Howdy folks! In the past few months, I've been doing research into ways of earning small amounts of (mostly) passive income from old smartphones sitting around. With all the discussion surrounding Universal Basic Income, I thought this would be a fitting place to share some of what I've found so far on ways to provide a small Basic Income while we see what the future holds.

I'm doing this on Android phones, which are no longer attached to a phone plan, but can still access the internet through WIFI. Running everything for a long period of time is entirely likely to damage the phones, so don't do this on any hardware you care about. When one of the phones finally stops functioning, there are places online that you can sell scrap phones for a bit of extra cash.

I won't post any links containing referrals, but if you have multiple phones, you should definitely chain them together using referrals to maximize returns.

Step 1: Factory Reset your phone(s)

This is to make sure has as little random extra software draining power/processing time as possible.

Step 2: Install the Following Apps (and create accounts for them)

Applike - This app gives you lists of other apps to install and run. You earn points for installing an app, and more points for running it. These points can be turned into Amazon gift cards or money on Paypal.
No Screen Off - We want this to make collecting Applike points easier. Lets you leave Applike apps on 24/7 to collect.
Rocket Boost - We use this every week or so to quickly clear out caches other the phone and other optimizations that generally let everything work better.
Mobile Performance Meter - Data collection app. Concerned about privacy? Good thing you're installing this on a junk phone.
MI Mobile - Another data collection app.
AppOptix - Yet another data collection app.
Cross Media Panel - More data collection, this one is actually by Google and pays very well! I would not put this on more than one phone however, as Google will probably find out what your doing pretty fast and suspend you.
MinerGate Mobile Miner - Quick, easy altcoin miner for phones. This can be run in the background to use up the rest of your poor smartphone's processors. Depending on electricity costs and how fast you can charge your phone, you may find it best to skip MinerGate. There are also many other mobile miners out there if you prefer mining a different sort of coin.

Step 3: ???

As it turns out, running all this stuff on a phone will cause it to get rather hot! Find a good place to keep your phone farm plugged in that is not only out of the way, but also well-ventilated/keeps the phones reasonably cool.

Step 4: Profit.

Depending on electricity costs and how efficient you are with Applike, you should be able to make at least $7 / week per phone. New money earning apps come out every months, and there are many people out there finding new ways to maximize revenue. Research pays off!

Hope you enjoyed, here is a complimentary panda picture courtesy of the BBC.

Panda out.