

Ask HN: Design a Cryptocurrency that Could Only Be Mined by Phones / Tablets? - stoev

About a month ago it came to light that some developers were making money by using their customers&#x27; phones to mine cryptocurrencies:
http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mashable.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;03&#x2F;27&#x2F;android-app-bitcoin-malware&#x2F;&lt;p&gt;While this approach is clearly a lot more efficient at alienating users than at producing actual revenue, due to the low performance of mobile CPUs, this article made me wonder whether creating a mobile-only cryptocurrency has ever been attempted and if not - why is it a bad idea? 
I&#x27;m not an expert on CPU architecture, but could a protocol be developed that would make the mining process only accessible to mobile processors (ARM)? Or would the only way to accept a device for mining be to provide it with the necessary software via a controlled app store?
Such a cryptocurrency would greatly reduce the effect of mining farms on the network and would therefore make it a lot more compelling for individual users to user their devices for mining (at night, while charging, etc.). It would also create opportunities to develop mobile payments, app monetisation, etc.&lt;p&gt;What are your thoughts?
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dalke
"could a protocol be developed that would make the mining process only
accessible to mobile processors (ARM)?"

No. In the worst case, use an ARM emulator on a faster machine.

In any case, the validation is in the network communications, not the ability
to run specific software. Someone could reverse-engineer what program does,
re-implement the protocol, and port it to any other hardware.

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sharemywin
the problem is cryptocurrencies are based on an algo which can be run
anywhere. as long as you've got the compute power you get the credit(bitcoins
etc) Second you could always build an emulator of the phone on a more powerful
computer.

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PaulHoule
Its ok if u like a hot phone and 1hr battery life.

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stoev
Not if you only allow the phone to mine when you are not using it, when it is
charging, connected to WiFi, and when the temperature sensor is being
monitored. The user could also only give permission for mining in short
periods of time.

