Dear Bankless Nation,

In crypto we can tokenize just about anything:

• NFTs = Tokenized collectibles
• Stablecoins = Tokenized money
• Protocol tokens = Tokenized governance
• Dogecoin = Tokenized memes

Tokenizing allows us to incent behaviors—this is called cryptoeconomics.

Take the “Curve Wars” for example. There’s value in participating in Curve’s governance and so there is value in owning CRV, which drives demand for the token. This demand is native to the underlying value of CRV.

Can we take this further?

How about incentivizing behavior based on token distribution?

This brings us to the X to Earn paradigm. In effect, these projects are distributing tokens in exchange for attention. It’s a mutual trade between projects and their users.

We’ve covered Play to Earn before, so today we’re looking into Learn to Earn—a way to earn tokens in exchange for educating yourself.

As we say so often…crypto pays you to learn about crypto.

Let’s get paid to level up.

- RSA

P.S. It pays to pay attention… so are you paying attention to Ledger’s new Visa card yet?

Diving into crypto as a beginner is easier said than done. At least that was the way things were in the past.

We now have streamlined services like Coinbase Earn and RabbitHole that make crypto learn-to-earn opportunities fun and easy avenues for getting started with crypto. Designed for beginners, this tactic will outline how to get started with these helpful learn-to-earn services.

• Goal: Learn how to use Coinbase Earn and RabbitHole
• Skill: Beginner
• Effort: Mixed
• ROI: Learning crypto fundamentals + earning token rewards

Starting your crypto “skill tree”

When you dig into it, the crypto ecosystem is economically, sociologically, and technologically complicated. It’s international, it’s 24/7, its moving parts dart in all directions and reach out across all aspects of life.

In other words, making headway into crypto can be a lot to take in for beginners.

Of course, we are surrounded by complicated things in our daily lives; most of us aren’t car or smartphone experts, but many of us learn the basics of how to capably wield these innovations. And most will approach crypto and crypto apps in the same way moving forward. It’s how most of us approach them now!

If you’re a crypto newcomer there’s no need to get stressed about all the things you don’t know yet or all the things that still seem confusing. What’s important is to begin learning the fundamentals of top crypto projects, including how to use them, and to build out the beginnings of your crypto portfolios, i.e. acquiring digital assets and an on-chain resume.

From these starting points, your “crypto skill tree” and related knowledge will blossom naturally. You learn to swim before diving into the deep end, as it were.

How to learn-to-earn crypto

So you’re totally new to crypto, and you have no idea where to begin. Or you have friends or family that you want to help get started here, but you want something user-friendly to point them to that will give them a sound foundation to launch forward from.

My recommendation? Try the Coinbase Earn and RabbitHole combo!

Coinbase, of course, is one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the world, and its Earn dashboard lets people win small amounts of crypto by successfully completing short quizzes. As for RabbitHole, it’s a platform that helps users learn top Web3 skills while earning tokens and generating an on-chain resume. Together, these services can function as a wonderful “Intro to crypto 101” onboarding flow.

Using Coinbase Earn

Diving into crypto by starting with Coinbase Earn makes a lot of sense for a few reasons.

• First of all, creating a Coinbase account will prep your fiat on-ramp/off-ramp. Afterward, you’ll be able to move money into or out of crypto as needed, so getting your first exchange account ready is definitely an important foundational experience.
• Coinbase Earn’s lessons and quizzes are beginner-level materials; they’re designed for people who have little to no familiarity with the blockchain space. Completing these materials is fun and leads to basic understandings of core crypto concepts.
• Completing all of Coinbase Earn’s currently available quizzes will net ~$90 USD worth of rewards. Your first crypto! With your Coinbase account, you could then exchange these rewards and consolidate them into other crypto assets of your choice: BTC, ETH, MATIC etc. For example, ~$90 traded into MATIC is more than enough to get you started with NFTs on Polygon in a low-cost fashion.

As for how to actually use Coinbase Earn, head to the Earn dashboard or click on the “Learn and earn” button on the left side of the Coinbase website.

From here you’ll be able to take short lessons on crypto projects, simply press the “Start lesson” button on whichever project piques your interest first. Doing so will automatically kick off a series of educational slides introducing the main ideas of the crypto you’ve selected.

Whenever you’re ready you can then click the “Take quiz” button to put your new knowledge to the test!

Keep in mind that every project has multiple lessons and quizzes, typically three each. As you successfully complete quizzes you’ll earn rewards denominated in the token of the project in question, e.g. FET tokens as depicted in the image below.

Once you’re done with all the Earn materials, you’ll have gotten a foundational sense for the basics of crypto and earned your first holdings without having to buy anything! Now you’re ready to go deeper down the crypto rabbithole, and for that, we turn to the aptly named RabbitHole platform.

Getting Paid with RabbitHole

“On RabbitHole, users can acquire XP, level up, and earn rewards for interacting with well-known blockchain protocols. RabbitHole breaks down each decentralized application into gamified tasks so users can understand the main functions of the application while simultaneously bootstrapping the network.”

— Brian Flynn, RabbitHole CEO and co-founder

After you’ve finished with Coinbase Earn, it’s time to move beyond learning to actually doing so you can get firsthand experience around top crypto apps. Toward this end I highly recommend crypto beginners check out RabbitHole.

That’s because RabbitHole is a platform that gamifies and rewards curated Web3 educational experiences. In using RabbitHole, you perform real activities around real crypto projects, learning and thereafter potentially earning in the process.

Keep in mind that you’ll need a Web3 wallet (MetaMask or WalletConnect) to use RabbitHole, so set one up if you haven’t already. Once that’s done head to the project’s app, connect your wallet, and you’re ready to begin!

Now it’s up to you to decide what Skills challenges you want to start with. Each challenge you successfully complete earns you XP points, and some activities yield more points than others. These activities will cost gas, so you can convert your Coinbase Earn rewards to ETH, MATIC, etc. to help cover these expenses if you want.

Each Skills page will host different opportunities, as well as key information and a link to the app. Note that clicking on the “Details” button as depicted below will take you to a tutorial for that particular activity, so you’ll always have guides you can lean on every step of the way.

You’ll simply sign transactions to redeem the XP points you accrue, and you’ll level up as you learn more and complete more challenges; the idea is that points you gain will entitle you to future rewards (maybe an airdrop??? 👀)

As for earning tokens directly, you can do so during RabbitHole quest campaigns like the weeklong Matcha campaign from Dec. 2021. For example, during this limited-time event users could earn ZRX rewards for completing specific tasks around the Matcha decentralized exchange. As of writing, there are no quests currently live, but they come and go periodically so keep your eyes peeled for opps!

Keep in mind that to fully unlock your RabbitHole profile and access your quest earnings, you’ll need to verify your account through BrightID (tutorial here). That said, if you’re mainly focused on learning out of the gate, simply focusing on completing RabbitHole’s base Skills challenges and following along with the provided tutorials is worthwhile in and of itself and will help make you a Web3 veteran in no time!

Conclusion

Despite the triumphant performance of the cryptoeconomy over the last few years, those of us already here still have plenty of work ahead when it comes to helping people tangibly empower themselves and improve their lives with crypto innovations.

This is why I think the Coinbase Earn + RabbitHole combo is powerful. These services in tandem make for a compelling intro to crypto and crypto apps that makes stepping into this space easy, and frankly, fun.

It’s a straightforward and reliable “one-two punch” program that can help a wide array of folks begin their crypto journeys. This is good and worth recommending!

Action steps

• Complete all the Coinbase Earn lessons
• Complete at least one Skills challenge on RabbitHole