Mining on an old phone

[jackg]

I have free electricity and I want to try mining a coin with my old phone (2x2GHz and 512MB ram), it's going to become part of a multisig and also my alarm clock if not but does anyone know what coin will be most profitible to mine? (if not I might solomine litecoin or doge or I've had an idea about a special bitcoin mining algorithm for solomining).

[Pmalek]

I have seen several references mention using MinerGate for Android mining. You will need Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) to use the software.
You can check the mining profitability of different coins through the app.

The MinerGate app includes a handy calculator to help you work out how much you can make from mining on your Android smartphone. While these amounts don’t take electricity costs into account, the calculator can still be useful to give you a rough idea of how much you stand to make.

To get started, select the menu at the top left and then ‘Calculator’. Choose your smartphone’s ‘Hash Power’. If you’ve already started mining, you should have a rough idea of what this is. Next, choose the cryptocurrency you plan to mine using the dropdown button on the right. The calculator will predict daily, weekly and monthly profits for you.

Source: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-mine-cryptocurrencies-on-your-android-smartphone

[jackg]

It doesn't seem to be on the appstore?

Ah, there's a site called minergate.com.

[NavI_027]

Why don't you try Electroneum. Their platform offers mobile mining and I think it is the pioneer in this field. You can download their digital wallet (miner at the same time) in the Google Play .

[NeuroticFish]

From what I know smartphones have ARM processor. Reduced set of instructions and optimized for low consumption and not too long high use. (You may shorten the phone's lifespan a great deal, you may set your house on fire and you may not earn more than a couple of cents a year).

For "proper" CPU mining (especially Cryptonote coins) you may need a CPU that contains AES-NI instructions, so I'm by far not convinced on how a smartphone can do on mining.
However, make some tests, since the electricity is free. Maybe you even manage to install a *nix onto that phone to get to actually use a miner... (but I fear it could be a lot of effort with no useful results)

[mich]

From my personal experiences, mining on a phone is not profitable.
https://coincentral.com/is-mobile-mining-profitable/

Furthermore, there was a recent case where the Weather Channel app sued over alleged mining of users’ data.
https://fox2now.com/2019/01/05/weather-channel-app-sued-over-alleged-mining-of-users-data/

Dangerous stuff, we never really know who is in fact watching us.

[UserU]

From my personal experiences, mining on a phone is not profitable.
https://coincentral.com/is-mobile-mining-profitable/

Furthermore, there was a recent case where the Weather Channel app sued over alleged mining of users’ data.
https://fox2now.com/2019/01/05/weather-channel-app-sued-over-alleged-mining-of-users-data/

Dangerous stuff, we never really know who is in fact watching us.

This I agree. If your PC can't match ASICs, what makes a phone even better?

You might earn tens of cents at the cost of battery life. Totally not worth it.

[LTU_btc]

I don't understand what's the point of mining on phone? Phones aren't made for mining and you won't earn anything from it. Maybe it's worth to try CPU mining if you have powerful PC, but definitely not on phone, especially with such low specs.
You can check this article to get clue what can be mined on smartphone:
https://www.xda-developers.com/cryptocurrency-monero-ethereum-litecoin-bitcoin-mining-android-smartphones/
If you want to try, it's suggested to mine Electroneum or Monero on Minergate. On this article you can see some other less popular mining apps and theorical hashrates of some smartphones.
Before starting to mine I recommend to delete all unneccesary apps and files from your phones because they eat resources which are needed for mining.

[sheenshane]

Never use Minergate you will probably get a very low amount of hash rate and why don't you try Monero instead? Electroneum is also one of my favorite miners because they offer mobile mining in very great hash rate. These apps are available in Appstore and google play so go ahead now and check them all. But I can tell that mobile mining is not too profitable but if you want to try it and then go.

[RivAngE]

I haven't try on a new phone, but I imagine they'd be as good as any PC CPU ... "not good enough".
I had tried back in Oct. 2017 the MinerGate software but no only was the hashrate low on my mid-level phone, MinerGate is stealing a lot of coins from the miners... call it "fees".

Right now I have the Mate 20 Pro, I suppose it's as fast as a phone can be today, but there's no legit miner I can try. PlayStore wouldn't list any such app and I won't take the risk of using non-checked apps from 3rd party sites. I'm pretty sure no coin will be profitable to mine, especially if you consider the burden on an expensive phone.

Maybe if there was an algo that somehow is only CPU mineable and used by a coin likeable from investors, then a phone miner could make some sense. But AFAIK something like that doesn't exist.