Bounty Hunting for Cryptocurrency
The first thing that comes into your head when you hear the term bounty hunter is probably not cryptocurrency! However, like everything these days, bounty hunting has been modernised with a technological twist, giving it a new meaning in the 21st century.
The “bounty” in “bounty hunter” has always referred to the incentive reward for completing some kind of mission or task. In the more adventurous days of the past, bounty hunters usually had to put themselves in danger as they tried to physically apprehend a dangerous criminal. They may have been tracking down an individual or a group, but that’s not what the “hunter” referred to. Rather, the name literally meant that bounty hunters were chasing their rewards.
The tasks and environments may have changed, but this is still the case. Hunting bounty in the modern age means performing all kinds of different actions to chase down some kind of virtual currency remuneration. These rewards usually come in the form of cryptocurrency units, and as the oldest and most established virtual currency they are generally Bitcoin, or ICO tokens.
Altcoin Bounty Hunting: How to do It
Being a virtual currency bounty hunter requires a whole different skill set to being a traditional one. No physical prowess is required, but if you’re skilled at tracking and identifying hackers or other cybercriminals, or you have any kind of technological skills, these could be well rewarded. Don’t worry if you’re not though; there are many other tasks you could complete to hunt (and get) a little bounty.
A lot of companies offering virtual currency bounties simply need your help to get them and keep them afloat. There are plenty of jobs requiring almost no skills, such as liking a page or posting a message on a social platform. Jobs of intermediate difficulty, including testing new apps and reporting any problems, are also quite common.
If you’re interested in making money as a bounty hunter and peddling whatever skills companies are buying, the first thing you need to do is find out where the jobs are. Several online forums publish details of these, so they shouldn’t be hard to find. Approach them sensibly and check the posts often; specialised jobs will go to those who perform them better, so don’t waste time in applying if you don’t have the necessary skills. The other reason for keeping careful track of tasks is that their requirements can change over time, and they can even be removed.
Every altcoin-earning job will also have specific rules of what you need to do, and how you need to submit results or proof that you have completed the task at hand. To earn virtual currency you also need to open a wallet so that you can receive payment. If you’re going to be earning in Bitcoin, you’ll have several websites to choose from that will help you to set up a Bitcoin wallet simply and easily.
Getting Paid in ICO Tokens
Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs, are a sort of crowdfunding that is possible with virtual currencies. They involve companies, usually start-ups’, establishing their own cryptocurrency and then selling tokens for flat money or Bitcoin in order to raise funds. Companies get the money that they need for development, and interested parties become stakeholders in the enterprise.
If you’re paid in ICO tokens for bounty hunting work you too will become a stakeholder, which can be very lucrative if the company is successful. Be aware, however, that just as with crowdsourcing initiatives such as Kickstarter there is no guarantee of this. Payment in this way is riskier than simply getting altcoin deposits for your troubles.
What Can Bounty Hunters Expect to Earn?
While it’s unlikely that digital bounty hunting will get you the same size payout as winning a jackpot at an online casino, this kind of work can bring a satisfying boost to your earnings. In the early days of bounty hunting, you could expect to earn up to 3 Bitcoins for a job, but those days are over, and now you’ll usually get only a fraction of a single token. The increase in Bitcoin value has pushed remuneration downwards dramatically, but as the value of the cryptocurrency has increased, payment rates remain worthwhile.
Most bounty hunters look at their activities as financial supplements rather than their main stream of income, and it’s also true that the less skill a job requires, the less it usually pays out. Tracking down a hacker, for example, is a lot trickier than posting a message on social media or test-driving an app. For the convenience of finding and completing odd jobs online, however, altcoin and ICO bounty hunting is hard to beat, and it’s an interesting example of how cryptocurrencies are becoming a normal part of our world.