Phoneum: The Next Big Cryptocurrency? Probably Not! in 2024

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Phoneum is a mobile app similar to Pi Network and Eagle Network allowing users to push a button to mine cryptocurrency. Unlike these game-like apps which provide virtual earnings, Phoneum has an actual circulating token (PHT) at ±$0.00033 and is listed on exchanges like ProBit. However, it is not clear whether Phoneum will provide long lasting wealth for its users because developers are already making money through in-app ads and paid upgrades. In addition, a few app users claim that they lost their earnings or were blocked from accessing the app after earning a large amount of tokens. Here we explain why we don’t think Phoneum is worth the trouble.

What is Phoneum?

Phoneum is a decentralized cryptocurrency that operates on the Ethereum blockchain with a limited supply of 20 billion tokens in total, and 1 billion tokens in circulation. It was first launched in November 2017 by a team from Canada and British Virgin Islands led by Ivan Likov, with the aim of facilitating accessibility to cryptocurrency via mobile apps and reduce mining carbon print.

The developers launched the mining app on Google Play store and soon after launched gaming apps like crypto treasure on Google Play where players can earn Phoneum coins by completing tasks.Apple store will not allow gaming rewards if tokens have a real value:

• No Phoneum apps are on Apple’s App Store
• Real world currency rewards are a violation of iOS application development regulation 3.1.5 which states: “Cryptocurrency apps may not offer currency for completing tasks, such as downloading other apps, encouraging other users to download, etc.”

How to earn Phoneum tokens?

The first step is to download the mining app, sign up using an email to earn 20 tokens, or by a referral code to earn 200 tokens at first. Then, there are several ways to earn free coins:

1. Clicking a button every 7 days: When the user clicks the mining button, a mining session starts on the server and each hour the user gets 4 tokens, mining 672 tokens in a weekly session.
2. Referring others to join: There is no information in the whitepaper about how much a user can earn by referring a friend, but app users state that they earn 200 PHT tokens from referral rewards.
3. Paid mining boosts: Users can speed their earning rate by paying +$3 for a session mining boost.
4. Staking: Once a user collect 20k tokens, they can stake their earnings for 30 days and earn 1% interest each month.
5. Using Phoneum gaming apps: Phoneum have several gaming applications on Google Play where users can complete tasks, spin a wheel, flip a coin, etc. Within the app, users can either earn game coins or Phoneum tokens. It is also worth mentioning that in-game tasks take longer to complete with time. For example, to achieve a certain boost at first the user may be required to flip a coin 4 times, but after some sessions, they may be required to flip it 15-20 times.

However, to claim in-game tokens users are required to watch 15-30 second ads that show up during the gaming sessions.

How to withdraw Phoneum earnings?

Users are only allowed to withdraw their Phoneum earnings after they had collected 20k tokens, which at a normal mining rate of 672 tokens per week, would take +7 months and be worth ±$7 at the PHT price as of June/2021.

Users will submit a withdraw request through the app and 36 hours later the amount will be posted on their ProBit wallet where they can trade it for USD or other cryptocurrencies. Developers claim that the withdrawal limit of a 20k tokens is because Phoneum covers transaction fees when processing withdrawals. Users, however, can purchase a VIP feature which allows them to lower the withdrawal limit.

Is Phoneum a worthy investment of your time?

We don’t think so. Here are some of our reasons:

• There is no initial financial investment to mine tokens. However, earning a worthy amount through free methods takes a long time and requires users to watch significant time of ads. Otherwise users have to pay to upgrade their mining rates.
• At the current price of Phoneum (±$0.0003), each session (i.e. each user login and click) earns the user ±$0.2 (i.e. the value of 672 tokens as of June 2021).
  • In order to increase the mining rate, users have to pay at least $3 for at most 17x increase of mining rate (i.e. earning $3.4 worth of Phoneum). With the current price of Phoneum, this doesn’t make too much sense as you invest $3 to earn $3.2 more and it also takes time to invest that $3 via the app.
• Some users reported malfunction in the application, for example:
  • A user on Reddit claims that they earned $1k worth of Phoneum in the gaming app CryptoTreasure and was then blocked by the game at a claim that they hijacked the game and stole the money
  • A user on Trustpilot claims that they could not withdraw or convert their earnings into ETH

As we see it, Phoneum is not a good investment for people looking for a long term wealth. And is, at best, a waste of your time for a few dollars.

Could Phoneum be valuable?

Since it is a coin without a use case, we see that unlikely but of course we could be wrong and it could end up gaining significant value especially if a celebrity like Elon Musk starts endorsing it. This is what happened to Doge and SHIB.

What are alternative ways of earning cryptocurrency?

Using the Brave browser, users can earn exchange traded BAT coins in return for the ads that they view.

How to avoid getting scammed?

Before investing in any cryptocurrency project, feel free to check out our in-depth guide on investing in crypto to avoid scams & pick winners.

You might also find our other articles interesting where we investigated popular cryptocurrencies which we don’t think will generate value for their holders, such as:

• DogeCoin
• Shiba Inu
• Tether USDT

This was our opinion on Phoneum coin, but we are open to your ideas. Feel free to share what you think about Phoneum in the comment section.