You may have heard about mining cryptocurrencies with your smartphone, but perhaps you don’t know where to start or whether the returns are worth the effort.

Here’s what you need to know about cryptocurrency mobile mining.

Is cryptocurrency mobile mining really possible?

Cryptocurrency mobile mining is possible, but it comes with a long list of reasons not to do it. Moreover, mining on your smartphone doesn’t even come close to traditional mining hardware or software. In the current state of cryptocurrency mining, doing it on your smartphone might not bring you enough profits to be worth the time and effort.

It’s not because the smartphones we have today aren’t powerful enough to be used for cryptocurrency mining. The main point is that the tools that other miners use for mining are way more powerful. This means that they have higher chances of winning the incentives.

As you may have learnt by now, regular cryptocurrency mining implies validating transactions on the blockchain by solving complex mathematical problems. This process uses your computer processor or your GPU power and consumes a significant amount of energy.

Cryptocurrency mining has become more of an industrial activity. Developers created software specifically for mining, miners began to invest in ASIC mining devices that increased profitability, and pool mining was invented. All these innovations aim to gather more computing power to raise miners’ chances of solving the algorithms and getting rewards.

Cryptocurrency mobile mining is pretty much the same but on an infinitely smaller scale. No one will stop you from using your smartphone to join a mining pool or a mobile mining farm. However, the power you share with your network is practically insignificant when compared with other miners. So, when the network shares rewards, you’ll only receive the percentage that is related to your computing power.

Which smartphones can be used for mining?

When you consider the hardware requests for cryptocurrency mining, it’s usually wiser to go for altcoins instead of experimenting with Bitcoin. Given the high number of “professional” miners out there, operating in a smaller market may help you to monetise your investment faster.

You can only do cryptocurrency mobile mining with smartphones that use Android, as it’s the only mining-friendly operating system for mobile devices. Moreover, the market is flooded with apps created for Android that allow you to mine Bitcoin directly from your smartphone. You won’t find them in Google’s Play Store, though.

Google decided to ban all mining apps due to the harmful effects they had on devices. Cryptocurrency mobile mining leads to overheating, battery damage, and overall lower performance.

Apple also banned mining apps from the App Store back in 2018. So, iOS owners can’t do any mobile mining. Now, Apple guidelines for developers explicitly prohibit iOS and Mac apps from mining cryptocurrency in the background, stating:

“2.4.2 Design your app to use power efficiently and be used in a way that does not risk damage to the device. Apps should not rapidly drain battery, generate excessive heat, or put unnecessary strain on device resources. Apps, including any third-party advertisements displayed within them, may not run unrelated background processes, such as cryptocurrency mining.”

The measure is meant to preserve the integrity of the hardware.

Popular apps for mining crypto with your smartphone

If you’re still hell-bent on getting into cryptocurrency mobile mining, all you need is a mining app and your battery charger close by. Here are a couple of apps that could help you.

• MinerGate Mobile Miner is an app that enables you to mine for multiple altcoins besides Bitcoin. Among them, you have Monero, Dash, DigitalNote, MonetaVerde, and QuazarCoin. The app also provides a built-in wallet, where users can store their hard-earned coins.

• Bitcoin Miner is one of the most popular applications at the moment and is available on most devices. It has a user-friendly interface and its performance often receives good reviews. Despite the name, the app supports multiple altcoins.

Wrapping it up

Cryptocurrency mobile mining isn’t complicated. All you need is a decent smartphone and a mining app. The app runs in the background while you’re using your phone, and you receive rewards for it.

The downside is that all mining apps interfere with the performance of your smartphone and usually end up damaging your device. In the long run, what may have seemed like a simple way of making some extra cash could just cause more expenses.

If you’re planning on doing cryptocurrency mobile mining with your $1,000 smartphone, you may not end up earning enough to cover the damage.

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