What is ZapRead.Com?

 

ZapRead.Com is a Social Media and Blogging platform which allows you to earn money for creating content and participating on the site. Now ZapRead is not the first blockchain or crypto based Social Media site or Blogging Platform. Over the year's we've had platforms like Steemit, Hive Blog, Leo Finance and others, however what's unique about ZapRead is it runs on the Lightening Network and you actually earn Bitcoin, where as with these other platforms they have their own native token or coin which you earn. In the case of Steemit it was STEEM or Steem Backed Dollars (SBD).

Now I believe ZapRead began sometime back in 2018 so it's not exactly new, however it does seem to be seeing somewhat of a resurgence in popularity, it's still a fairly small and obscure platform with less than 1,000 users.

So why would you want to get on ZapRead? Well first off if you use Crypto and support Crypto and Blockchain Technology it's a good thing to actually immerse yourself in the space, to use projects that use crypto or run on blockchain and to support these projects. Beyond that I always like to be an early adopter of new platforms, it gives you a huge edge over others if that platform actually takes off. And lastly, while earning a couple hundred Sats today isn't a lot of money, back in 2010 when people were going to Bitcoin Faucets and getting 5 Bitcoins at a time for solving a CAPTCHA, that didn't seem like a lot of money but today it's a heck of a lot of money. 

Okay, so we can't say all these glowing things without covering some of the negative aspects, and this isn't a jab at ZapRead so much as it's a problem with all these alternative crypto blogging or social media sites. In my experience on Steemit, Hive, LeoFinance and other platforms, one of my biggest complaints is it's just not an enjoyable place to spend time, I would tend to spend time there simply to "play the game" and earn my crypto. I'll hop onto Reddit just for fun or Youtube just for enjoyment, but Steemit, while I did meet some cool people and make some friends over there, the content and the entire experience was a bit of a chore, and I found Hive and Leo to be the same way. 

One of the big problems with these platforms is they are too crypto centric ie all the content is about crypto and blockchain. If we ever want to get mainstream adoption on a platform like this we'll need to cater to all interests and communities from gaming to fitness to sports to politics. My other complaint about these platforms is they tend to focus heavily on the platform itself ie on Steemit probably a good 80% of posts were about the Steemit platform itself, like hey guys let's all go to Steemit to talk about Steemit.

So ultimately will ZapRead take off and takeover Facebook? I'll be honest, probably not, however that doesn't mean you shouldn't join and support this project, you'll earn some Sats and you'll be furthering the crypto space as a whole. Here's one thing that I really do like about ZapRead that makes it really unique, it runs on the Lightening Network and pays in Bitcoin as opposed to some obscure native coin of a platform so that in my mind is what really makes ZapRead stick out among the rest. 

If you already have a Youtube Channel, a Blog, or even an Instagram or Pinterest account or board that you manage why not re-use the content you make over there and post it over here, help the community grow and gain some more experience in the crypto space yourself. Who knows maybe someone on ZapRead likes your content and decides to checkout or subscribe to your Youtube Channel and helps grow your audience. For those who want to check it out you can Register for ZapRead.Com here.

Companies Need to Make a Decision About the Future of Remote Work

 

I remember the beginning of the Beer Cough, and this "New Normal" most of us are living right now. It was late January in 2020 and I was heading back on a flight from Tampa to Chicago after traveling down for a few days of vacation and to do some house shopping for a new home down in Tampa. I had maybe vaguely heard about an illness circulating in China, but we hadn't heard much about it and people in the US weren't really concerned. On my arrival back to O'Hare Airport I noticed a number of people wearing masks, and not Asian people. I say this because in many countries in Asia wearing masks is something they've done for a while, but prior to Covid you wouldn't find many White Americans walking around in facemasks, how much things have changed that today that's not only the norm, but in some areas of the country the law. After landing and taking an Uber back to my girlfriends parents house I began seeing stories about Covid on the news. Fast forward a few months and right around St Patricks Day we began hearing about the possibility of lockdowns and eventually all non-essential businesses were closed. At the time we were told it was just two weeks to stop the spread. Well here we are almost two years later and not much has changed and in many ways things have gotten worse.

Throughout this entire pandemic we kept getting dates for when things would "get back to normal" but those dates would come and go either without any relaxing of policies, or in many cases more freedoms restricted and more policies enacted. We also saw a couple times over this past two years companies giving return to work dates, only to back peddle on those dates as they came closer. Recently news came out that Google among other companies are scratching their January 2022 return to work dates.

Now Remote Work is something many workers have been pushing for, for a long time. Today we have the technology to hold meetings online, sign contracts online, access work folders and servers online, and it's been that way for years, this isn't really anything new. Covid however forced many if not most workplaces to adopt this new style of work. We see conflicting information on whether this is the greatest thing to ever happen to workplaces or the worst thing. Some companies and some articles discuss how much more productive things are and how happy workers are, while we also hear that recent grads and new hires struggle onboarding, people miss the social aspects of work and potential mentorships, and that some businesses are losing a sense of comradery and company culture.

At this point I think it's high time that companies decide why exactly they're working remotely and what the future holds for the company and it's workers. So we've known for quite a while now that the death rate of the Beer Cough is well under 1%, many would argue what we've done is a huge overreaction and the consequences of many of our actions have caused worse results than what the disease itself would have done. This is evident when you loo at things like rates of drug abuse, domestic violence, suicide, and what we've done to the economy. It's also clear at this point that Covid is here to stay, it's not going anywhere, and if it behaves like viruses typically do, overtime it's going to get more transmittable, but less deadly. 

It's of my opinion that Covid is no longer a valid excuse to work remotely. Now if working remotely has worked out well for your company or your business, you should keep it. There's plenty of benefits to remote work. But if you are going to adopt a remote work policy, do it for the right reasons, state that it's a better way of doing things, employee productivity and happiness is higher, employees have more time to work and have to spend less time getting dressed, commuting and packing lunches. Give remote work its credit and stop putting things off claiming you're working remotely due to covid 

While there are plenty of people who are concerned about covid, that's evident from reading posts on Reddit or Twitter, the vast majority of Americans seem to be over it and not that concerned about it. Look at events like Lollapalooza in Chicago, you had 400,000 people packed into a small park drinking and partying, listening to music and making out. It's contradictory to say it's too dangerous to return to work, while at the same time holding an event like that, which is attended by many of the same workers who are out of work because "it's too dangerous". 

As we approach two full years of this "new normal" many people are changing where and how they live. People are getting rid of daycares and preschools and keeping kids at home. People are moving out of city centers to the suburbs for more space or rural areas for more privacy and better views. I've seen a couple stories of people who purchased property and moved away counting on remote work being the future, only to be called back into the office realizing they now either have a 4 hour daily commute or have to sell the home they bought in the country and move back to the city.

It's high time companies get honest with themselves about the future of their company and their employees. If remote work is a better option than by all means adopt it and stop pussyfooting around saying "we're going to be remote at least until first quarter of 2022". Just say remote is better and it's what you're doing. 

The reality is Covid isn't going away, we waited for vaccines to come out which was the promise of a better future, and while they do a good job at preventing hospitalization and death, the reality is they don't deliver what was promised and it's a leaky vaccine. The situation regarding covid isn't going to be much different a month from now, next quarter, or a year from now, so it's time for everyone to accept this reality and make some decisions on what the future is going to look like moving forward as opposed to throwing out ever changing guidelines and goal posts. 

Are We Still Early In Crypto?

 Are You An Early Adopter of Cryptocurrency?

So a common topic of discussion or question that pops up in the world of crypto is the topic of "Are We Early Adopters?" "Are We Early to Crypto?" This topic comes up a lot on forum and Sub-Reddits like r/Cryptocurrency. Now let's start by saying the crypto space has a lot of excitement and a lot of comradery. It's not like a typical investment, people don't get excited about stocks in the same way as they do about crypto. That's changed a bit in recent years with r/WallStreetBets and a lot of the excitement about Gamestop and other MemeStocks, but generally speaking crypto has a much stronger community element.

At times however it can turn into a bit of a circle jerk, hey were early, were all gonna get rich, we're going to the moon. So in today's post I wanted to discuss this topic of are you early to crypto? At the time of writing this post it's December 11, 2021. When discussing whether you're "early to crypto" it's all relative and it's important to state what we mean by early. When you say are we early to crypto do you wonder if you're an early adopter? What does being an early adopter mean? Are you asking if you're early enough to become a millionaire off a $100 investment? I want you to think about what you actually mean when you ask this question.

In my opinion, and again this topic and question really comes down entirely to opinion as this question is all relative and even asking if you're early can mean different things. In my opinion if you weren't around for the 2017 bull run you're not early, and even those who got in that year, the year of 2017, even they weren't early when compared to someone who was in the game in 2010 or 2012 who was getting 5 Bitcoins a pop from a Bitcoin Faucet. In my opinion however 2017 was kind of a turning point of Crypto being taken somewhat seriously, prior to that it was fake internet gold used to buy weed on the darkwebs or some crazy fake currency you earned playing video games. There was no institutional involvement, there was no defi, no NFT's, and going back a few years there wasn't even regulation or legitimate exchanges so it was a completely different world than you can imagine today when Bitcoin and crypto is talked about in newspapers, on mainstream news, by your peers and co-workers.

I think a good way to judge whether you were early to crypto is if you were into crypto at a time when a single paycheck could buy you a whole Bitcoin. Now obviously even this is relative as some of you maybe earn $1,000 a paycheck and others of you may earn $10,000 per paycheck, but I think this is a good measure of whether or not you were early to the space. Being early in my opinion means you had an opportunity to collect a significant amount of Bitcoin. If a Bitcoin cost you a full paycheck, even with bills to pay and such, you could conceivably over the course of a month to say three months have stacked and collected a full Bitcoin. If you're coming into the space when Bitcoin is at 60K, I mean that's several thousand Dollars over the average American income and you consider people have bills to pay how many years would it be for the average person to save up their yearly salary in liquid cash, for some people that's 5 years, for many that may be a decade or longer, so the idea that someone coming in today with an average income could even get themselves a whole Bitcoin is a pretty impressive feat. Again though, many people believe Bitcoin will one day be 500K or even better a Million Dollars and if that's the case even having 0.1 Bitcoins is significant. 

When it comes to considering yourself an early adopter, there's a bit of confirmation bias going on. First off we want to believe we're making the right decisions, if you don't consider yourself early you likely consider yourself late and you probably don't want to think that. Also, if you're late why are you investing in Bitcoin and Crypto in the first place? 

At this point I maybe have you feeling a bit negative, maybe realize even according to your own definition you're not early. Here's the good news however, every investment and every industry changes over time and new opportunities are popping up everyday. There's always opportunity. Elon Musk was not early to the automobile industry, Hendry Ford built the Model T in 1908 or there abouts, where as Elon Musk formed Tesla in 2003. That said Elon Musk become one of the richest men in the world despite being 95 years late to the industry. 

Take Mark Zuckerberg for example, Facebook was formed in 2004 and rolled out to the public in 2006, but Zuckerberg wasn't early to the internet, the internet was created prior to even 1970 and became commercially viable and somewhat popular in the early 90s, Mark Zuckerberg was over a decade late to that game but he's doing pretty good for himself today, money wise at least, by all accounts he's a pretty terrible person though. My point is you don't have to be early to do well in an industry or a space.

Crypto has changed a ton over the years, back in 2017 and before there was no staking, there were few to no exchanges to buy crypto from, there was no Defi, there were no NFT's, those things have really only gotten big within the past year or so and a ton of people have done really well in those areas. Even something as simple as buying and holding crypto, there's a guy and probably many people who bought $1,000 worth of Shiba back in 2020 and less than a year later that investment is worth over 50 Million Dollars. Now I'm not encouraging you to run around buying low cap shit coins trying to become a multi-millionaire, more often than not that's not going to end profitably or well, but my point is it does happen and even if you don't hit a 100,000x banger, if you can spot some good projects when they are outside of the top 100 or top 200 coins and use some of your crypto passive income from staking or defi that's just profit to throw into some of those projects maybe one of them hits. 

So I'm a blogger, affiliate marketer, make make money online guy and I often hear about the "Made For Adsense Days" or the "MFA Days" when people were throwing up one page websites and getting Adsense checks for 100k a month. I often wish man I wish I had been around a few years earlier, I was late to the game when it came to that. But fast forward 15 years later and social media exists which it didn't before and Influencers are putting up those kinds of numbers with Influencer Marketing Deals, so there's always opportunity. 

Would it be cool to have bought 200 Bitcoins for $200 to buy some weed online back in 2009, spent $150 of that and forgot about the other 50 Bitcoins you had sitting around and wake up a decade later, remember and wake up to find yourself 3 Million Dollars richer? Sure it would but that ship has sailed and there's still plenty of opportunities out there for you today. 

I saw someone online commenting recently that they felt bad because they're late to crypto and are a student and don't have a lot of money to throw in. I commented to them that back in 2010 some broke sucker who didn't have money to start a business or invest in the stock market was sitting around getting 5 BTC a pop at a Bitcoin Faucet and feeling bad for himself but that would be worth a fortune today. Now I don't know that these projects or coins will workout but today you can blog on Steemit and earn STEEM and SBD. You can blog on Hive Blog or LeoFinance and earn coins. You can comment on Reddit and earn Moons. You can mint NFTs for free on a platform like AlgoGems.IO. 

You're not early to crypto in some ways but you're earlier than the guy getting in 9 years from now in 2030. You're not an early Bitcoin adopter but Crypto Gaming is in it's infancy, as are Defi and NFTs. The chances of you getting filthy rich off your $20 weekly DCA investment probably isn't going to happen but you might get airdropped some NFT that winds up becoming worth 700k. 

Spend less time focusing on topics like this, I get it, its fun to daydream about but it's not productive. Find an area of the crypto space you want to focus on and become an expert in that area, try to spot opportunities and things should workout for you pretty well. 

What Are Crypto.Com Missions & Diamonds?

 Earn Up To $1,100 From Crypto.Com Mystery Boxes

If you're in the Crypto Space, and even if you're not, chances are you've heard about Crypto.Com. Crypto.Com has completely taken over Youtube Pre-Roll Ads making it impossible to miss them. In addition to the past year of non-stop ads on Youtube you've likely heard about how they purchased the naming rights to the LA Lakers Stadium The Staples Center, that transition was just completed yesterday with the Staples signage being taken down and replaced with "Crypto.Com Arena". In addition to their strong marketing effort on Youtube as well as Sports and Racing, Crypto.Com also has an attractive affiliate/referral program to incentivize users to bring aboard friends, family, and followers, and also has a loyalty program they refer to as "Missions" which allow users to earn "Diamonds" which can in turn be traded in for "Mystery Boxes", which is what we're going to be talking about in today's post. I'd be remis without also mentioning that you can get $25 in Free Bitcoin for signing up for Crypto.Com by using this Referral Link.

What Are Crypto.Com Missions?

Pretty much every Crypto Exchange has some sort of Loyalty Program, Learning Program, or some way to gamify the platform and allow users to earn Free Cryptocurrency by being active on the platform. Binance has "Tasks" that users can complete to get free crypto or bonuses, Coinbase has Coinbase Earn where users can earn free cryptocurrency by watching videos or completing short trainings and taking tests. Well Crypto.Com has "Missions" which allow users to earn "Diamonds" which they can in turn trade in for rewards which are "Mystery Boxes". Mystery Boxes when opened give users an unknown amount of CRO Coins, up to $1,100 per box. Crypto.Com's Missions can be both educational as well as purchasing incentives. While I'm sure the types of missions will change over time, however currently the Missions which include trading $20 worth of crypto on the platform, trading $500 worth of Crypto on the platform, and doing educational courses through the Missions tab. These Missions reset every 24 hours so you can continue earning more Diamonds for being active on the platform. One important thing to note is according to the TOS auto buyers do not earn you Diamonds. This means if you have a weekly Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) auto-buy setup that will not earn you Diamonds. Because of this some of you may choose to manually go in every Sunday morning for example and manually making a purchase in order to acquire Diamonds. 

What Are Crypto.Com Diamonds?

Crypto.Com Diamonds are users rewards for completing "Missions". Diamonds are not a cryptocurrency and they have no cash value so don't hoard them thinking they're going to Moon someday. Diamonds are strictly a reward token which an be turned into the Crypto.Com store in exchange for Mystery Boxes. Now keep in mind this program is subject to change and the contents of the boxes may change, but at the time of the writing of this article there's only a single box a "Silver Box" which costs 25 Diamonds. Previously they had different tiers of boxes at various Diamond price points with the higher value boxes containing better prizes. The Mystery Boxes can contain up to $1,100 worth of CRO Cryptocurrency. I recently purchased two Silver Mystery Boxes, my first box contained 0.6 CRO and my second box contained 0.7 CRO. 

Are There Any Other Ways to Earn on Crypto.Com?

Yes so like other exchanges which allow staking and have referral rewards Crypto.Com also has these things. Crypto.Com is currently paying up to 12% staking on the CRO coin, depending upon how much you have staked, and if you hold a Crypto.Com Debit Card. Crypto.Com also has a referral or affiliate program which pays you $25 for every new users you refer to their platform. You can use this to refer your friends who are currently using bad exchanges like Robinhood, you can refer friends or family who are new to Crypto and asking for some help getting started, or if you have a large Social Media presence or a Youtube Channel you can also refer your audience. These types of referral programs can be powerful, between 2017 when Binance initially launched and today I've earned over $60,000 in Bitcoin from the Binance Referral Program. My advice would be to take full advantage of free opportunities to earn crypto. 

Beginners Guide to Pancake Swap on Binance Smart Chain.

 Beginners Guide to Pancake Swap

Pancake Swap is a Binance Smart Chain based DEX launched by anonymous developers with a penchant for breakfast foods. It's similar to Ethereum's SushiSwap but incorporates many other features which allow you to earn rewards. While pretty much all Defi Exchanges are run by anonymous developers this one is promoted by Binance themselves which seems to lend credibility, and for all we know Binance actually is running it. 

While Pancake Swap has a lot of features such as a Lottery, Battles, and other features, most users will primarily be using Pools where you essentially stake one coin, however more advanced users or those seeking higher interest rates may decide to jump into the Farms where you provide liquidity in currency pairs. This is not only slightly more complicated to do but also comes with the risk of losing your money, so before diving into this research the concept of "Impermanent Loss" and understand it before you dive in. 

For me personally the interest rates are good enough in the Pools so I stick with those and would suggest that be what people get started with. 

CAKE Coin, the native coin to the Pancake Swap has been surging as has Binance Coin and with Ethereum pushing back their solutions to fix Gas Fees, it continues to get other projects building on it and will likely continue growing. 

If you're looking to grow your crypto or earn passive income this can be a great way of doing so. In today's post we'll be doing a complete beginners walkthrough of how to get started with Pancake Swap.

Getting Some Binance Coin (BNB)

To get started on the Binance Smar Chain and with Pancake Swap you'll need some BNB Coin. If you already have some or are already on Binance and can easily buy some you're ready to get started. If not you'll need to buy some. If you setup a Binance.US account you'll be able to buy some with fiat, if you don't have a Binance.US account you can setup a Binance.Com account and send over some Litecoin, trade that Litecoin into BNB, and then withdraw to your Trust Wallet. In the next step we'll be talking about setting up your Trust Wallet. Now in this guide I'm not going to be going step by step with how to deposit money to an exchange like Binance or how to withdraw to Trust Wallet. This is pretty basic stuff you should know before hopping onto an exchange like Pancake Swap, however if you have questions drop a comment or ask me and I'll be happy to provide a little more clarification.

Downloading Trust Wallet

You can access the Binance Smart Chain via the MetaMask Wallet however this method is a little more complicated as it requires you adding the Binance Smart Chain info where as it's already built into Trust Wallet so were going to stick with Trust Wallet. Visit TrustWallet.Com or download from the Android or IOS Stores. Again, I'm not going to walk through how to setup a wallet, it's pretty self explainatory, just make sure you securely store your Seed. 

Getting BNB to Trust Wallet and Converting to Smart Chain BNB

So at this point you have Trust Wallet and you have BNB Coin. You'll need to move your BNB Coin over to your Trust Wallet from Binance. You'll do a withdrawl on Binance and send it to your BNB Wallet. You'll then need to turn your BNB Coin into BNB Smart Chain Coin. From the image above the BNB Coin at the top is your standard BNB Coin, the one below it with the black logo is the Smart Chain. 

Converting BNB Coin to BNB Smart Chain

This is going to be easy peezy lemon squeezy. Simply click the BNB coin wallet and enter the wallet. It will look like the image above. Simply click the three dots where you see the arrow pointing. One of the options will be convert to BNB Smart Chain. Click that, it will then ask you how much you want to convert, choose the amount and that coin is now on the Binance Smart Chain. At this point you can use it in Pancake Swap, Cub Finance, or other exchanges to buy coins and stake or pool them to earn passive income. 

Open Up Pancake Swap on the DAPPS Browser

Okay, now it's time to access the DAPPS browser and go over to Pancake Swap, Cub Finance or whatever site you want to use. In this example were going to use Pancake Swap. Now if you're using iPhone, they suck throw it in the garbage and get an Android, okay kidding, kind of. Apple made them get rid of the DAPPS browser to go on the iOS store so you'll need to do a workaround in your Safari Browser. I don't mess with iPhones so my Android peeps you need to do nothing special. Click the DAPPS where you see the arrow pointing and it will open up what looks like a web browser in Pancake Swap. You can browse the different apps they have and you'll likely see pancake swap but you can also just go to PancakeSwap.Finance. Once you do that you're now in Pancake Swap.

Trading Your BNB Smart Chain Coin for CAKE

Okay so for this guide I'm going to show you how to acquire CAKE and how to stake your CAKE in the Pools. You can also do this with other coins as well. Click the hamburger at the top left to the left of the bunny, this will pull up a menu. Click "Trade" and then click "Exchange". I'm going to assume you've been on an exchange before. You're going to select BNB as the coin your trading and CAKE as the coin your trading for. Figure out how much you want to trade of BNB into CAKE and complete your trade. FYI leave yourself some BNB as you'll need this, kind of like gas, to pay fees. Fees are typically $0.20 cents to $0.80 cents. I think the highest fee I've ever paid was $2 to get into a lottery but fees will typically be $0.40 to $0.60 cents. 

Bring Your Cake to the Pool

Okay so you have Pools and Farms. Pools your taking a single coin. Now obviously if a coin has huge interest but loses value you're probably going to lose money. CAKE IMHO is only going to continue to grow so I stick with CAKE but there's plenty of other coins you can stake. There's also pools, I'm not,  going to teach this, it's slightly more tricky for a noob as you need to have two coin pairs so for example CAKE/BNB and you'll need to provide liquidity in equal amounts. You also face the risk of impermanent loss ie the coins get too far apart in value and you lose your money unless they come back. I don't fully understand this concept and 100% plus APR is more than good enough in my book so on Pancake Swap I stick to the Pools and on CUB Finance I stick to the Dens. 

Now you're screen may look slightly different than mine but you'll likely see something about approve stake or approve pool.  You'll click this and pay about $0.20 cents to open the contract or begin. At this point you'll click the plus button, decide how much you want to stake, and finalize it. You're now staking. As you earn you can choose to either compound ie roll that money back in, or harvest which is take it out and trade it back into BNB or another coin. My strategy as I'm in both Pancake Swap and Cub Finance is when one is up I'll harvest and put my earnings into the other. 

Wrapping Up

Keep in mind these type of Dex's or Defi sites are risky, typically it's an anonymous team behind them ie like trading on the Silk Road or Agora, there will be rug pulls and people will run off with money. I like Pancake Swap because Binance promotes them and honestly I think it may be Binance running it. I like Cub Finance because the team behind Leo Finance runs it, they have a track record of success and haven't stolen money. I'm also bullish on both these coins ie CAKE and CUB. There's a lot of sites like this that popup but most are wham bam thank you mam kinda sites where the native coins tank and everyone just rushes in to get 16,000% APR and pull out real quick so for now I'm basically sticking with these two.

To acquire BNB Coin you can get it from Binance.Com, Binance.US or Kucoin. Binance.US will allow you to buy in Fiat, Binance.Com or Kucoin you'll need to have another crypto to buy it with. Kucoin will allow USA users, Binance.Com will not so you'll need to use a VPN to access the site and set the location for HongKong. 

Tools Mentioned in This Guide + Free Crypto Offers

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