My crypto journey/challenge (so far)

Bit about me for context. Mid 30s, had a decent career in the trades before covid hit. Which wiped out both my bank account, and my health. Currently back in school retraining into a new industry, and things are going pretty well so far. Even have the opportunity to do my PHD studies at the best school in my field overseas. But of course, all this (and especially the overseas study) costs money. Money I don't have.

What I DO have though, is a 2-3 hour round trip transit 5-6 days a week.

So I decided to see what I could do with that time, to begin getting some passive income going, that I can hopefully build up over the past 2-3 years to help pay for my year abroad.

I've always been interested in crypto, even from the very early days, even dipped my toe into cpu mining way back when that was still a thing. So figure that might be my best route to achieve this.

Couple rules that I've set for myself for this challenge. 1) I can only use money that I've gotten "for free" from whatever sources I can generate. 2) I will not withdraw or use any of the money I earn until my studies overseas (or whatever route I end up taking for my post-grad studies.) 3) I cannot use donations for the challenge. Since it would violate the 'spirit' of the challenge of it. (If anyone -does- donate. That money would go towards my current education and debts. Not the challenge pool. But I really don't expect any, that's not the point of this.) 4) equipment donations (second hand miners etc) will be considered on a case by case basis. 5) will try to chronicle my journey on a periodic basis. (I suck with schedules.)

What I've achieved so far: I've been working at this for about 3 weeks now, so far have managed to earn about 200 bucks from various 'cash for play' apps. During my transit to and from school/work. Been cashing it all out in bitcoin for now, since that seems to be the most stable and reliable crypto currency.

I did wind up loosing 50$ on a crypto scam. (My own fault really, it seemed too good to be true, and I should have trusted my gut. But that's why I only put 50 in. So no big loss in the grand scheme, and a good learning opportunity.)

Next steps, are to continue trying to grow a bit of a seed fund through the pay to play apps. While researching what I should do next to leverage what little I have.

I had originally looked into cloud mining as an option, but from everything I've seen. It seems to be a scam at worst. Or at best, you barely break even while locking up your money for years.

I am also doing some research on some affordable mining rigs, since one BIG advantage I have in that area, is that electricity is included in the building I love in. Obviously I couldn't set up a massive farm or anything, but something small should be manageable, and without the electricity overhead, the profit margin and ROI becomes much better.

Getting a reasonably efficient asic miner is still quite a ways off financially. But even a 500-600 one might be achievable. Also need to look into the potential profitability of gpu mining, since I need to upgrade mine soon anyways.

Since it will probably take me another 2-3 months to build up even enough funds for a dirt cheap second hand miner. I'm looking into investment accounts for the little bit of crypto that I have. I know the interest won't be amazing, especially on an amount this small. But something is better than nothing.

Will update again in a few weeks or whenever something changes.