Mining Gridcoin With Your Phone - Complete Guide
Hey everyone!
I previously posted a getting started guide to mining with Gridcoin, including setting up Boinc and the wallet. You can find that guide here: Getting Started Mining Guide
Today I will teach you how to use your android device to mine Gridcoin. You can use your phone/tablet or even SBC's like Odroids to mine Gridcoin.
The Guide
Step 1: Follow the previous guide and have GRCPool all set up and working with your PC.
Step 2: Download Boinc on your device. You can find it on the play store or by clicking this link: Google Play Boinc
Step 3: Download APK Editor on your device. We will be editing the program slightly but it is very easy. You can download this app here: APK Editor for Android
Step 4: Edit the App. I will explain this step by step.
- Open the APK Editor program and press the "select APK from app" option and select Boinc
- Select "Full Edit"
- Select the "Files" Tab from the options
- Select "Values"
- Select "Arrays.xml"
- Once here you will see the current options for account managers. You can just change the URL between the < item >< /item > tags to the gridcoin pool URL www.grcpool.com
- To finish press save and follow the options to install your edited Boinc app on your phone.
Step 5: Open the Boinc app and scroll down to the bottom of the projects list. There you will find the "add account manager" option. Enter the same credentials you used on your computer.
Step 6: Go to www.grcpool.com and log into your account. Select "hosts" you should now see your android device and we can add a project to it. It should be noted that not all projects are supported by android. As such you will have to find a project that will work with your phone. You can find the project list here: Boinc Project List and the ones with the Android logo are generally supported on most phones. How ever some may require a phone with an Nvidia processor to work.
Step 7: Once you have selected your project go back to your android device and select GRCpool from the projects list and press synchronize.
You're done!
You now are mining Gridcoin using your Android device. You can edit the computing preferences through Boinc on your phone. By default it is set to only mine when it is charging.
Your device wont generate too much Gridcoin but for the power consumption of the device it will be quite efficient in the Gridcoin that it mines.
As always if you have any questions, or if I made a mistake, or even if you just want to leave a comment do so below!
Thanks for this @atlantictech. The default BOINC app on Android is really limited and locked down so this is a good guide for GRCPool members to start using their phones and tablets as well.
No problem! I hope more people will be mining Gridcoin as well.
Can this be done on ios?
Unfortunately the application for Boinc is not available on Iphone. How ever you can still run it on your PC/Mac/Linux. I have a guide on how to get started mining as well.
How profitable is it?
It's not profitable. Unless you have really cheap/free electricity it's not very profitable right now. How ever the coin value may increase in the future. The reason many people do it is because you are directly contributing to science. Such as finding cures for the worlds deadliest diseases, the search for ET, or other scientific problems that require computing power. With Gridcoin you will get paid back some for your contributions.
Ill bet on the coin price rising. How many coins can you mine in a day?
On a phone depending on which science project you choose you can mine about 2 coins a day depending on your phone hardware as well. Of course newer high end hardware will mine more. Also with PC if you have graphics cards and CPU you can get quite a bit. Maybe 10 a day or so.
Wow nice! Will these coins be worth much in the future? Because i would just hold these things for a long time
They could be. As with any crypto it is still basically a form of gambling vs investing.
For me its right on the border of break even, but Gridcoin price intermitently pumps and if you hold and sell on the highs, then it really is profitable.
For me, I just take the BTC, wait for GRC to drop back and then just buy an even bigger stake.
Because Gridcoin is run by people who are passionate about science, I believe it will last much longer than a lot of alts that are just a way to gamble on the crypto-exchanges.
Thanks for the guide. It is shame that such editing is necessary. Maybe hosting a gridcoin- optimized boinc apk could be useful.
I would be willing to do that if the TOS of Boinc allowed me to. I haven't investigated at all though.
Really? BOINC is free software, LGPL. I will have to investigate.
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Dead link for Android app :-(