By now, you are aware of multiple ways of getting your hands on cryptocurrencies, one of which is via mining. Large scale mining uses expensive mining rigs or mining PCs. However, you can mine at a smaller scale using Android mining apps, which can be organized further into Top Coin Mining and Token Mining.

Top Coin Mining is the mining of top, well-established coins like Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), etc. Token Mining, on the other hand is the mining of token projects (or coins), usually running on an existing Blockchain like Ethereum or Tron (but not always). Most are not yet available for trading or are yet to be listed in crypto exchanges. In this article, we would focus on Token Mining apps.

Google Play Store is teeming with crypto mining mobile apps. The number of Apple Appstore apps for crypto mining are not the same level as Android apps. On why - maybe a story for another day.

If you would only grind on one or two crypto mining mobile apps, that should be fine. The problem is that there are more than 60+ crypto mining mobile apps in Google Play Store. Imagine, checking each one throughout the day. Considerable effort would be required to support all of them. Also, keep in mind that there are scam projects and there are bad projects. Both are a waste of your time.

So, which one to prioritize? 

It is always important to Do Your Own Research (DYOR). For me, I believe below are relevant areas you need to check to help you prioritize your mining apps.

Transparency
It is essential you ask below questions when evaluating a crypto mobile mining app:
1. Are the people, group or company behind the project identifiable and verifiable?
2. Is the contract address available and provided?
3. Any social presence?

Some folks behind cryptocurrency projects wants to be anonymous or wants to maintain a low profile. If this is the case, that is the risk you have to evaluate and accept if you proceed in supporting the crypto project. In some cases, they are well established personalities or entities. As an example, the Pi Network project has a very visible team of professionals. Arc8 project has Gamee, a gaming subsidiary of well known Animoca Brands, behind it.

The contract address of the token serves as evidence that the mined coins are not a fictitious balance incrementally computed by the mobile app. Using the contract address, you would also be able to check the transactions using block explorers. There are some projects with no liquidity yet though, but having a verifiable contract address for the token helps in monitoring the project status. 

In Google Play Store, there is a "Developer" section. Usually a website is available for the crypto mining project where you can find the whitepaper, FAQs, community links, and other information about the project. 

Money Matters and Ads
Most of these crypto mining projects do not offer any entertainment other than a promise of reward at some point. So, the next thing you need to be wary of are money matters. If the mining app requires you to purchase something, you should think twice about it. 

Also, try to evaluate if the number of ads is too much. Remember that in a scam scenario, its either you are enticed to spend money or you are pulled into a cycle of watching ad revenues, eventually, for nothing.

Roadmap and Utility of Token
You should always check if the project has a clear roadmap and that there is feasible utility planned for the token. Else, you need to re-evaluate what you are doing, i.e., clicking or tapping every hour to restart the mining process of a potentially lifeless token project.

You need to allot yourself some time to read the whitepaper. Understand what the project is trying to achieve and the milestones to reach the goal. However, this is not as easy as it seems. There are crypto projects with good whitepaper documents that have disappeared. However, I would still always choose a crypto project with a plan in place over one without.

Whether or not the project takes off is another matter. There are many scenarios when this can happen, for example, loss of funding, etc. 

Community Support and Feedback
Be mindful as well on where the project get its funding. If the project has its own funding from investors, well and good. Else, the crypto project would require a lot of support and the success of the project would depend on the number of installs and activity of the users.

A potential red flag would be negative feedback from the users via Google Play Store comments, but without response or action from the Dev team. This inaction would shoo away existing and potential users, and prevent community buildup that would impact the project.  

That also means that you may need to watch recurring ads for a bit longer before you reap the rewards, if the project would not die at all. 

Conclusion
While mobile mining apps are good sources of new crypto tokens and projects, it is important to manage our effort by performing a triage and identifying which project would provide us with more traction in our crypto journey.

Hope I was able to provide some useful insights. Any other things you wanted to add? Please leave your comments.

If you reached the end of this article, thank you. Please show your support with a like, comment or a tip. It would be greatly appreciated.

You will find the Pi Network and Arc8 mobile apps in Google Play Store links below. You can use my invitation code (Thank you!).
1. Pi Network: Google Play Store link here, Invitation Code: Marcusblue
2. Arc8: Google Play Store link here, Invitation Code: MarcusKreme