Amateurs like me in the market who are finding ways to establish themselves in the crypto world after getting a taste of trading, are going towards easy mining.
I use the term "easy mining" as it is convenient and relatively safe as compared to the traditional ways of mining which either require setting up capital intensive mining systems or getting into mining contracts with the mining companies sharing their computing power. This mining can be done on your home PCs and/or your mobiles and other devices like smart TVs (Yes I said TVs and now I am saying Smart Mirrors too, I have seen it)
I would later describe why it is relatively safe but first I am going to tell you how my brother and few others in the family and friends lost money/faith. They bought mining contracts with GainBitCoin with promising returns. The early loaders were able to earn handsome amount and they brought in more people and this second wave of investors were the one who were exposed to huge risks. These people had less or nearly no technical knowledge of crypto or block chain, forget the mining. They were lured by the high returns that first batch people earned. They were promised monthly returns on their investments in the mining.
Initially the returns were in BTC and then the company launched its own token MCAP and started giving them the tokens for mining payout. For just few months, the tokens were converted and then suddenly they stopped everything and gave everyone tokens to fulfill the contract terms. Now, everyone has that token which as per the company is valued at $15 and can be traded at their own exchange but there are no buyers. At C-cex exchange they are trading at $1.4 but buyers are not there. The guy they say is now in Dubai. God bless him.
Read more on this : [https://factordaily.com/amit-bhardwaj-gainbitcoin-mcap-ethereum/]
This is just one of the many working on duping people of their hard earned money in the name of quick bucks. Investors are at fault but the poor legal system/government framework is not strong enough to deal with these. On top of this, India has not yet recognized Crypto currencies meaning they don't have any status of currency, assets. However, they are not illegal even.
People started buying from Unocoin/Zebpay wallets and their buy sell difference was over 15% at any given point of time. You buy from them at 10K and sell them at 8K. Then enters Koinex and Coindelta, they were transparent (a lot than the wallets) and started trading various coins and were showing their order book openly. People started migrating from Zebpay and Unocoin to these exchanges and trading started to pick up. Now there are claims that their accounts are frozen by the banks due to various irregularities. Withdrawals and deposits were stopped for few days which initially was fine with the customers however, the extended days started worrying them. These crypto to fiat transactions are still under the cloud of regulations/policies which are not very clear and put the investors at further risk of losing.
Easy Mining options:
Hadron.cloud - Hadron is a company which has touched upon the futuristic usage of the crypto technology by bringing in Artificial Intelligence. Terminators are not here yet but Hadron system is based on Artificial Neural Networks which work on the concept of Biological Neural Networks (google for more). In simple terms, the systems are designed to learn as they process more information. Rather than setting up the systems centrally, they have decentralized the mining/computing resources and are allowing people to mine/compute using web browsers on their PCs, mobile phone, tablets, etc.... and yeah smart mirrors too.
Hadron says that the idle power wasted in these devices could be put to good use. I got in their alpha testing and have done test mining. The system is smooth and responsive. Off-course I cannot compare this with any other mining as I haven't done or seen any yet but my assessment is based on the convenience, mobility and testing.
Mining is based on proof of work, with the major difference being the winner takes all approach is replaced with rewards that are distributed to everyone in ratio of their contribution to the mining. This means everyone can earn and your earning depends on your computation contribution. Phone and PC doesn't heat up during the process and I have done this for 14 hours straight with no errors. Hadron's whitepaper claims that iphone X, Huawei Mate 10 and Pixel 2 have embedded "Neural chips*" so they ideally they should be able to do this faster.
Hadron claims that there technology is beneficial for the society when employed as it could help in early detection of diseases which could ultimately assist in improving the quality of life. Now we are talking some real purpose of a Blockchain. Now the next question is sustainability of the platform and real world usage - Who are the buyers and how are they going to use Hadron.
Read on the "Real world Usage" here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2803699.msg28673541#msg28673541
Well, it seems that Hadron definitely has a strong and bright future.
Phoneum:
Phoneum is a mobile only crypto currency aiming to target the e-commerce. which lets you mine using your mobile device. Phoneum is a cryptocurrency with 1.5% transaction fees (this might change in the final app) and the transactions are superfast. You click it and it's done. I have been using & mining on their testing app from Google play store and have sent Phoneum coins to other test users in the group to see the result instantly. Mining is done only using their mobile phone apps available on Google play store (testing app) and on Apple App store (test app to be launched on 14 feb).
Phoneum claims that any mobile device on the planet can be used for mining and their technology is scalable and fast. For phone users who are worried about battery drain/damage, phoneum app claims to have a feature which monitors the phone temperature. If the temperature gets high the transactions are stopped until cool off to prevent any damage to battery or the phone. During this time the person still earns mining share as they are awarded for their time spent on the app.
The mining on Phoneum is based on Proof of Work and Proof of time. They are testing the app and are taking feedback for improvements. Phoneum founder claims to be working on a unique algorithm to block out computers and ASIC miners so that the platform is not abused by the high powered devices. The rewards are distributed equally for all mobiles on the network. The app is expected to be launched in April.
Important thing to note is that both the platforms are eyeing general users for widespread adoption. This would ensure that the user base grows and improves the success of the platforms. This is a good way to cover up the die down aspect when people drop out of the platforms and not enough users are left to keep the platform/token/network running.
Additionally, by not employing high powered mining devices Hadron and Phoneum are also bringing Green Climate Friendly technologies for the people.
Although both Hadron and Phoneum have different utility, they definitely look to resolve many shortcomings of the cryptos we store in our wallets today !
I am a tester for both Hadron and Phoneum