I couldn’t tell you exactly how many hours I’ve spent mining fake gems in the mobile game Idle Mine, which pays out real Bitcoin as you play—but it’s probably more than I’d like to admit.
It’s surely more than is warranted, based on how much Bitcoin I’ve banked.
Like mobile developer Fumb Games’ other Bitcoin-earning titles, including Bitcoin Miner and SpaceY, Idle Mine is a simple, nearly mindless experience that rewards regular play on iOS or Android by paying out stacks of satoshis (aka 1/100,000,000 BTC).
Screenshots from Idle Mine. Image: Decrypt
Idle Mine tasks you with mining digital gems and upgrading your digging operation, dropping you bits of Bitcoin here and there as you complete missions and hit certain milestones. It’s hardly riveting stuff, and as the title suggests, the game more or less plays itself—you’ll just need to tap a button and collect power-ups every so often to keep boosting your income.
But I’m still playing Bitcoin Miner daily after more than a year, and Idle Mine only reinforces the premise that number-go-up games that pay out real BTC are damn near irresistible.
It’s the degen equivalent of jingling keys in front of a baby. I’m not even a degen, and I know full well that the earnings here aren’t substantial in any way—yet I keep coming back.
Idle Mine isn’t as compelling as Bitcoin Miner, however. It doesn’t pack as much personality, as you’re just mining ruby and emeralds and the like in a generic 3D environment, rather than fake-mining cryptocurrencies in a vibrant pixel operation. And yes, there’s sadly no Doge here.
But it’s an easy game to pop on when you’re zoning out on the couch, sitting on the train, or doing household chores. And indeed, there’s real Bitcoin up for grabs here, which you can withdraw to a ZBD wallet and then spend or transfer elsewhere as desired.
Screenshots from Idle Mine. Image: Decrypt
And I’ve earned thousands of satoshis… worth maybe $4 in all. But given that I’ve probably had the Idle Mine game open for 20 to 30 hours along the way, it basically works out to the same rate of pennies’ worth of BTC per hour that most Bitcoin games deliver.
There are worse ways to spend your spare moments, no doubt. But there are better ones, too.
