Cryptocurrency And iPhone – It Is Possible To Mine Cryptocurrencies With An iPhone?

Cryptocurrencies have become popular with many people now wanting to own one. Every day, there are reports that cryptocurrencies are currencies of the future with no borders. However, because of their demand, people are investing heavily in programs that can produce the currencies. It is important to note that these currencies are generated through mining.

When someone mentions the name ‘mining’, the first things that pop into mind are big rigs and machines that are used to unearth the ground, which exposes the precious metal. However, the mining of cryptocurrencies is very different from what many people kink of. To understand cryptocurrency mining, you must first understand what they are.

Cryptocurrencies can be defined as virtual or digital currencies that have been designed to work as a medium of exchange. These currencies use cryptography to not only verify and secure transactions, but also control the creation of new units of a certain virtual currency. In other words, these virtual currencies are limited entries in a database that no one can change not unless certain specific conditions are fulfilled.

What is Cryptocurrency Mining?

Cryptocurrency mining essentially involves equations that often must be done with a high powered computer system. For example, for you to trade in bitcoin (which is one of the cryptocurrencies), transitions must be verified through complex equations, which is then added to what is known as a ‘distributed ledger’. For solving these equations, the ‘miner’ (the person who has solved the complex math) is rewarded with a bitcoin.

What Is The Cost Of Mining Cryptocurrencies?

It takes a lot to mine a virtual currency and today considered expensive. To mine these virtual currencies on a computer, the whole process uses more than 1,400 watts, which is equivalent to one hair dryer. This is according to bitcoin mining company Coinmint. Do not forget about the processing power the system must have to make the whole process a bit faster. (keep in mind the amount of power needed and processing power).

Coming Back to iPhone…

There are many apps on the iOS store that claim to help users mine for virtual currencies through their personal devices; this includes both ‘Cryptocurrency Cloud Mining’ and ‘Crypto Coin Miner’. These apps say that it lets users make money and earn virtual currencies, without hassle or major investments directly through their hardware and software capabilities.

Well, even though if these facts are correct, chances are that personal devices cannot handle the processing power or voltage needed to make the whole process possible while at the same time maintain or keeping other apps on the device operational.

Well, according to an article by CNBC news;

  • Through the updated Apple’s designer guidelines, the company has banned virtual currency mining on iOS devices
  • Apple has also strongly discouraged people using their iPhones to mine Crypto Coins
  • Also, the new regulation control apps that drain the battery, strains your device, and generate excess heat on a device (which is something experienced in bitcoin mining).
  • Finally, it was posted on their website that all apps and any third party ads displayed within apps may not run unrelated background processes like cryptocurrency mining,

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All these updates are readily available through its updated developer guidelines, that is readily available on their website. This rule specifically restricts all apps that drain battery life, strain the devices, as well as generate a lot of heat.

According to the giant communication manufacturing company; one should design their apps to use power efficiently. This way, the power each device uses makes it easy for other apps on your phone to function properly. Also, excessive heat is dangerous. In other words, many hardware used to make the iPhone cannot be able to withstand excessive heat for a very long time. This makes them get damaged easily. In the worst case scenario, the battery may explode due to excessive heat.

Does It Make A Difference?

Well, even though the giant powerhouse Apple has mentioned clearly about mining virtual currencies using iPhone, plus knowing the resources needed to ‘mine’ bitcoin; in truth, it is actually unlikely that anyone can succeed mining for crypto coins on any company’s mobile devices no matter how powerful they are. This is because, at this stage, mining for crypto coins need a huge amount of computing power that the process is typically reserved for specialized computer systems (people call them ‘rigs’).

What does this mean? Well, it simply means that an ordinary device cannot handle the processing power needed, even an ordinary laptop. Ask yourself this question, if an ordinary laptop cannot handle the power demand needed to mine bitcoin, will a phone be able to do it?

The move by Apple tech company may preventively put a   stop to future mining processes for other digital currencies as well. When you review the updated guideline, you will see that Apple has also prevented iPhone users from participating in the so-called ‘Mining Pool’.

A mining pool is a technique that uses a collaborative process. In this technique, multiple users share computing power to complete the mining process. Even though there are many iOS apps that claim that their mining services are only based ‘mining pool’, the fact is that it is highly unlikely that a phone will be able to process the information. The truth is that the fate of these apps remains unclear at this point.

The Verdict

Many experts like the folks at www.path.net gave a short and clear answer of ‘NO’. The iPhone will not be able to handle the demand of the mining process. It does not matter if you are cloud the process, the output of your phone’s CPU would be so slow that it would cost you more in terms of power and wear to your device than you could make in mining. Today, the difficulty level of mining bitcoin is so high, that you would be forced to use an ASIC miner to make more than electricity costs.

Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum need a powerful GPU, like Radeon or GTX 1080/ti. Other mining ‘rigs’ have multiple GPUs. Even the best phone on the market today with specialized hardware, it would be difficult to break even, talking even of making a profit.

The bottom line is that you should not let anyone convince you otherwise, because you will be doing it at your own risk. It is important to remember that Apple tech company knows what it is talking about and you should not try to mine cryptocurrencies using your iPhone even if you are using the cloud or applying the shared pool technique. Your phone is expensive enough to waste it.