I’ve mined billions of dollars of entirely fake $BTC over the last couple weeks in Bitcoin Empire, an iOS and Android game that lets you earn real Bitcoin rewards for building out a simulated mining business from your virtual bedroom.
Of course, the amount of actual Bitcoin that I’ve earned for hours upon hours of tapping the screen and watching interminable video ads is far less than what my character racked up in the game. It’s a pittance, really. But is it still worth your time?
Bitcoin Empire hails from Fumb Games, the same developer that has already delivered a pair of Bitcoin-paying mining simulators—the fun, retro-style Bitcoin Miner, and the generic but solid enough Idle Mine, a gem-excavating game. It’s free to download and play, but loaded with video ads that pop up every couple minutes, plus others that are optional but offer big boosts.
Screenshots from Bitcoin Empire. Image: Decrypt
Starting from a computer in your otherwise empty room, you’ll tap the screen to start earning in-game Bitcoin, thus giving you funds to reinvest into upgrades that earn you more faux coins. I’m not sure how a larger bed and a poster of Satoshi Nakamoto help you mine more blocks, but it’s best not to overthink things here.
You can also recruit managers that generate passive income, even when you’re offline and not playing the game, all of which continues to fuel more upgrades to boost your earnings. When your pace slows, you can sell the whole operation to investors and start over with a big earnings multiplier—again, similar to Fumb titles like Bitcoin Miner and SpaceY.
Fumb has been one of the most reliable players in the Bitcoin-paying mobile game space. However, Bitcoin Empire not only feels like a repetitive retread that’s overloaded with obnoxious ads, but also one of the stingier examples that I’ve played to date.
Across about 19 hours of largely passive play over the last couple weeks, including a few investor-fueled restarts in search of bigger gains, I’ve banked 255 satoshis that I can withdraw to a ZBD wallet and spend or transfer as I wish. A satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, equal to 1/100,000,000 of a full Bitcoin.
In other words, I’ve earned about 17 cents’ worth of $BTC by playing Bitcoin Empire. That’s less than a penny per hour in Bitcoin rewards.
Granted, most of these games pay out pennies per hour if you’re lucky, but Bitcoin Miner and Idle Mine paid at a far faster rate when we tested them, and were quite a bit more fun too. Finding a game that’s both fun and lets you earn funds is rare, but Bitcoin Empire isn’t one of them.