Does anyone here make a living off the forums?

[cellard]

As someone that posts here casually, sometimes just a couple of posts a week as of lately, I see some people putting a ton of effort here, not only in amount and quality of posts, but in various tasks, such as managing signature campaigns and other gigs, and some do forum statistics research too, some do freelance jobs for graphic designs, some offer escrow services... there are many tasks to do here that if summed could make a nice wage specially in some countries. If I had to do all of that I wouldn't have time to have a so called real job

So my question is: Is anyone here making a full time job out of forum tasks? If so, how is your daily life? Do you tell people that you make a living on a bitcoin internet forum? How do buy stuff if you don't pay any taxes? Or you do file tax earnings for your BTC? Perhaps someone is doing it as a side-job to supplement their real job? There are many doubts of people when it comes to signature campaign earnings tax-wise. I just wonder if anyone has made a career out of this. I wonder if you could add on your resume that you dedicated your time to this. Time is very valuable and some spend a lot of time on it after all.

[tbct_mt2]

There are so many different reasons that forced them to do those works.
Each person has own reasons to do this.
- For money, such as joining campaign, managing campaigns, doing Escrow services, making graphic designs
- For their love in works they did, such as making forum statistic analyses.
- For their generosity to help others

I see some people putting a ton of effort here, not only in amount and quality of posts, but in various tasks, such as managing signature campaigns and other gigs, and some do forum statistics research too, some do freelance jobs for graphic designs, some offer escrow services... there are many tasks to do here that if summed could make a nice wage specially in some countries. If I had to do all of that I wouldn't have time to have a so called real job

I don't know the percentage of those ones per all forum users (real ones), but I think there are people who spend their full time in forum activities, especially concurently with crypto trading, investing. It's ridiculous if you or someone else say that you do full time works here, and never invest or trade crypto. 

So my question is: Is anyone here making a full time job out of forum tasks?

Are you government staff? 

How do buy stuff if you don't pay any taxes? Or you do file tax earnings for your BTC?

[cellard]

There are so many different reasons that forced them to do those works.
Each person has own reasons to do this.
- For money, such as joining campaign, managing campaigns, doing Escrow services, making graphic designs
- For their love in works they did, such as making forum statistic analyses.
- For their generosity to help others

I see some people putting a ton of effort here, not only in amount and quality of posts, but in various tasks, such as managing signature campaigns and other gigs, and some do forum statistics research too, some do freelance jobs for graphic designs, some offer escrow services... there are many tasks to do here that if summed could make a nice wage specially in some countries. If I had to do all of that I wouldn't have time to have a so called real job

I don't know the percentage of those ones per all forum users (real ones), but I think there are people who spend their full time in forum activities, especially concurently with crypto trading, investing. It's ridiculous if you or someone else say that you do full time works here, and never invest or trade crypto.  

So my question is: Is anyone here making a full time job out of forum tasks?

Are you government staff?  

How do buy stuff if you don't pay any taxes? Or you do file tax earnings for your BTC?

Well, obviously I would expect people like theymos to be able to spend full time on the management of the forums, but theymos is probably loaded anyway from being an early miner. Im interested in "average joe" cases.

And no im not a government staff, also obviously. Im just curious how people would deal with expenses if you get paid 100% on Bitcoin. If you wanted to buy a property or a car you couldn't just show up with your coins and buy it. Im dealing with these problems myself as nobody has a clear idea how something as exotic as "signature campaign earnings paid in bitcoin" fit in.

I remember there was a guy here that was living 100% on bitcoin and his home was an actual boat. Now that's interesting.

[mk4]

I have no doubt that Bitcointalk is the main income of some people on some countries, especially 3rd world countries like Venezuela.

Anyway, I'm going to try to answer some of your questions.

Do you tell people that you make a living on a bitcoin internet forum?

Very rarely. I only tell my closest friends about bitcoin in general. Gotta protect myself from $5 wrench attacks.

How do buy stuff if you don't pay any taxes? Or you do file tax earnings for your BTC?

I sell my BTC quite rarely. Not sure about taxes, as I have zero idea on how taxes work here in the Philippines regarding bitcoin and crypto.

Perhaps someone is doing it as a side-job to supplement their real job?

Earning on Bitcointalk for me, is both a side-income and a hobby. I'd still be posting around here even if signature campaigns were non-existent, just a bit less because of course, I gotta focus more on earning through jobs/businesses rather than spending most of my time on my hobbies and passions that doesn't help me financially. I really hate when people say stuff like "Oh yOu'Re oNly oN BitCoiNtAlk JuSt BeCauSe of sIgnAtUrE CaMPaiNs".

[samcrypto]

Aside from the Admins/Moderators- LoyceV, DdmrDdmr, Hhampuz and, Sir. yahoo62278 - Here's a shortlist of a great member of this forum who continues to work well and spend their precious time to deliver a good work (Many more!),

Considering the time, effort, and kind of work they've done in this forum I can say that they really work hard on this and I guess it's not just because they needed to but its their passion and that passion help's them to earn more.

I personally have my own job during days, but I make sure to work hard also in this forum so I can have more source of income. I'm not doing this for a living, but I'm trying my best to be financially free someday so I can spend more time on cryptomarket.

[pooya87]

i don't think anybody who is actually living off the forum is going to step forward and announce it publicly!

i also consider living on bitcoin different than living off the forum. i have been thinking about going full bitcoin mode for some time now. i will probably do it during the next altcoin pumping season but that would mean me spending less time on the forum as i would be busy elsewhere making bitcoin .

[YOSHIE]

So my question is: Is anyone here making a full time job out of forum tasks?

For me not, the Forum is a place for discussing, about crypto and bitcoin, because currently we are engaged in the bitcoin field, the Forum was formed in 2009, whereas we have long been working in the real world with a fixed income, monthly average of $ 1333, whereas in the Forum campaign the monthly income is an average of $ 100, so for forums only information outside is more real.

If so, how is your daily life?

In everyday life as usual, working as usual, the forum takes 1 or 2 hours, to discuss.

Do you tell people that you make a living on a bitcoin internet forum?

Not, For now, buy goods for needs still with state money, few use bitcoin, generally with paper money.

How do buy stuff if you don't pay any taxes?

As I said above, not solely for income. no tax

Or you do file tax earnings for your BTC?

Not.

Perhaps someone is doing it as a side-job to supplement their real job?

certainly.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

- For money, such as joining campaign, managing campaigns, doing Escrow services, making graphic designs

When I think of people making a living off bitcointalk, usually what comes immediately to mind is signature campaigns.  The other things in that list are kind of specialty work which isn't as common as simply putting advertising in your signature space, which most members here do.

As for myself, no I don't earn my living on this forum.  I just discovered early on that it would be leaving money on the table if I were to be an active poster on a forum that I liked and not join a campaign.  Not only does it provide some extra spending money (which isn't peanuts, by the way), it gives me some bitcoin to play around with.  It's much easier to try my hand at altcoin trading with what I earn from campaigns than to use the cash I have from my real job--I don't even have a way to buy bitcoin with cash unless I do it here with PayPal, and that's often problematic.

OP, I've always had the impression that a lot of people use this forum as their place of work, but I'm betting that most of them won't bother to stop by this thread and tell you about it, likely because they're so busy shitposting in one of the mega spam sections and won't notice a thread like this in Meta.  But I've come across lots of members who are probably relying on the money they earn here to support themselves.  I can't tell you how many PMs I've gotten from people I've negged, telling me how badly they need their account to live, etc., etc.  I don't know if they don't have enough education or skills to hold a real job or what, but I'd say at least half of the bounty-hunting population is doing it as full-time employment.

[creeps]

So my question is: Is anyone here making a full time job out of forum tasks? If so, how is your daily life?

Not yet, but I'm planning to do so and if ever I will make full time in cryptomarket not just in this forum. Meaning I will become a full time trader, this is actually my dream.  

Do you tell people that you make a living on a bitcoin internet forum?

I will not tell anyone because I want to remain anonymous to my friends so I can work freely from their judgement.  

I just wonder if anyone has made a career out of this. I wonder if you could add on your resume that you dedicated your time to this.

Depends on how you spend your years on bitcoin, but if you just do a normal staff I think it will be hard for you to sell yourself to any company.

Time is very valuable and some spend a lot of time on it after all.

Our success will also depend on how we maximize our TIME.
This is the most precious of all, so try to do everything when you still have TIME or else you will regret it later on.

[theymos]

Bitcointalk.org has always had 100% of its income and the vast majority of its expenses in cryptocurrency, and personally I try to buy things with BTC whenever possible. My goal is to see a self-contained BTC economy someday. Cryptocurrency acceptance has actually gone down in some sectors since ~2013, though, probably because BitPay sucks so incredibly much and point-of-sale tech in general isn't really there yet.

Currently, it'd be almost impossible to live without touching fiat. For major purchases you could maybe convince the seller to accept BTC as part of the negotiation, but the biggest issue is day-to-day expenses like food. You could do it if you allowed for buying fiat-denominated gift cards with BTC, though really that's cheating.

In poorer countries, it may be easier in some ways to deal with BTC than fiat. I wonder if more complete BTC economies are forming in these countries due to this. It happened to some extent in Venezuela, but they're also dealing with insane hyperinflation.

There are many doubts of people when it comes to signature campaign earnings tax-wise.

In the US at least it's probably self-employment income (using the USD value at time of payment), reported on schedules C & SE.

[Findingnemo]

I am just living with the forum since I quit my daily job recetly. I invested more money into passive investments (many ways other than cryptos) which is giving more than enough for now so I am now concentrating more on crypto trading and will try to give all of my effort to become a real pro crypto trader.The knowledge I got from this forum for investing plan helped me to get better investment on many ways so literally for now I am living with the forum but not from doing jobs here.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I personally, do what ever I'm doing on forum be it participating in signature, rendering my services or learning etc as part time as I have a full time job that take most of my time but it doesn't pay that much. If I was to stick only to my "real job" I will be earning ~ $82 monthly but in just 2weeks of paid signature campaign I got that covered.  No doubt the forum is offering a lot of help to it's members as they can leverage on the numerous opportunity to earn legitimately on the forum. Of recent i just picked interest in Signature Bounty Management and hopefully when i gain a lot of experience I'll concentrate just on managing Paid bitcoin campaign although those aren't my main reason on forum but I can quit my said "real job" and dedicate my time fully to offering services on the forum.  We shouldn't rely on forum anyway as that wasn't the main purpose of creation that's why I do a little bit of trading off forum too.

[drgomez89]

In my personal experience this forum help me to learn about the especulation. Information about some proyect, the basic about how to avoid getting scammed. Here was the first  place where i learn about the trading basics... So personally im  very thankfull about the people this forum help me to get in touch with.. so its now about the forum its about people together with the same passion.

[Quickseller]

- For money, such as joining campaign, managing campaigns, doing Escrow services, making graphic designs

When I think of people making a living off bitcointalk, usually what comes immediately to mind is signature campaigns. 

I think there are a decent number of people in third world counties that earn money via signature campaigns (and as of somewhat recently, bounty campaigns). The reaction of some people to this year's April fools joke, makes me somewhat believe there could be people organizing others to "work" in ways that would resemble an employer-employee relationship. The problem with many of the people from third world counties making a living off of signature deals is that they often do not have any real knowledge of bitcoin or cryptocurrency and don't appear to have any real interest in learning.

I suspect that some of the people who run signature/bounty campaigns do so for a living, as they are doing so many that I cannot see them having time for a full time job. I believe shdvb at least used to make a living from the forum, although he doesn't seem to be very active anymore -- perhaps he realized sufficient capital gains in 2017 that he doesn't need to work as much anymore, same with zazarb. In 2014 and 2015, there were more people that at least appeared to make a living from currency exchange section trades.

I suspect the majority of 1st world people that conduct business here do so for side income, or is also in school. You certainly are not going to make enough money in signature campaigns alone to earn a living in the US.

There are many doubts of people when it comes to signature campaign earnings tax-wise.

In the US at least it's probably self-employment income (using the USD value at time of payment), reported on schedules C & SE.

The IRS has offered tips on how to determine if income is "self employment" income or "hobby" income, and is based on 9 factors:

Whether you carry on the activity in a businesslike manner and maintain complete and accurate books and records.
Whether the time and effort you put into the activity indicate you intend to make it profitable.
Whether you depend on income from the activity for your livelihood.
Whether your losses are due to circumstances beyond your control (or are normal in the startup phase of your type of business).
Whether you change your methods of operation in an attempt to improve profitability.
Whether you or your advisors have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business.
Whether you were successful in making a profit in similar activities in the past.
Whether the activity makes a profit in some years and how much profit it makes.
Whether you can expect to make a future profit from the appreciation of the assets used in the activity.

There is a regulation that governs if a venture is "for profit" (and subject to self employment taxes. According to this article by H&R block, hobby income is reported on line 21 of your 1040 and is not subject to self employment taxes.

[Sharon121212]

One thing must be clarified if one puts earning from the forum as a primary motive or objectives that person would have hit bottom rock and faded away by now. I was on telegram the other day and a lady was telling me how she is no longer on this forum. Out of curiosity I check her account but all her post was bounty related feed backs with huge bounty report pyramids. She would have thrived if she was in the old system and not now.
An educated member of this forum told me that earning( tangibly)here starts when you must have taking your time to contribute to the forum meaningful and this not a days job.
As a women community leader I have educated women about the opportunities of cryptocurrency and suggested this forum to them even if as I work with the education ministry as a teacher. I still know with time I would be able to gain substantially here and support my educate a girl Child Project I have in mind.. It's just takes hard work

[The Cryptovator]

It very true that we are earning from this forum. Perhaps fee people's take it professionally, I mean as full time job on this forum. Because lot of user I have seen joined 50/100 bounty campaign. Then how they make post on social media and make report you they was not take this forum as a job?

However, about me I can say I was not even aware about it's possible earn bitcoin from here before join. After join this forum slowly I was realized that its possible earning from this forum. Yes, I have joined signature since I am spending enough time on this forum. And only trust on bitcoin that's why I am not doing any bounty or any altcoin signature even I have few spare time. I have a full time job in abroad and I am working continue. I just spend time here my free time/break time/tea time. Also I am working here in a good position that's why I have enough time.

Yes, share about my earning few of my colleagues or friends. Actual intention was spread word about bitcoin. They know I am getting few extra money from this forum. Although forum income isn't enough for my family spend but its helping enough. However, thanks to forum learning and earning opportunities.

[r1s2g3]

I guess some people are putting the effort may be due to Merit implementation. I am not going to quit my job and paid campaign in this forum cannot be compared my job income. But earning in this forum just give me satisfaction that I can earn anonymously.
Actually , after coming to this forum I got so many business ideas to implement , I guess , now I have no time to sit idle ( whether I have job or not) because I will be occupied in learning and implementing those ideas.

[jademaxsuy]

I think it is not good to depend on the works being done here in the forum though there are many users earning huge(good for them) as they establish already a raport here and has talents also doing such tasks. But, if one is just only doing different bounty then this is not the right place to depend on. It is always better to look for a stable job especially if one has completed a college degree.

Now, it is good to be here in the forum but just consider it as a an another source for income. The forum could definitely help one out to earn and to support financially.

This is why it is really a privilege to be here in the forum.

[RapTarX]

As of now, I have earned 0.0015 BTC from my 4 weeks of signature campaign participation. Although I could have earned more, I don't have enough time to post for earning 2k satoshi per post. On top of that, I mostly post here for learning more about bitcoin. I'm a freelancer and a full time employee. I spend my free time here for learning bitcoin stuff.
If someone wants to make a living here from signature campaign, that will be a load of works. Moreover, it will be monotonous if you are posting for earning something. That's where the spam comes from. When someone posts for the sake of learning stuff/interest, it's possible to post 50 times a day but when you make it regular job, I bet you will be bored.

Currently, it'd be almost impossible to live without touching fiat. For major purchases you could maybe convince the seller to accept BTC as part of the negotiation, but the biggest issue is day-to-day expenses like food. You could do it if you allowed for buying fiat-denominated gift cards with BTC, though really that's cheating.

In poorer countries, it may be easier in some ways to deal with BTC than fiat. I wonder if more complete BTC economies are forming in these countries due to this. It happened to some extent in Venezuela, but they're also dealing with insane hyperinflation.

In my local, there's no one accepting bitcoin as currency/payment method. One of my adventure to spend BTC- A day with Bitcoin
Some probably argue with me on it but the purpose was to show where we are living after 10 years of BTC.

[LoyceV]

At the peak of the bounty/ICO hype, I've seen claims of users earning $2000 per month from basically spamming social media for bounties. That's significant in any country, and enough to make a very good living in most countries. It didn't last long for them, it must have lead to more competition, bounty spammers using more alt accounts, and the rest is history.

My signature pays a decent amount of money, but I don't need it. It's small compared to my cost of living. If I divide my "Total time logged in" by what I earned from this forum, it's not worth my time at all But money isn't the main reason for posting here. I'm not selling nor buying Bitcoin, I'm just in for the ride. I've said before that I like the ride up more, after which someone (probably in the WO-thread so there's no way to find back a quote) responded that the ride down is more thrilling.

I wouldn't mind making a living off the forum though, but so far I've only been able to hook temporary signature campaigns to manage (and they didn't pay that much).

I like to think of it from a different perspective too: the fact that this forum offers many opportunities to earn Bitcoin, and many people actually want it, is great for adoption.