Your Ultimate Guide to Cryptocurrency Mining Using Your Phone

mobile bitcoin mining

Cryptocurrencies are more popular than ever. At the moment, there are 1.600 different cryptocurrencies available on the internet. No longer is the word cryptocurrency synonymous with a pale dude that mines crypto with a ridiculously overpriced machine.

These days you can “mine” a couple of bucks with nothing less than your smartphone.

In this article, we’re going to discuss the aspects of mining cryptocurrencies with a smartphone, why it isn’t a good idea, and what are the alternatives.

Is Smartphone Mining Possible And Is It Profitable

If you’re aching to see how much you’d earn mining crypto with your smartphone, we’ll give you the answer right away. You can’t make any money because Google and Apple have banned mining apps from their app stores.

But, there is more than one way of mining crypto. You don’t have to run a mining script on your phone. Cloud Mining is a recent development that allows you to mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without the need for specialized hardware and related paraphernalia.

We’ll get to Cloud Mining a bit later in the article. In this section, we’re going to talk about how crypto mining worked before the ban, and how much crypto you could’ve mined in a day.

Even if you could, you wouldn’t be able to mine every type of cryptocurrency using your smartphone.

Although you can mine crypto on your smartphone, there are hardware limits. Your phone simply isn’t capable of mining Bitcoins because it requires massive computing power smartphones won’t be capable of for at least a decade.

However, there are some more lightweight cryptocurrencies on the internet that are far less taxing on your phone’s hardware. Monero was very popular amongst smartphone miners, with its value peaking at $82 before the ban.

To start mining, all you had to do is install a mining app.

We decided to take a look at how MinerGate used to work. Although this app is still available on iTunes and Google Play, you can no longer mine crypto with it.

So, before you could even start mining, you needed to create an account. This was (and still is) a pretty standard ordeal. You needed to type in your email address, password, a couple of other pieces of information, and you were done. Once you were done with the registration, you had to pick a four-digit PIN number that you use to access the app while your phone was mining.

Once you set up your account, the app would have asked you which type of cryptocurrency you want to mine. You could also choose how much of your CPU’s power would be dedicated to mining each of the cryptocurrencies.

You could choose between a wide range of cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Bytecoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. Once you decided which one(s) you wanted to mine, all you had to do is hit the start button and you were done.

To figure out how much you would mine, the MinerGate had a calculator that you could use to find out which crypto was most profitable at the moment.

So how much were you able to mine?

We scoured the internet for the answer to this question. And the answer is not much. With an average smartphone, the MinerGate app was able to generate about 9 hashes per second when mining Bytecoin. This capacity would generate about 1 Bytecoin, which was equivalent to about $0.0008.

Besides being unprofitable, the app would make your phone run really hot, and it would drain your battery in less than two hours.

From all this, we can conclude that mining crypto on the phone was not only unprofitable but was also incredibly harmful to the phone’s hardware because it can’t handle heat very well. The only thing phone mining was good for was to help you get more familiar with the world of cryptocurrencies.

What Are The Alternatives?

Since there are no apps that allow you to mine bitcoin on your phone, there are a couple of alternatives. We’ve already mentioned cloud mining, which involves renting out hash power from a specialized cloud network. The other option is a bitcoin faucet.

Let’s talk about Bitcoin faucets, what they are and how do they work, after which we’ll talk about cloud mining.

Alternative 1: Bitcoin Faucet

Bitcoin faucets were initially created to promote Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the internet. The first Bitcoin faucet was developed by a Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen. When it launched it dispensed 5 (yes, 5) whole Bitcoins to each user!

Times have changed since then, and faucets have become more business-oriented. Today, almost all Bitcoin Faucets are websites that dispense a tiny amount of Bitcoin to users every few minutes. These websites make money by displaying ads to these users. And so, the math is simple. As long as the owner of the faucet is making more money than what he’s giving out, he remains profitable.

Most faucet websites payout directly to your Bitcoin wallet. However, some use a 3rd party micropayment wallet such as CoinPot or FaucetHub. Although you might think this seems like too much of a hassle, it’s actually very convenient since you have all your claims concentrated on one or two websites. This makes it much easier to keep track of how much Bitcoin you’ve claimed, and makes the withdrawal a breeze.

One more thing. The Bitcoin Faucet industry is known to be a bit shady, and things can change overnight. That’s why you should check out the terms and conditions of each faucet you’re planning to use. Here’s a list of the most important things to look out for:

Claim amount – refers to how many Satoshis you get per claim. The Satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin recorded on the blockchain. One Satoshi is equal to 0.00000001 Bitcoin.
Timer – refers to how long you need to wait between claims. Timer length varies from faucet to faucet, but it’s usually one hour.
Minimum withdraw – refers to the minimum amount of crypto you can withdraw from your balance. This amount also varies from faucet to faucet, and there are no usual amounts.
Referral fee – Some Bitcoin Faucets have referral programs that allow you to get a small commission each time a person you referred wins Satoshis or converts them to hard cash. These rates vary from as little as 5% up to 20%.

There are numerous Bitcoin Faucet websites, but there’s only a few that are legitimate. Here are a couple of these legitimate websites you can try out.

1. Cointiply

Cointiply has been founded in 2018 and has been growing ever since. It’s become so popular because of its sleek user interface and multiple methods of claiming Bitcoins.

Cointiply’s faucet allows you to claim 200 Satoshis on average every hour. Aside from the faucet, there are also other methods on this website that enable you to to earn extra Satoshis. These methods include:

Watching video ads
Offer wall
Clicking on ads
Playing browser games

If you like taking risks, there’s also a coin multiplier feature on the website. Basically, it’s a Hi-Lo game you play by betting the Satoshis you claimed on the site.

Cointiply is relatively stable and is up almost all the time. The minimal withdraw set to 35.000 Satoshis. You can withdraw your crypto to FaucetHub, which is a micropayment web wallet. If you, however, manage to amass over 100.000 Satoshis, you can withdraw them directly to your Bitcoin wallet.

2. BonusBitcoin

BonusBitcoin is one of the oldest faucets on the internet. It went through many iterations until it reached its final form we can enjoy today.

The site’s main selling point is its faucet that allows you to claim an average of 24 Satoshis every 15 minutes. You can also multiply your claim by using a coin multiplier, which is a simple game of Hi-Lo. Furthermore, there are also surveys/offers on the site that can earn you a couple of extra Satoshis.

Accounts on BonusBitcoin are automatically connected to CoinPot, a microtransaction wallet that accumulates your payouts. Unfortunately, the website is littered with bugs that can make the process of withdrawal a hassle. Thankfully, withdrawing isn’t impossible, and there is no shady business.

The minimum withdraw limit is set to 10.000 Satoshis, and if you want to withdraw them, you will have to pay a transaction fee. This fee is free for transactions over 50.000 Satoshis.

3. Blockchain Poker

If you enjoy the exciting game of Texas Hold’em poker, you can check out Blockchain Poker. This website is a single-table, no-limit Hold’em cash game that you play with real bitcoin. You don’t have to sign up, which means you can remain anonymous.

If you’re a new player, you will be automatically awarded free Satoshis to play with. This allows you to jump right into the game even if you don’t have any bitcoin. If you, however, drop under 50 Satoshis, you can use the faucet to top up your balance to 100. The timer on the faucet is set to 3 minutes, which is quite short for a Bitcoin faucet.

You can choose to play the game with either Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is another type of cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin, but with a lower market price.

The minimum withdrawal limit is set to 100.000 Satoshis. You can earn them quite quickly if you’re good at poker.

A word of caution: there is a chance of fraud by players who set up multiple accounts at the same table. However, this is quite an interesting take on the Bitcoin faucet concept.

4. Smart Faucets

If you want to use a couple of faucets at the same time, you can try out smart faucets. These apps allow you to interface with several different facets simultaneously. Although it requires quite a bit of focused effort, it means you’ll be able to earn a steady stream of crypto.

If you want to try out one of these apps, the best approach is to do so with no expectations. Please note that all faucet websites have a minimum withdrawal limits (which are quite high), so rotating between faucets will likely extend how long it takes to yield any rewards. On the bright side, if you use reliable faucets, the accumulated payout can be worth the effort.

Unfortunately, as with everything related to cryptocurrencies, there are quite a few trust issues. Keep in mind that at the end of the day, you are working for someone else’s Bitcoin account.

Mobile/Cloud Mining

The other alternative to mining crypto on your phone is to use mobile mining. We won’t be focusing on all cloud mining apps. Instead, we’ll be focusing on Electroneum. This cryptocurrency has been specially developed for mobile phones.

What is Electroneum Exactly?

Electroneum (commonly referred to as ETN) is the first mobile-first cryptocurrency that’s aimed at mass adoption. The team behind this technology makes acquiring cryptocurrency as simple as downloading an app. The team aims at breaking down barriers around acquiring crypto, which opens it up to a far wider audience.

Electroneum is built off the Monero codebase. This allows for transactions on a decentralized blockchain. And just like Monero, Electroneum has built-in privacy features such as stealth addresses. A stealth address is a one-time public key that prevents recipient’s funds from being linked with their wallet. This address can be audited by a 3rd party to prove the transaction even occurred.

The recipient gets their Electroneum through their wallet’s private view key which scans the blockchain. Once the transaction has been detected and retrieved by the wallet, a single-use private key that corresponds to the sender’s private key is generated. The recipient can then spend their Electroneum using their private key. This occurs without the sender, recipient, nor the amount being publicly linked.

The transactions are quite fast, with dynamic fees based on the level of traffic on the network. Most of the transactions have less than 0.2 ETV in fees, and new blocks are added every minute.

How to Mine Electroneum On Your Smartphone

Now that you have a fundamental understanding of what Electroneum is and how transactions are conducted, let’s see how you can start mining it.

Mining Electroneum on your iOS or Android phone is incredibly simple:

Download the app from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store and create an account on Electroneum website.
Log in to the app using your newly created credentials
Head to the Miner tab at the bottom of the screen and tap the Start Mining Button

And that’s it! Your phone will start mining. The app will display your phone’s hash rate (mining speed) as well as your balance.

Please note that mining Electroneum on your phone isn’t real mining. Instead, the app simulates crypto mining. This means that instead of using your phones ARM CPU to solve complex cryptographic problems, the app only monitors the available CPU power on your phone. This way, the app determines the amount of CPU power that could’ve been used for mining, had the phone actually been mining.

Your phone will be issued with a hash rate based on its available CPU power. This value is usually between 30 and 50 hashes per second. Based on your hash rate, you will be credited Electroneum coins to your online wallet.

Of course, you can also use the app to manage your online wallet, send and receive ETN, as well as view ETN exchange rates.

The most significant benefit of this app is that it doesn’t drain your battery or wear out your phone’s hardware. We’ve been running the miner app on a Galaxy S8 for a few days, and haven’t noticed any significant changes in the phone’s performance.

Furthermore, the app doesn’t use a lot of data. And it won’t start using more data in the future because the app is aiming to be accessible by people from 3rd world countries that have expensive data plans. In a couple of days that we’ve been running the miner, the app used less than one megabyte of data. Pretty cool, right?

How Much Will You Mine

The amount of ETN you’ll be able to earn in one day solely depends on the hash rate of your phone. Most people have been reporting they made around 10 ETN in one day.

The Electroneum app will continuously monitor your phone’s available CPU power and adjust the mining rate accordingly. So if you want to mine more ETN, you will have to lay off from using CPU-intensive apps such as games and social media apps.

The actual amount of ETN coins is calculated via an emission algorithm on Electroneum servers and depends on factors such as the number of transactions being conducted worldwide, the number of active miners, and the current exchange rate of the cryptocurrency.

So, we can conclude from this that in one month, you’ll be able to mine around 300 ETN, which translates to around $2. This isn’t much, but it won’t ruin your phone, and it also serves as an excellent introduction to the world of cryptocurrencies.

So what do you think about mining cryptocurrencies with a mobile phone? Is it efficient, or just a power-waste? Do you think it’s an excellent way for people to get passive income? Let us know in the comments below!