Use Your Old Cell Phones to Mine Crypto! Hands-on with the Cellhasher Miner

Are your old cell phones stuffed in a drawer somewhere, collecting dust and taking up space? Ever wondered if those once-loved devices could actually make you some money instead of just being forgotten tech? Well, you’re not alone. I recently had a chance to get my hands on the Cellhasher Miner, a dedicated unit designed to turn old phones into a working crypto mining rig. In this post, I’ll take you through my full unboxing experience, the ins-and-outs of phone mining, setting everything up, and my honest thoughts about whether Cellhasher is worth the plunge if you’re a crypto hobbyist.

For more insights on this topic check out this detailed video: Use Your Old Cell Phones to Mine Crypto! Hands-on with the Cellhasher Miner

So, if you love tinkering, enjoy new tech, or just want to get more life out of your old devices—let’s dive in!

Cell Phone Crypto Mining: An Overview
Meet the Cellhasher Miner: What Is It?
Unboxing the Cellhasher: First Impressions
A Closer Look: Inside the Cellhasher
Setting Up: From Bubble Wrap to Hashing
Cellhasher Models: Your Choices
All About the Cellhasher Software
Mining Coins: What Can You Earn?
Performance, Power Draw & Final Tuning
Final Thoughts: Who Is This For?

Cell Phone Crypto Mining: An Overview

Let’s address the elephant in the room—can you really mine crypto with a cell phone?!

Why Do People Do This, Anyway?

Crypto mining with phones has been around for a while. Honestly, it’s always been a bit of a niche thing; you needed some serious tinkering skills (think soldering tiny wires, dealing with overheating, bulging batteries, dodgy apps…) for not very much reward. Most of us see an old phone and think “maybe I’ll save it as a backup,” but imagine instead putting it to work earning you a bit of crypto? Sounds cool, right?

But here’s the catch: until recently, it’s been a technical headache and, let’s be honest, kind of intimidating. A lot of old guides would have you cracking cases open, stripping batteries, and hoping nothing caught on fire.

“You almost need like a tinkerer skill set, which is rather intimidating, especially when you’re dealing with bulging batteries or with soldering. But what if there was a better solution?”

Enter Cellhasher.

Meet the Cellhasher Miner: What Is It?

Cellhasher is a box designed from the ground up to make phone-mining practical, straightforward, and even—dare I say—fun. Dig those old phones out, pop them in a Cellhasher, and away you go.

What sets Cellhasher apart?
- No more DIY battery hacks—phones are powered directly by the box
- Control all phones from a single easy-to-use interface
- Modular setup: Buy it fully loaded with phones, or bring your own
- Solid documentation and a tinkerer-friendly design

What Coins Can You Actually Mine?

Part of the fun of phone mining is the range of coins/projects you can participate in. With Cellhasher, you can solo mine Bitcoin (yes, really!) and other coins like:

Bitcoin (I’d recommend Solo Mining)
Verus Coin
Pi
Acurast
Cubic
Grass

…and many more. Find a bigger list here.

Some of these projects are tailored to lighter devices and offer a fair shot even with mobile hardware.

Unboxing the Cellhasher: First Impressions

I couldn’t wait to rip open the box when it arrived. Here’s what my first minutes with the Cellhasher looked like:

What’s In The Box?

Cellhasher main unit (mine was fully loaded with 20 Orbic Joy Android phones)
Getting Started Guide – with a QR code that links right to the official setup instructions
C13 to NEMA 15 power cable (your standard computer/server cable)
USB cable
All phones neatly packed & pre-installed (if you ordered the preloaded version)

The unit is way smaller than I expected—I was imagining a giant server case, but it’s compact, solid, and slick looking. The front has a simple decal logo, some ventilation, a handy toggle power switch, and easy access to the connections.

Design Touches

Vented on all sides for airflow
One big toggle switch (love this for easy power-off)
Neat labeling and cabling

The size, the clean look, and the plug-and-play vibe immediately got me excited to see what was inside.

A Closer Look: Inside the Cellhasher

Time to grab a screwdriver and see how this thing is put together!

I removed the back panel (super simple, thumbs-up to the designers). Inside, you see:

20 Orbic Joy Android phones—already stripped down and clipped in place
No batteries at all! Instead, the Cellhasher powers the phones directly, totally removing the risk of battery bulge or fire (this is very common in hacked-together phone mining projects).
A massive control board along the bottom, with neat USB connections going to each phone
High-quality bubble wrap and packing material preventing movement during shipping

“You can’t actually run into this…a common issue I’ve heard about within the phone mining community where your batteries bulge and you have problems with them. You don’t have that here at all.”

How’s It Engineered?

Airflow: Intake fans funnel cool air through the phones, exhausting out the sides and back. This keeps things quiet and cool (no industrial hair-dryer-level noise, thank goodness).
Motherboard & Power: Each USB connection powers and manages a phone. No cables or chargers—you just plug straight in.
Build Quality: It’s robust! But coming from GPU mining, I immediately noticed there’s room for improvement, like adding a bar to securely press the phones down during shipping or operation.

Pro-Tip: Check Phone Connections!

A couple of phones had worked loose during shipping. It’s worth checking each one is solidly plugged into the control board before you close things up and turn it on.

Setting Up: From Bubble Wrap to Hashing

Time for the moment of truth—let’s get hashing.

Step 1 – Seating the Phones

After all phones were well-seated and snug, I noticed the board setup reminded me a lot of old-school GPU server rigs. Tinkerers will feel right at home here. If you ever assembled a server with PCI-e risers or worried about components shaking loose, you’ll like the design, but may wish it had extra support bars.

A suggestion for the Cellhasher Team:
“There needs to be a bar across the top across this backside here keeping the phones press downward…very similar to like our server cases.”

Step 2 – Power On & Connections

Power cable in, power switch on. The fans started spinning up quietly, lights blinked on, and the unit was ready for the next stage: software setup.

Step 3 – Load the Software

Grab your phone, scan the QR code from the getting started guide, and you’ll be directed right to the documentation and official Cellhasher Control Software download page.

For a more detailed unboxing and setup guide, checkout this video: Use Your Old Cell Phones to Mine Crypto! Hands-on with the Cellhasher Miner

The Cellhasher Software is Worth Every Penny!

Now this is where Cellhasher really shines. Traditionally, if you wanted to mine with a bunch of phones, you’d need to manage each one individually. That’s 20 separate installs, wallet setups, miner configs, troubleshooting headaches… major pain.

The “One Pane of Glass” Interface

Cellhasher’s custom control software lets you:

Manage all phones from one dashboard
Push miner settings to all devices at once
Monitor connections, hash rates, and status
Configure Wi-Fi for all phones together
Tweak settings individually or for the group

It feels a lot like managing a GPU rig with Hive OS, or similar mining dashboards if you’ve ever used those.

Step-by-Step Documentation

One of Cellhasher’s biggest strengths is clear, detailed user guides.

Complete walkthroughs for setup, power adjustments, device disassembly (if you’re using your own phones)
Easy-to-follow steps, with plenty of photos and explanations
Even covers advanced stuff like dummy-plug battery wiring and software troubleshooting
Checkout their Documentation Here

“As you start to scroll through this, they tell you everything you kind of have to do step by step…power adjustments you have to make, plugging in the power, anything you have to connect, you can see. They show you all of this step by step.”

Mining Coins: What Can You Earn?

Ok, let’s answer the crunchy question: what coins can you actually mine, and is it worth it?

Out-of-the-box, you can mine:

Bitcoin (solo mining—don’t expect to get rich but it’s a fun test)
VerusCoin
PI
Acurast
Cubic
Grass

…and a slew of other mobile-optimized crypto projects, found here.

I’m Mining Versus Coin!

For my initial test, I set my Cellhasher up to mine VerusCoin.

Downloaded the VerusCoin mobile Android app (straight from the Play Store)
Set up a wallet in minutes—no sideloading or APK hunting required
Configured Cellhasher’s software to push this miner config to every phone

You can just as easily switch to another miner/coin from the dashboard, and push settings to all phones at once.

Pool Selection & Decentralization

I also set up mining through Vipor.net but would recommend trying out smaller pools like LuckPool.net to help decentralize the network.

“You can group these all as one miner or individually. But I wanted to set it up individually and I actually set up the email notifications on VIPER.net. so if one of these phones does have a problem, I can get an email and I can go ahead and investigate it and look into it a little bit more.”

For a more detailed setup and configuration guide, checkout this video: Use Your Old Cell Phones to Mine Crypto! Hands-on with the Cellhasher Miner

Performance, Power Draw & Final Tuning

Once you fire everything up, what do you actually get out of this setup?

My Results: 20 Phones, Up & Hashing

After a few hours tinkering and getting familiar with the interface, I had:

20 phones mining Varys smoothly
All showing green, stable USB connections
System draw: 109 watts total (that’s basically the same as one old incandescent light bulb—not kidding)
Hashrate: ~108 MH/s (early reading, obviously this varies as things run longer)

How Loud Is It?

Surprisingly reasonable. Not silent, but not a drone either. With the lid on and the box under my desk, I barely noticed it running. The fans are well-sized for the heat output (which isn’t much without phone batteries to cook).

Individual and Batch Controls

You can:

Set up Wi-Fi config and push it out to all phones
Run different miners on different phones
Rename devices (like cellhasher1, cellhasher2…)
See connection status, hash rate per phone, and push settings either to the group or individual units

This is a major quality-of-life upgrade over managing 20 separate Android devices. If you’ve ever tried to set up multiple phones with apps and wallets, you know what a pain that is.

Of Course…It’s Not Plug-And-Play (Yet)

It’s not quite as simple as buying an ASIC miner, plugging it in, and magic happening. You’ll need to read the guides and take your time—miss a step, and you might end up troubleshooting for a while (like I did when I skipped a page).

But once you get it, it’s super smooth.

“The instructions Celhasher have are very good, especially if you don’t skip a page like I did and ran into some challenges. But we are all up and hashing—software is actually really, really sweet once you get used to it and kind of understand everything going on.”

Is Phone Mining Profitable?

Let’s be real: you’re not getting rich on 20 phones mining mobile-centric coins. But the cost to run this (especially if you fill it with phones you already own) is so low, it’s primarily a fun project with a bit of spare change on the side.

You won’t touch ASIC or high-end GPU profits, but for enthusiasts, it’s a sweet little earner—especially when you stack up coins that reward smaller miners, or want to contribute to new, up-and-coming projects.

Final Thoughts: Who Is This For?

Do I Love It?

Honestly? Yeah—I’m hooked. For someone new to phone mining, this is about as painless and fun as it gets.

Who Should Consider the Cellhasher?

Tinkerers & tech hobbyists: If you love opening stuff up and making things work, it’s perfect.
Crypto curious: Don’t want to risk big bucks, or just want to learn what’s possible? You’ll have a blast setting this up.
Kids & students: Supervised, this is a great way to introduce the basics of mining and hardware.
Old device hoarders: Have a pile of phones gathering dust? This puts them to work.

Who Should Not Bother?

Profit chasers: If your primary concern is dollars per day, this isn’t your best bet.
Set-and-forget miners: There’s a setup curve, and you’ll want to monitor things now and again.
People afraid of minimal tinkering: While it’s very polished, it’s still a creative project, not a mass-market appliance.

“I 100% recommend this for home miners. I think this really has a place for those of you guys that are tinkerers, that love to play, that you’re not rushing to profitability and you want to get this up and running.”

What I’d Love to See Next

A standalone system with its own onboard management (think: little web server or built-in ethernet)
Even slicker “press and play” setup for newbies
Support bars to keep phones locked in during shipping or movement

Where To Buy & More Info

One of the cool things about Cellhasher is the way they cater to all levels of tinkerers:

1. Cellhasher Classic (No Cell Phones Included)

Price: $149
You supply your own phones (any compatible Androids)
They also sell disassembly kits, solder kits, and a multimeter for those who want to do the hard stuff themselves.
Great for: DIYers and anyone with a stash of old phones

2. Cellhasher Classic (20 Phones Pre-Installed)

Price: $1,599
Includes 20 pre-prepped Orbic Joy Android smartphones
Totally ready to go—take it out of the box, plug it in, and start mining
Great for: Beginners or those who want a turnkey solution

3. Cellhasher Reverse

Control board is on the back—easy for upgrades, swaps, and repairs
Especially handy if you plan to maintain or tinker a lot

4. Cellhasher Rackmount

Built for server racks, with optimised airflow and cooling
For those who want to slot a phone miner beside their other home lab gear
Ideal for: Power users, home-labbers, and people running big setups

Discount Alert:

“If you guys do decide to buy one of these units, I am affiliated with Cellhasher and you guys can actually get $80 off or 5% off your entire purchase using the discount code Hobbyist.”

TL;DR Summary

Cellhasher makes phone mining actually practical and fun
Buy it with or without phones to suit your needs and skill level
Easy, well-documented setup (but don’t skip steps!)
Realistic profits? It’s a great hobby setup, not a get-rich scheme
Perfect for tinkerers, home miners, and educators
Super low power usage—leave it running 24/7 guilt-free