How I Make $115/Year Passively from My Unused Bandwidth
Two words: PacketStream & Honeygain
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links.
As someone extremely interested in personal finance, I am always looking for ways to earn money with minimal effort. Even if I’m only earning a couple of cents each day, it adds up. I believe in working smarter, not harder.
The two bandwidth services mentioned in this article make me $2.20 a week, which works out to approximately $115 per year. Depending on your internet usage, you may make more or less than I do. I wanted to share this article to give you a glimpse of what is possible if you do your research. I spend hours every week searching for new ways to make passive income, and it pays off.
Remember, even if you make $50/year with these services, that can cover a month’s electricity or a phone bill. Every bit counts. After installing, you can forget they exist — they are completely passive after the two minutes of setup. I hope you find this write-up useful.
PacketStream — $1.49/week [I use my laptop approximately 10h/day]
PacketStream is a service that uses your unused bandwidth. You download their app onto your computer and it runs in the background. They then allow others to use your [limited] bandwidth through a VPN service they provide — think people in other countries using your IP for Netflix without slowing down your computer speed.
At first, I was a little wary of allowing such a service on my computer, but after doing some investigating of their website and reading a multitude of reviews, I have been using it since August with zero issues.
In fact, when I contacted PacketStream support to ask about their security, they addressed every question I had. Here was the response I received:
“Any data on the PacketStream ecosystem passes through our servers before being processed by Packeters and the last thing we want to do is expose our company or Packeters to legal issues.
We have automated processes to terminate accounts if illegitimate activity is detected. If our software misses anything we won’t hesitate to cooperate with law-enforcement investigators and hand off information. PacketStream is a privacy tool but it’s not anonymous and we retain customer data.
Several courts have ruled that an IP address doesn’t identify a person and that an individual can’t be held liable for something that happens on their data line unless it was enacted by the individual. There are several case examples of these types of rulings in various jurisdictions.
Our goal is to continue building a reputable long-term product & business. We don’t tolerate misuse of our network.”
Because of their excellent customer service and zero impact of the app on my browsing speed, I feel very comfortable using PacketStream.
PacketStream allows you to withdraw your earnings via PayPal with a 3% transaction fee, granted it meets their minimum withdrawal threshold of $5.
If you do decide to try out PacketStream, here’s my referral code.
Honeygain — $0.71/week [I use my laptop approximately 10h/day]
Interestingly, Honeygain & PacketStream both pay the same amount per gigabyte [$0.10], but PacketStream makes me twice as much. This discrepancy is due to PacketStream harvesting gigabytes at a quicker rate than Honeygain.
Honeygain also uses your unused bandwidth, but it does not borrow your IP address. Although Honeygain seems less tempting, earning me $0.71/week, you have the potential to earn far more with it. Honeygain allows you to add multiple devices to their program, with a maximum of two devices per IP. I only use it on my laptop because their app is not available for iPhone and I don’t have another laptop.
If you have old, supported phones lying around or an old computer, it is possible to use Honeygain as a constant source of passive income. Be sure to do the math on whether it is worth the electricity/wear on the device. I wouldn’t recommend running a new device 24/7 solely for either of these services, but if you’re using a device for work, it’s great to have running in the background.
Honeygain requires a $20 minimum to withdraw funds via PayPal [in USD] or Bitcoin. For Paypal US residents, the fee is $1 + 2% up to $21.00, and for non-US residents, the fee is $1.
Honeygain has a referral program that gives the person signing up a $5 bonus to start. Here’s my referral code if you would like to use it.
I’ve written about these services in the past when I was working fewer hours online. Now that I have transitioned into freelance work and spend double the amount of time online, I make double the passive income from these bandwidth harvesting services.
If you want to learn even more about PacketStream and Honeygain, I suggest reading this article. In it, I discuss someone who makes $300/year through Honeygain, which is no easy feat. He has the screenshots and everything to prove it. He has far more devices active than I ever will and has referred hundreds of people, which I am not even close to doing. I find his efforts extremely fascinating.
I hope you found this article to be a valuable resource for your passive income endeavors or an interesting read at the very least. I encourage you to try out the services for yourself — I think you’ll be happy you did.
[This is not financial advice! Please research and make your own decisions.]
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