I was recently introduced to HoneyMiner - an app for your laptop that mines the most profitable Crypto using your excess CPU/GPU resources. I've seen quite a few browser and passive mining applications come and go through the years so I decided to test this one out and report the results. Before we get started though, I cannot guarantee you will make any money using this application. Electricity costs are real. However if you enjoy the idea of earning extra income on your desktop while you do other things you'll definitely want to check out what's below.
What is HoneyMiner?
HoneyMiner is an application that runs passively on your desktop/rig using your excess CPU/GPU resources to mine the most profitable Crypto, then converts it into Bitcoin. HoneyMiner does not support ASIC miners - It only works with CPU/GPU on Windows/Mac computers at this time. HoneyMiner does take a cut of the profits made while using their application. 8% for users with 1 GPU and 2.5% if you use 2 GPUs or more.
HoneyMiner also has a GPU Rental feature, which I won't cover too much in depth here as I have not tested it myself. However rates and features below. The rates seem to be about standard for what you're paying for.
Setting Up HoneyMiner
Setup is actually pretty easy. You download HoneyMiner from their website here - https://honeyminer.com/
Once downloaded you'll get a nice UI layout like below, HoneyMiner will auto-config to start mining right away. You can set it up to only mine when your computer is idle, to only mine via CPU or GPU, whether it starts on computer start, etc. I'm personally very impressed with the simplicity and level of customization with HoneyMiner
The Test
I wanted to test HoneyMiner myself before writing this post to make sure all was kosher. I used one of my "extra" laptops. Being mildly more techy than my older relatives there's an assumption made that just because I play video games online I can fix any computer of any issue. While I can google search with the best of them, I don't know a whole lot about how to fix most issues. That still doesn't stop every aunt, uncle and grandparent over 60 to give me their "broken" laptops to fix. So I've collected over the years about 10-15 laptops that are in differing states of disrepair. I tell them I probably won't fix it but they just keep handing them off.
Anyway, I ran HoneyMiner for about 3 days for 5-6 hours each day on my crappiest extra laptop, a Lenovo X260. The poster child for old work laptops. I have yet to see a friend of mine who works from home not use a Lenovo. Below are the stats I used to mine, the graphics card on the Lenovo was built in so I don't think HoneyMiner supported mining from it.
I also ran several stress tests while HoneyMiner was active on my laptop, opening low-end games (Counter Strike: Source, Counter-Strike 1.6, etc.) as well as streaming videos and hardly noticed a slowdown.
The Results
In about 3 days of using HoneyMiner, 5-6 hours each day on a very crappy laptop I made about 457 Satoshi ($0.04) - extrapolated out to a month it would be about 4,500 Satoshi/month. You're given a 1,000 Satoshi bonus for using a referral code, I'll include mine at the end if you want to use it. The minimum withdrawal amount is 2,500 Satoshi so I could withdraw 1-2 times/month if I only used this laptop. Not the best results in the world but for using a terrible computer I can see some pretty good potential here to make a few extra bucks each month.
Closing Thoughts
I'll probably continue to use HoneyMiner for the foreseeable future. I have quite a few other cast-off laptops I can re-purpose solely for mining and due to the ease of use of HoneyMiner would not be a hassle to setup. I particularly like the gamification aspect of this app. As you mine more you "Level Up" and get nice little Satoshi bonuses. I also appreciate the the level of professionalism and transparency. You can open up your mining logs and see your exact hash power and coin(s) mined at any time.
EDIT: Just to increase the level of transparency here. Obviously any CPU/GPU miner program, even if it is prioritizing the most profitable coin - Has a very high chance to break even or lose money due to electricity costs. To make this more clear I already run several programs on some of the laptops I own that make some passive income for me. Adding HoneyMiner to some of the lower intensity laptops just helped increase the profit I was making per device I have running as I already have to factor electricity costs for some of the other programs I run. So just like anything else, do your own research. Consult more sources than just me and above everything else learn and have fun!
Referral Link for 1,000 Satoshi Bonus - https://honeyminer.com/referred/5h3at
If you enjoyed this article you may like my previous one on The Evolution of a Publish0x User.
