Mining cryptocurrency for android: pros and cons?

Mining is a popular way to earn cryptocurrency. But not everyone is ready to invest hundreds and thousands of dollars in mining coins using video cards or specialized ASIC devices. But there are alternatives. Including cryptocurrency mining for android. Mining on smartphones requires less financial costs, but it has limitations when choosing a coin.

What is cryptocurrency mining for android?

Android is the most popular operating system for mobile devices. In 2017, 85.9% of the total number of smartphones sold used this OS. In second place is iOS, which has 14% of the market.

The essence of mining cryptocurrency for android is using the power of a smartphone with this operating system to get virtual coins. Many have already had to mine digital money on the phone, but they did not know about it.

This method of obtaining coins has a number of advantages:

• Minimal Cost – No need to buy ASICs or GPUs. Additional electricity costs are minimal.

• Simple setup that does not require deep knowledge.

• A sufficient number of applications and programs.

• An easy way to learn the basics of mining.

But there are also disadvantages:

• You won’t be able to earn much.

• Phone Wear – The devices are not designed for this level of stress. Mining will lead to fast battery drain, CPU overheating and other problems.

What cryptocurrencies can you mine on Android

Now there are a number of coins that are suitable for mining on a smartphone:

• Electroneum (ETN) – You can mine using GPUs, CPUs and smartphones. The disadvantages include the low rate – $ 0.00915 per 1 coin. ETN is also difficult to sell – it is supported by only 7 exchanges, none of which accepts hryvnia or rubles.

• Aeon (AEON) – forked from Monero. Aeon is trying to get ahead of its predecessor in terms of technology, but loses to her in popularity. Mining looks attractive due to the relatively high rate – $ 1.18. But this also means increased competition.

• Monero (XMR) is one of the most popular anonymous cryptocurrencies. Users are certainly attracted by the rate of $ 128.2 per coin. But due to the high hashrate, XMR is not the best choice for Android mining.

• Bytecoin (BCN) – can be mined using the phone, but the coin rate is only $ 0.0026.

• If desired, the number of coins can be expanded. On some applications, mining Dashcoin ($ 0.018 rate) or Ethereum Classic ($ 15.55) is possible. It all depends on the program and the desire of the miner.

What apps allow you to mine on Android

Android mining applications can be downloaded from the Play Market or searched on the Internet. In the latter case, it is better to be careful – the cryptocurrency market looks attractive to cybercriminals and there are a lot of fake applications on the network.

Android mining apps include:

• MinerGate Mobile Miner is perhaps the most popular application in this area. Supports several well-known coins including Monero, Dashcoin, BCN, and ETC. MinerGate is a pool, and an application is a client that allows you to mine on your phone. The mining speed of Monero on Mediatek MT6580 is on average only 8-10 H / s.

• NeoNeonMiner – the pluses of the program include support for eighteen algorithms. The mining speed on the CryptoNight algorithm (Masari, Monero, Loki, Electroneum, Aeon and 9 others) on Mediatek MT6580 is 90.1 H / s. At startup, the hash rate often remained at zero, but in the end the process still started.

• ARM Miner – Supports Scrypt and SHA-256 algorithms. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Novacoin, Ppcoin and other altcoins can be mined. There are a lot of ads in the app. Hashrate on Mediatek MT6580 – 2.4 Kh / s. ARM Miner does not support CryptoNight, so we checked against Scrypt.

Coinbase

Those interested in buying Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, and other cryptocurrencies may want to check out Coinbase, a licensed exchange where many different cryptocurrencies can be bought and sold.

Coinbase Mobile App

Using the Coinbase mobile app, you can perform the same operations as on the website: buy, sell and convert cryptocurrencies, fund your account and withdraw funds.

The app is very easy to use and has a high rating: on the App Store it is 4.7 out of 5 based on 875,000 reviews, and on Google Play it is 4.5 out of 5 based on 230,000 reviews.

What is Blockfolio?

Blockfolio is a free mobile application for iOS and Android for managing a cryptocurrency portfolio (there is no desktop version for a computer, but there are analogues). It’s simple, convenient, fast and ad-free. With it, you can monitor all your cryptocurrency investments and transactions in one place, fully control the market situation and always be aware of all new historical highs in Bitcoin. And, of course, share screenshots of your state in one tap.

Thus, Blockfolio allows you to:

1. get complete detailed information on the cryptocurrency portfolio as a whole and each coin separately. By the way, the application supports displaying in digital and more than 30 fiat currencies, the same dollars, euros, etc.

2. monitor the dynamics of the crypto portfolio and individual investments per day, week, month, 3 months, half a year, a year and all the time;

3. work with more than 2,000 cryptocurrencies, with new altcoins usually being added on a daily basis;

4. keep with you a complete history of transactions for each coin and exchange;

5. increase your knowledge of the crypto market – at your service detailed market information for each coin, the current rate, candlesticks, orders and support for over 17 exchanges, from Bittrex and Poloniex to CEX.io and YoBit;

6. always keep abreast of all important events – the app aggregates news from CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin Warrior, Reddit and other sources;

7. quickly make decisions about buying and selling – no one canceled notifications when a certain price was reached on a particular exchange;

Conclusion

Mining Bitcoin on Android is not the best way to make money on cryptocurrencies. Even the best smartphone is inferior not only to ASICs and graphics cards, but also to conventional desktop and laptop processors. But mining on Android is a great solution for beginners who don’t have real experience yet. This will help them understand basic concepts like pool, hash rate, wallets, and more. At the same time, you do not need to spend money on expensive equipment.

For the rest, mining on Android is more of a hobby that can potentially harm a smartphone.