Is it possible to earn "income" by doing work on some aspect of Ethereum beyond running a node?

Question

I am very new to cryptocurrency and blockchain.

I know people try to make money by "mining" / running nodes on a given blockchain. There is some kind of incentive to essentially expend a lot of energy in performing some kind of computation. Those computations are what allow the blockchain to operate, because, in some way, its information needs to be updated, and synchronised across a wide network. The key idea (as I understand it) is that whatever function a blockchain performs, contributing computing power to its necessary options has to have some kind of incentive, hence, it naturally attracts people to contribute and serve it. That incentive is generally taken to be money, in a way, because I guess the third essential property of a blockchain is its ability to create unique and unforgeable "tokens". At that point, I assume the tokens have to have some kind of use value on that blockchain, at least, otherwise nobody would want them.

So I think this looks something like a cycle, right? 1. There is a computational system that performs some kind of function. 2. The system automatically bestows "tokens" on anyone who assists in running that blockchain. 3. Those tokens can be used on that blockchain to purchase whatever work / functionality is produced on that blockchain.

Therefore, someone can be more of a "worker" or more of a "purchaser" on a blockchain, or both.

Is this generalisation accurate or is there much more that I am not aware of?

All I want to know is if mining / running nodes is pretty much the only way you can make money by contributing to a blockchain itself. Otherwise, you are either investing by holding tokens and hoping their worth goes up, or, you may be developing dapps on that blockchain, but that would not make money as a direct function of that blockchain, as mining does, rather, it would be like selling any other service in the world; starting a company, making a website, etc.

Is that true? If you want to make money by doing productive work on the blockchain itself, is there anything other than running a node?

Thanks

Answer 1

Okay.. here is my longshot:

Q: All I want to know is if mining / running nodes is pretty much the only way you can make money by contributing to a blockchain itself?

A: No, you can also have income if you develop a project and implement blockchain features; Developing projects and having tokens with real utility its contributing to the Blockchain adoption of wider markets

Q: you are either investing by holding tokens and hoping their worth goes up?

A: adding liquidity is just part of the ecosystem in many projects that profit from nft sales of raise funds selling tokens; this contributes to the blockchain adoption of wider markets but is a double edged sword... a bunch of sh-it projects around are just leeching the wallets of the users

Q: you may be developing dapps on that blockchain, but that would not make money as a direct function of that blockchain, as mining does, rather, it would be like selling any other service in the world; starting a company, making a website, etc.??

A: I would say that this is not 100% accurate since the blockchain adoption benefits all of us (crypto users) since it gives more stability and a wider portfolio of use cases for our crypto.. so by starting a web3 company you're actually contributing to the ecosystem in an ideal way.. not just by adding liquidity

Q: Is that true? If you want to make money by doing productive work on the blockchain itself, is there anything other than running a node?

A: I think running a web3 project is way more productive than just adding liquidity in a volatile market; At least is safer than just trading

You definitely have a good point :D I hope I you can understand my point of view where having real utility tokens and good dapps actually contribute to the ecosystem in a lot of good ways