Hello I am thoughtcrimeboss and welcome to the Thought Crime Trap House. I'm in the process of quitting my day job after a decade of misery doing something I don't want to do(down to 2 days a week) and am instead attempting to finally pursue my dream of being a full time freelance writer/crypto degen/airdrop hunter. One thing I'm planning on is a series of how to guides for broke asses who are trying to use crypto and web3 to exit poverty. Unimpoverished n00bs are welcome to use these guides as well. As a slightly less broke ass now myself, I feel it is my duty to give back and help other broke asses via the gifts of cryptocurrency. Let us become hood rich together, and if we don't, at least we will probably learn some new shit along the way.
How to Go From Being a Crypto Curious Broke Ass Mother Fucker (BAMFer) to Being a Slightly Less Broke Cypherpunk Voodoo Kung Fu Shitcoin Wizard (SLBCVKFSW)
I invite you to learn how to turn your electricity and time into magic internet money. I'm not going to teach you how to set up a wallet (Use Rabby with my ref code "THOUGHTCRIME" because Metamask sucks ass) and the elementary basics of cryptocurrency, maybe I'll write an article like that one day, but for right now I'm going to assume you know the absolute basics of setting up a wallet and making transactions. If you don't here's a guide to the basics. Your first goal as a broke ass getting into crypto is to get some gas money. Your second goal is to use this gas money to hunt airdrops and other opportunities to earn more crypto, and your third and primary goal of all this is to take your profits (after you pay your bills, you at least need access to an outlet and electricity or you are just fucked) and use them to accumulate the cryptocurrencies that are going to be around for a long time. Bitcoin is the priority of course but it's not necessarily the only coin you should own in my humble opinion. We will talk about portfolio allocation later though, right now you probably don't have a portfolio yet or it's very small. Keep in mind this is educational only and most definitely not financial advice, if you are taking financial advice from me, you got bigger problems than being a BAMF trying to get into crypto and should immediately seek therapy if you have health insurance. If no insurance, then please seek the guidance of your local religious leader.
There are so many free or very cheap opportunities to make money in crypto (in both bull and bear markets, but the opportunities multiply exponentially in the bull cycle), that starting out can seem overwhelming. Dollar signs flash before your eyes as you see people getting rich off putting a few hundred bucks in some meme coin, but for every opportunity in crypto there are 10 scams or complete wastes of your time. When you are broke, your main resource is time, so the more of it you spend on legitimate opportunities the better. Why the hell should you listen to me, some random person on the internet? Well as someone who was a broke ass for a long time and am now upper lower class partly because of crypto I feel like I have lots of advice I can give that would be valuable. I have been involved in crypto since 2017 and have spent a whole lot of time learning about everything I can in the space. I learned a lot of lessons during the last two bull and bear cycles, and although I haven't managed to get rich or even reach the middle class yet, I feel like this cycle is the first time I'm in a position to even be able to do so if I play my cards right. The problem with many folks in crypto whom you might turn to for advice, is that they probably bought a bunch of ETH or BTC for a dollar or something and don't even remember what being broke as fuck entails at this point, if they were ever even broke in the first place. They might say things like just deposit a few grand in Coinbase bro and buy some ETH to hunt some airdrops with. And you, as a broke ass, are confused at this advice because a) you don't have rent for next month let alone a few grand lying around and b) you can't even open a bank account let alone a Coinbase account because your driver's license has been expired since 2013 if you even have one. So how do you get some coins to start hustling with? Luckily there are quite a few ways to earn some crypto starting at absolute zero, with no gas money or nothing. You do have to have access to the internet and a desktop computer/laptop. If you don't have a computer, a lot of things are still possible on your phone (if you don't have a phone that's an impressive level of brokeness) but an actual computer is better. You probably don't want to be interacting with crypto on the library computer or your tweaker roommate's computer either. It doesn't have to be top of the line equipment, that 10 year old desktop you found in your dead aunt's storage unit that you've been using to watch porn will do just fine.
Keep in mind that there are actually some advantages to being a broke ass in crypto, such as you don't have to worry about exit liquidity. Selling $50 of shitcoin XYZ isn't going to move the market and as long as there's a little bit in the liquidity pool you are good. This actually opens up low cap opportunities to you that people with actual money ignore because of the lack of liquidity. Today we are going to look at one of those low cap opportunities, it's called Idena. Now don't run out and buy Idena because I said it and low cap opportunity in the same sentence, keep reading first please.
What Is Idena?
Idena is currently ranked #1519 on Coinmarketcap with a market cap of about a million and a half dollars. It only did about 50 grand in volume on the day I wrote this, but like I said, as a BAMFer that doesn't matter, you can find a buyer for your $20 in that volume, there's room. The requirements for this hustle are just a desktop computer and a stable internet connection. You can use the web app on your phone, but to participate in the network with only a phone you would have to run your Idena node on a VPS. The node requirements are light, so renting an up to spec VPS shouldn't cost very much. It's better to be interacting with crypto from a desktop right now though, as many different things you'll encounter still don't work well on mobile. That is changing though, some newer dapps and protocols take a mobile first approach.
Idena is a project that's been around since 2020 and is trying to gain traction as a solution to the ever present problem in Web 3 of decentralized identity and uniqueness verification. The reason I like Idena, is that it provides a valid way to prove you are both human and unique without having to have government paperwork like many identity solutions that make you scan an ID, your face, your eyeballs, or all three. I don't care if your identity application is using ZK proofs or whatever and nobody is ever going to see the user's ID other than the protocol because that still requires you to have an ID in the first place. This immediately locks out millions of people who aren't privileged enough to have government ID as well as those few brave souls who could have ID if they wanted to, but voluntarily choose not to be cataloged like livestock by the state out of pure principle. Idena doesn't require any personal information or approval from any centralized entity in order to prove you are a unique human. It accomplishes this by making you solve these little puzzles called "flips" during these biweekly "validation ceremonies". The validation ceremony is set up so that it would be very hard to pass more than one at once, and the images are distorted a bit to help prevent AI from being able to solve them as well. I like how the protocol adapted to the new problem of AI between the time I first tried them out years ago and recently when I gave them another go because I wanted some Gitcoin passport points (Put getting a Gitcoin Passport on your to do list, it may help you qualify for some future airdrops). So these flips are just two separate series of the same four images in different sequential orders. Your job is to determine which order is correct and tells a logical story. They are based on two keywords which should both be present in the flip. Here's an example;
So why do you want to solve these silly little puzzles and pass validation ceremonies? Because you get paid, duh! This is one of many zero cost methods to acquire crypto. You earn IDNA for each validation ceremony you pass, with bonuses given for certain actions such as reporting bad flips (You are given a limited amount of reports to use on bad flips, you do not have to use all of them, the most important thing is to not report a good flip). You can than stake that IDNA and as long as you're online you can earn quadratic staking rewards that are higher than most protocols I've seen. Currently I am earning 140% APY on my Idena stake. You don't need any IDNA to start, which is why this is perfect for us broke asses, all you need is an invitation code from someone who is already validated.
Before you try to get an invitation code, you need to download the Idena application. During the set up process you'll need to back up your private key. Keep your seed off any devices connected to the internet, write it down and put it somewhere safe, seed/key management is going to be important in your journey from broke to not broke, there is no customer service that can help you if you lose your seed or if it's compromised. Use a strong unique password that you save into an password manager (Keepassxc or Bitwarden are good options).
Passing your training Validation Ceremony
After you get set up, do the test validation ceremony on at least medium difficulty. If you get a bad score, do it again until you get a good score, 100% on everything is most likely to get you an invitation. In order to do the training on Medium, you have to schedule the test for an hour out, so you won't actually start it for an hour. Set a timer on your phone so that you don't forget about it. For the hard level training the test is scheduled for the next day.
The first part of the validation ceremony is the short session, this is the hard part because you only get two minutes to solve the flips. If you get hung up on a flip, skip it, solve the others, and come back to it. If you are about to run out of time, it's better to guess randomly than not at all. If the flips are good you should be fine, this isn't a hard test you just have to do it quickly. Your first instinct is usually the correct answer, pick the logical one and move on. After an initial run through, use your remaining time to do the ones you may of skipped or to double check any ones you weren't 100% sure about. Make sure you click submit answers before the clock runs out. The app will submit your short session answers automatically if you don't click submit, however if you have a slow connection you risk them not arriving in time. It will not submit the long session answers automatically.
After the short session comes the long session (if you pass the short session), which is a much longer series of flips to solve. In the long session you have a limited number of "reports" you can use on bad flips if there are any. It's important to note that YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE ALL OF YOUR REPORTS, or any of them. Only report a flip that you believe breaks one of the flip rules, which are explained below. If you submit a report on a good flip you could screw up someone's validation rewards, so don't be a dick.
Getting An Invite Code
The first time that I tried Idena years ago, getting an invite involved joining the Telegram group and begging until you got one. The process has been refined somewhat since then. There are benefits to both parties if an invitation works out and the invitee passes the ceremonies, so people don't want to just hand out codes to random beggars anymore, because so many of them either don't show up for the ceremony at all or do show up but suck at life and fail the test. You only have a limited number of invites to give out so if your invitee doesn't pass you have wasted it. Speaking of sucking at life, back when I first tried this process, I got the invite from the Telegram group and passed the first ceremony with no problem. My broke ass was happily earning some IDNA until I fucked up and slept through the second ceremony. If you miss one of the ceremonies before you reach "validated" status, they kick you out and they don't do it gently. You lose all the IDNA that you had staked and have to start all over from the beginning with a new invitation. I got pissed off and didn't bother with it again and I often think now about how huge a stake (and some extra passport points) I would have by now if I had stuck with it. Better late then never I guess. So now invites have changed a bit, the Idena application now has the practice validation test that you just did, and you have to share your score in the Discord's invite sharing channel to get an invitation code. If your score is good enough you will get one eventually if you ask a few times (don't spam the chat, wait a while in between asking). My advice here is at the bare minimum have a medium or a hard training certificate with a decent score. A 100% on everything is ideal and if you have that you are definitely going to get an invite eventually, just be patient until you get one. Making your request stand out a bit might help, so rather then just saying "I need an invite code please!" and sharing the link to your test certificate, you should try to make it funny or unique. Like maybe something like "Please can I have an invite code, I will give you my first born as collateral to ensure that I attend and pass the ceremony". Try to stick out from the crowd a bit, don't just do the easy training level and expect an invite. The Discord invite channel is full of other prospective invites, many with only easy level certificates wondering why they aren't getting invited. If your not willing or able to pass the medium or hard training it's a bad sign for how well you will work out as an invitee. Keep an eye on your DMs, when I was trying to get one I missed a DM and lost an invite opportunity because of it. Also, if you're having trouble getting an invite code, don't turn into a dick and start bitching and whining about it in the chat. Patience will get you a code, but being a dick will not.
Once you have a code your next job is to actually show the fuck up for the validation ceremony, (put it in your calendar). Make sure you've had your coffee, you have synced your node by opening the application prior to the ceremony, you have a solid internet connection, and you are at your computer ready to go at least thirty minutes prior to the starting bell so that you can work out any technical issues you may have. Personally I'm an idiot and failed my second validation ceremony's short session (my second, second validation ceremony), destroying my entire stake. Of course this was after I actually went and paid real magic internet money for some IDNA on Binance Smart Chain and bridged it over to increase my stake size because you get extra passport points if you have >1000 IDNA staked. I got sent back to square one and was asking for an invite code again. This time it was actually easier to get an invite code then it had been the previous time, I simply explained my situation and why I failed the second ceremony, showed my scores, and mentioned how I was now even more determined to get it right then ever. Someone sent me a code right away. How did I fail as someone who had gotten perfect scores on the previous one? Well I wasn't awake enough for one, I had stumbled to my computer from bed minutes before the test started. This violated the first rule of successful validation, have your coffee before the test. Also in my fog I had completely forgotten that you only get two minutes to solve the first set of flips, I didn't notice the timer at first, and got stuck on some stupid almost incomprehensible flip involving Pokemon or something. I finally skipped it but it was too late, I had blown so much of my two minutes being confused by a blurry Pikachu that I didn't have enough time left to finish the short session. If I had spent the last ten seconds just randomly guessing I might of pulled it off but I didn't. This is why I say to just skip a flip if it's confusing, solve the easy ones, and then come back to it so you don't fail. Apparently the third time is the charm, because I have finally made it through enough ceremonies that I can even miss one ceremony if I need to and not lose my stake or have to start over. Soon I will also have fail protection which means if I fail one ceremony I won't lose my whole stake either.
After your first successful validation ceremony you have to do one thing before the next one, create three of your own "flips" to contribute to the protocol's pool of flips that are used to validate identities. You are given a random selection of keyword pairs to work from, if a keyword pair seems like it will be too difficult to create a flip from, simply skip it and pick another pair. You want to pick a pair of keywords that is easy to create a simple logical sequential story from using only images with no words. The story you are trying to tell can't require the reading of words, such as on a sign or computer screen within the picture. Just make sure you follow all the rules that are listed in the picture from earlier in this article.
For example, let's say you get the keywords "Tornado" and "Cow". You could make the correct version of the flip show a happy cow in a field, then a picture of a tornado, and finally a picture of a cow on its side somewhere else, or an upside down cow. That's it, that's the story. A real human should be able to look at that order of pictures and instantly comprehend the logic of it. Whereas the shuffled incorrect sequence might show a knocked over cow before the tornado, which obviously makes less sense then the other order. What I usually do when making a flip is use those open license image websites, such as Pexels or Pixabay, to download whatever images I need to tell the story. Sometimes I can't find a suitable image on those sites and will use a search engine image search instead. Often times an image that is perfect to finish my flip is in the webp format which will not work with the Idena application. I found a simple tool to convert images from the webp format to the jpeg format to make it compatible, and you can find it here.
Just make sure your flip is super obvious and easy to understand, you don't want to produce a flip where both sets of images can be interpreted to be logical in some way. The right answer should be obvious enough so that when someone is rushing through the short session they can solve it quickly but it also needs to be just complicated enough that an AI can't figure it out within the allotted time. This protocol is literally in an arms race against AI, if it falls too far behind it will quickly become obsolete.
Staking Rewards
Another reason why staking IDNA is a good choice for broke asses to earn some crypto, is that their staking rewards are designed so that small stake holders earn a higher APY (annual percentage yield) than larger stakeholders. Once you have a decent amount of earnings, you can cash some out either on a DEX (decentralized exchange) on Binance Smart Chain (the problem with this is you have to bridge your tokens to BSC first and you would need some BNB for gas), or on a CEX (centralized exchange) such as Bitmart. Don't worry, you can use Bitmart without KYCing, you just have to deal with a daily withdrawal limit of way more BTC than you can even imagine having. (If you use a VPN make sure you have the server set to a country they will accept, i.e not the the United States among others). Validation ceremonies happen every two weeks and will pay you probably about the equivalent of $5-10 USD each depending on the price of IDNA and other factors. Some of this will be paid directly into your stake and some will go into your wallet (this is the IDNA you can sell) Now be careful, if you stake your earnings and then miss or fail the next ceremony, you will lose all your coins. You have to reach "Human" status to get full stake protection to where you won't lose your coins if you miss or fail one ceremony. If you have reached "Validated" status you can miss a ceremony and not lose your stake but you can't fail a ceremony or you will still lose your stake. ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT IS THAT ONCE YOU STAKE YOUR IDNA YOU CAN'T UNSTAKE IT WITHOUT TERMINATING YOUR IDENTITY. Terminating your identity is probably something you don't want to do. It means you are deleting your identity and it's verification status and can no longer earn rewards without starting the entire process over from the beginning. The staking rewards are not automatically compounded so you can either add them to your stake to increase your earnings or sell them. So if you want to sell any of the IDNA in your wallet, don't stake it.
Whats the Point?
What's the point of all this? For anyone, staking IDNA is another method of earning some passive income, and your Idena verification can be used to prove you are a human if need be such as for the Gitcoin Passport I mentioned earlier. The Gitcoin passport is a method to prove your crypto wallet belongs to an individual and isn't just a bot or someone running 100 wallets who is trying to exploit airdrops. To be considered a human and get your passport you need a minimum of twenty points, this is easy to do if you are willing to dox yourself. However if you are cool like me and are trying to maintain the privacy of your crypto wallet and not link your digital identity to your real life identity (maintaining your privacy has more advantages than disadvantages), then you have to be a little more creative with earning your points. By using Idena and moving up the ranks of validation and stake size, you can earn up to 10.07 passport points. So don't forget about this if you do join the Idena network successfully.
For people just starting out in their crypto journey, it's also potentially a way to get some KYC free gas money to fund your crypto adventures from scratch. KYC stands for know your customer which means you have to verify your identity to use some product or service. For example, many crypto n00bs start out by opening a Coinbase account, which requires them to KYC and take a selfie with their driver's license. You want to avoid doing this if at all possible for several reasons. For one, once you KYC, any wallet you withdraw into from your KYCed account will be forever linked to your real world identity. Even if you switch wallets, if you transfer anything from the KYCed wallet into a fresh wallet, there is still a permanent trail leading back to that Coinbase account. If Coinbase ever gets hacked, or just sells your data, people might find out that you, John Smith or whoever the fuck you are, own crypto. This in turn can make you a target for hacking, phishing, and five dollar wrench attacks. A five dollar wrench attack is when someone finds out that you have crypto, takes a five dollar wrench, and beats your seed out of you. Nowadays it's more like an eight dollar wrench attack though with inflation. Even more importantly, you need to preserve your privacy in case the government decides they want to make owning crypto illegal or something like they did with gold back in the day. If you don't do KYC and practice a bit of good opsec ("operational security" which basically means how well you protect yourself when doing anything both on and offline) than nobody will be able to link your crypto to your real world identity unless you want them to. If you have already KYCed, it's not the end of the world, you can always create a fresh digital identity and start over from scratch. Doing almost anything on most crypto networks is going to require you to have at least a little bit of the network's gas token to pay transaction fees. Sometimes this is pennies (on Optimism or Solana for example), or it can be much more expensive on something like mainnet Ethereum. For now focus on the chains you can afford to transact on, mainnet will still be there when you can afford it. If you invest a little bit of time into this, get your invite code, and pass the test, you will officially have some IDNA and be earning more IDNA on top of it. It's probably going to take at least two months to earn enough IDNA to sell some for gas money, but as your stake grows this protocol will remain a constant source of income for you throughout your journey. Plus you never know, IDNA might pump hard one day, because of it's very low market cap it wouldn't take much new money coming in for it to go up considerably. If you decide you don't want to bother with Idena to get gas funds, you can always scrounge up some actual cash and buy some bitcoin at your local BTC meet up or from some random dude on the internet. Just make sure you use cash and not anything with your name on it.
Remember to keep the Idena application running on your computer or you won't earn your staking rewards. Make sure the "mining" slider under status on the top right side of the application is set to on. If you lose power or shut down your computer without turning the mining slider back to "off", then you will be penalized after one hour of inactivity. If you do lose power and can't access the desktop application, you can log in to the web app on your phone and turn the mining off. Eventually after enough ceremonies you will earn the ability to invite others to Idena and you get rewards from their first three ceremonies if they pass them, so give out your invites to people you think will actually show up and pass. Also pay attention to the "Oracle Voting" section of the Idena client, you will want to check that every once in awhile and there will be opportunities to vote on different things and earn some extra IDNA for it. Usually its not much but it's still free money.
Alright that about covers it, so y'all broke ass mfers go get your invite codes, pass your first couple of ceremonies, and start stacking that low cap goodness. I will do another post soon. LFG BAMFers!
