in their twitter feed! Still, I’m enjoying the Adrenalin rush of entering these contests and awaiting the result! It’s definitely LHF if you already use twitter and you install their wallet.

If I could have my time again, I would create a third twitter account - one that is exclusively for grabbing LHF because now I’m spamming my CT followers ... not that I really have any as I mostly just use CT to consume information from smart people in the space and engage very little.

Brave browser

I have posted about Brave browser many times. It’s super-easy to install and start earning BAT (assuming Brave Rewards has been rolled out in your country) right away if you allow ads. The cost for earning BAT is obvious - *your time for viewing ads (mind you, currently you earn BAT without needing to view the ad - but I’ve heard this will change in future) - that’s why it’s called Basic Attention Token.

steem

As far as I’m aware the intention for steem earnings was never to make overnight millionaires but to give some compensation for tasks that would otherwise not make you anything. Even though the examples given below are common knowledge on steem, I think it’s worthwhile to talk about the LHF here as a comparison to the other examples I’ve discussed.

Upvoting

What is easy money on steem? Upvoting of course! I’m sure you’ve read lots of articles tagged #newsteem recently about upvoting and curating. I know I have! In these articles they discuss folks that exclusively upvote steemians they follow (usually without reading posts). Usually the person who wrote the #newsteem post does not do this. They scour steem to find the best content, read every word and sometimes don’t even upvote! They only upvote quality content. This #newsteem poster might not even use autovoting services (you get paid even if you do!) and be 100% manual, old-school style. Whatever your preference, it’s still mind-blowing to me that you get paid to upvote content. And as you grow your SP, that reward grows too. I love virtuous circles! The main cost to you is voting power*.

Other dApps (like @actifit or @appics)

If you’re going to walk 10,000 steps a day anyway, why not post a quick report with a photo detailing your day’s activity? If you’re out and about and you see something amazing to photograph, why not share it with a thoughtful caption? It’s LHF! What about the cost? Mainly (I think) because a lot of people still think of steem and steemit (a blogging platform) as exclusive, some folks complain about @appics and @actifit stories flooding their feeds. They argue that you’re taking from the rewards pool without adding any real value. They say it’s not enough effort. You’re probably more likely to be downvoted if you post this sort of content. You could lose followers*. But that’s about it (#amiright ?). If you’re OK with that, go right ahead and do it.

Do you know any other examples of LHF?

Thanks for reading :-)