What is surprising(or not) is that you didn't mention "trading" in your poll or even "lending" or "investments". LOL does it mean you don't think people could make susbstantial profits in cryptos by trading on exchanges, investing them in ICO or in lending products? Well, it's true that we don't hear about this kind of guys very often to be honest, but I'm sure they exist somewhere.

Unless you’re giving a service on the forum, signature campaigns, gambling and contests are the only way to earn bitcoin on the forum. So far I have not had any luck with any of the contests organized on bitcointalk. Hoping to change that soon.

You are not really earning bitcoin by hodling for long term Unless you’re selling at a high and buying more bitcoins when the market dips. The value of your bitcoin hodlings may increase in USD but 1 bitcoin is 1 bitcoin, if that makes sense.

Perhaps you are among the early users of Bitcoin who benefitted from faucets and the others. I doubt there are free Bitcoin now again so all Bitcoin have to be earned from work done or bought... this is how I get my Bitcoin.  The service section of this forum have companies running their promotions here and they pay in Bitcoin. Apart from this, majority of my Bitcoin were bought from CEX and  transferred to my private wallet.

That is a good one, I suppose investments/trading could fall under Earn them

I personally get bitcoins by buying them, because I only got to know bitcoins a few years ago, so I don't really understand about faucets or anything related to getting bitcoins (not through purchasing). Maybe when I found out about the existence of bitcoin, at that time (2022) it seemed like bitcoin could no longer be obtained through faucets. So the only way to get it is to buy it directly. However, after I entered this forum, and tried to discuss positive things related to bitcoin or other things in this forum, I was able to move up in rank and was able to take part in the signature campaign. From here I can also get bitcoin every week until now. So in addition to continuing to do DCA using the cash I have, I also earn weekly income from signature campaigns. Maybe people who can get bitcoins through faucets can be said to be very lucky people. Because they can own bitcoin with only a cellphone or computer and an internet network. But even so, I am still proud of my current achievements. Because basically people who know and invest in bitcoin are extraordinary people, in essence I am proud to be part of the bitcoin investors.

It started with faucets, then i tried to mine bitcoin, but thought that i was not getting enough, even though compared to current prices it would be considered plenty.
So i moved to mining altcoins and tried to convert them to bitcoin, as btc is was the main pair for every altcoin, and sometimes that was worth it. Most of the time not.

If i had just kept my wins in btc and not tried to trade it, i would have done way better then with any trading and be a millionaire now, i don't want even to do the math on how much was it. But that's how it goes, no need to dwell in the past.

Later on i found the possibility to do bounties, and some of legit ones paid in btc.

 When I first entered the cryptocurrencies landscape back in 2017, I used to buy Bitcoin from exchanges such as Binance and Kucoin. for few months I also joined a cloud mining firm who paying me Bitcoin as reward of my contract, however soon I realized that their rewards are minimal, so I stopped buying cloud mining contract after that.

For the last several years I have been participating in Bountry campaign on Bitcointalk form where bounty manager usually make payment in Bitcoin.

I got most of my bitcoins (through earnings) by working on signature campaigns on this forum. Also I took some extra money from family and invested it by buying p2p bitcoins. But I haven't been able to invest bitcoins with any money I made from gambling until now. Because the amount of money I have taken in the gambling section has been spent by losing and cashing out so I have not been able to buy bitcoins from the gambling platform so far which is why I will never reveal it.

There is no more easy way to have bitcoin except buying them, earn them for some task, or even get paid through bitcoin. perhaps I have eared bitcoin through signature campaign, I have also bought bitcoin and I have also got paid through bitcoin for a freelancing job... although not all are left in bitcoin just some because I usually exchange some for cash to facilitate my daily life while the once I hold till date are most from my school monthly/weekly allowance because it took me alot to get them so I don't sell till I see a good price in bitcoin.

Apart from this few mentioned above it's literally had to see people who have bitcoin through any other means outside the above mentioned and I think people who where early in bitcoin are more favour to have earn BTC through some simple tasks.

I was also once surprised that there are faucets; moreover, they pay. But yes, they still exist.

https://www.bestchange.ru/index.php?nt=bonus

Another question is that some want a few cents for regularly entering Captcha. I guess I'm too picky, and many want to get at least a little from Bitcoin, but doing faucets in our time is simply wasting not only time but also eyesight if you listen to the advice of doctors about the harm of sitting in front of monitors for a long time. Now it is not a problem to buy bitcoin than to do faucets. Is it so hard to deprive yourself of 3–5 bucks a week (although I think you won't even get that amount) than to regularly poke the captcha? However, if you check the recent boom in tapping phones, then for some this is no longer a problem.