Most valuable mineral resources on the planet such as diamond, gold, ore and others are not secretly dispersed in many locations under the earth’s crust. Humans have been able to extract these valuable resources through the process of mining.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are very valuable digital currencies which are often referred to as digital assets. Since the invention of cryptocurrencies, many experts have referred to Bitcoin as “digital gold” due to its expensive nature and scarcity.
However, more cryptocurrencies are extracted from the same process of the mining as many physical mineral resources but the only difference is, the mining of cryptocurrencies does not involve the constant drilling of the soil.
Cryptocurrency is a completely digital approach which involves the use of advanced machines to solve complicated cryptographic equations in the blockchain.
Cryptocurrency miners are charged with the responsibility of securing the network and verifying the legitimacy of transactions on the blockchain and in return, they earn a certain amount of crypto as a reward for the work done.
To earn a significant amount of crypto as a reward in crypto, it requires a good number of advanced interconnected computers. Nonetheless, you can still mine cryptocurrencies even without having mining machines.
There are many ways of mining cryptocurrencies and mobile crypto mining is one of the common ways of crypto mining.
This article will discuss how you can embark on mobile crypto mining from your home.
What Is Crypto Mining?
Crypto mining is a process of using advanced computers to solve complex cryptographic problems on the blockchain. Crypto mining is an energy and resource-consuming activity but miners always earn rewards from mining in the form of cryptocurrency. The crypto rewards are by the level of computing power offered by the miner.
High-performance hardware such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) are the main components of a standard mining rig. However, because ASICs are meant for only mining cryptocurrencies, they are more powerful and consume less energy than GPU miners.
ASICs are meant for one purpose, which can be mining just a specific coin, but considering the risks of volatility of the crypto market, it will be a waste to depend on this alone.
For example, if a coin’s value depreciates over time or if the developers change the hashing algorithm of the cryptocurrency, then the ASIC device will be useless.
What Is Mobile Crypto Mining And How Does It Work?
Mobile crypto mining is quite different from the above definition of mining using advanced mining machines with ASICs or GPUs.
Mobile crypto mining means the use of the processing capacity of smartphones powered by iOS and Android operating systems to mine cryptocurrency.
The rewards on mobile crypto mining and that of miners with mining rigs will be approximately the same according to the computing power offered.
Mobile cryptocurrency mining may not be as complicated as mining from an already constructed mining rig but is it free?
To engage in mobile crypto mining, one has to buy a good smartphone, get a stable internet connection and download a crypto mining app on your device.
There are many crypto mining apps available for iOS and Android operating systems but most can only be found on third-party crypto mining sites which raises the concern for scrutiny before they are used.
Mobile mining apps are not listed on Google Play Store due to Google’s developer policy because of some reasons like the quick shortage of batteries caused by the mining process. If mining is done on a phone device, there’s a high possibility of the phone overheating due to the intensive processing.
Additionally, for mobile crypto miners, the incentive for mining may be quite smaller and may not cover the electricity cost used to mine.
Smartphones used in mining will likely experience lower lifespan and extreme strain from the mining process which further weakens its hardware until its completely damaged.
How To Mine Cryptocurrency On An Android Smartphone
There are two major ways to mine cryptocurrency on Android smartphones, it’s either the miner opts for Android solo mining or he joins mining pools like AntPool, F2Pool, Poolin and ViaBTC.
However, the common option most miners go for is the mining pool because solo mining is a task which requires a lot of computation and it can take many years to mine cryptocurrencies with this method even if you deploy the newest flagship models.
Using some apps like MinerGate Mobile Miner and Bitcoin miner, mobile crypto miners can join some mining pools to generate a collective computational power and share rewards according to their contributions. The incentive options, payment frequency and pay of miners all depend on the mining pool size and each pool has a unique payment system and rewards may also vary.
For example, there’s a system known as the pay-per-share system where miners are given a share of mineable cryptocurrency and each miner receives a specific payout rate for every share they successfully mined.
The transaction fees are also allocated through the pay-per-share system.
How To Mine Cryptocurrency On An iPhone
There is not much difference between mining cryptocurrency with Android and iPhone. Miners who use iPhones only need to download mining apps on their iPhones and mine the cryptocurrency of their choice without the stress of building a mining rig or buying expensive hardware equipment.
However, mining crypto with iPhones will cause the same effect as mining with Android phones as we have discussed earlier.
It may cause the iPhone to wear out without paying a good reward for the miner’s time and resources.
A miner may not be able to cover the cost of the high energy consumed by the mining process while subjecting the phone’s hardware to high computational power. The iPhone may begin to perform poorly while the battery life is cut short due to the constant need to. charge the phone.
Is Mobile Crypto Mining Profitable?
The truth is that the profitability of crypto mining largely depends on the computational power of the miner and this computational power can only be obtained from advanced efficient hardware.
If a miner uses more advanced equipment to mine crypto, then such crypto miners are prone to earn more profit from mining than others who may be engaged in mobile crypto mining.
Mobile crypto mining can be a risky venture as some cyber attackers tend to usurp the computing power of unprotected devices to mine crypto. This makes them invalid and inefficient for the original owner.
However, most crypto miners often engage in cost-benefit analysis of the crypto mining investment to determine the mining profitability and also weigh their choices.
Is Mobile Crypto Mining Illegal?
The answer to this question depends on the place of residence and the crypto laws guiding such jurisdiction. Recall that some countries have placed strict regulations on crypto and mining crypto through hardware or smartphone in countries where crypto is illegal can be also considered illegal.
Conclusion
Crypto mining has been criticised openly to be environmentally harmful, energy and resource-consuming and therefore, not a good way to go in the crypto space. However, it is yet unknown the position of some jurisdictions on the concept of crypto mining but mobile crypto mining certainly degrades the processing power of smartphones with time, making it unfit for its continual use of mining crypto.
However, given the profits driven from mining, more sustainable technological advancements will be created.
