Last Updated on January 3, 2020 by Larious

Cryptocurrency is a decentralized financial system, which means there is no bank or central authority to verify each payment. Instead, payments are authenticated and recorded on the blockchain through cryptocurrency mining and the miner receives a crypto reward of their own in return for their work.

Let’s imagine you own a bitcoin wallet with one of the big providers like Luno. You could then send bitcoin to anyone else in the world even if they owned a bitcoin wallet from another provider. The payment would need to be recorded on the blockchain and miners step in with computer power to race and solve a mathematical equation to add the transaction to the public ledger. The key here is the computer power involved.

Mining requires a lot of computer power if you want to do it with any real payback. Simultaneously, computers need to be kept cool with other equipment during the mining process. With this in mind, is it really possible to do crypto mining with a smartphone?

Is It Possible to Mine with a Smartphone?

It is possible to mine crypto with your smartphone – but that doesn’t say you should do it. In theory, most smartphones have the power to mine for crypto to some effect. However, even though smartphones can be used, they cannot keep up with the computer power used by real computers, and especially not with computers that have been made specifically to mine for crypto.

Crypto mining today is really an industrial affair with large crypto mining farms even covering acres in some cases. Trying to compete with the likes of mining farms or big operations will make mining for bitcoin on your smartphone inferior. As a result, it is probably not worth your time.

Which Smartphones Are Suitable for Crypto Mining?

The only time you may want to continue the pursuit of mobile crypto mining is when you are not doing it for the rewards at all, but just to contribute to the movement. It is also recommended to avoid bitcoin mining and choose to mine an altcoin without the same level of competition.

Crypto mobile mining can only be achieved with Android devices. Google decided to ban the apps that made it possible because these apps would harm the smartphone’s performance, including its battery power. Apps can be found to make it possible, but you will only find them elsewhere.

Apps You Could Try

If you are waving the crypto flag and still determined to try crypto smartphone mining, then two apps should be part of your shortlist:

• Bitcoin miner – don’t worry, this app despite its name allows you to mine more than just bitcoin. It also has decent reviews concerning how the app affects smartphone performance.
• MinerGate Mobile Miner – another option to consider is MinerGate and it also allows you to mine a series of altcoins. It even has a built-in crypto wallet for you to use.

So, mobile crypto mining is possible but there are a lot of reasons to not waste your time. Nevertheless, there are options for persistent smartphone mining hopefuls.