HoneyGain Review, Truly Passive Income, Very Low Payout

[james.hendrickson]

For the past few months I've been looking at ways to improve my income. Mostly my salary is covering the basics of what I need, but I'm not exactly putting away tons of cash every month.

So, one thing I Iooked into was utilizing my unused computing resources. I have a work computer and a computer at home, and since I can't use both at the same time, I thought why not see if I can make some money.

One of the apps that I looked at was Honeygain.com. Honeygain is billed as "effortless passive income". The idea is you download their app and let it run in the background on your computer. Honeygain uses your unused internet bandwidth, and offers it to research companies - mostly for ad testing. In return, they pay you based on how much of your bandwidth they use.

Here is their interface:

A few points:

1) If you sign up, you get a $5 bonus.

2) The payout is pretty low - I've contributed less than 150 Megs per day for the last couple of months, and I've made something like $1.75. Their minimum payout is $20. They pay via Paypal.

3) Giving a 3rd party access to your computer is always a question, as you don't know what they'll do with the bandwidth. In this case, you basically have to trust them not to do anything illegal.

4) There wasn't any impact on my computer's internet load time or processing speed.

5) The software really doesn't require much time at all, you just need to install it and let it run.

So, if you're looking to make extra money, Honeygain probably isn't the best option. It is totally passive, but the payout is extremely low.

If you want to know more, their website is here.

[amarowsky]

Just curious, have you considered the power consumption of the computer doing this "data processing" ? I wonder if it will offset the income from them leasing your processing power. (similar quandry for blockchain miners, gotta get low enough voltage hardware to make it worth your while)

If you're using a laptop, or even better, a tablet/phone to do this processing, it will have very low power consumption. But a typical (older) tower PC may be running through a decent amount of power (*pending the power supply, cooling systems, and what not).

Just food for thought! If you already considered this, then forget my mention.

[james.hendrickson]

amarowsky - nah. I didn't even factor in the power consumption issue. Honeygain uses your internet bandwidth, not so much your processing resources.

[HundredK]

We mined crypto for about 6 months a couple of years ago. It KILLED our power bill. Processor running constantly, all of the computer components like fans and whatnot on all the time. Don't know how honeybee compares to that, but it might be interesting for you to do a similar comparison of your electric usage. Wasn't worth it to us in the end.

[HundredK]

With something like this, I'd also be wary of what they're really doing with my connection (no doubt they're spying and selling or "sharing") your data. I also imagine that if your internet provider catches on, they won't be happy. What they are paying is pretty much an insult when you consider all of that, though most folks don't take into account the value of privacy.

[bjl584]

It does remind me of mining for Bitcoin.
A lot of Universities actually banned the practice due to the power consumption and the bandwidth that was being used.

How much payout are you seeing from this?
I doubt it offsets your increased electric bill or the wear and tear on the computer.

It sounds like an interesting idea, but I don't think the payout could possibly be worth it

[disneysteve]

for the last couple of months, and I've made something like $1.75. Their minimum payout is $20.

That can't possibly be worth it. If you've only made $1.75 in a couple of months and need to earn $20 before they pay you, it's going to take you 2 years before you see any money. And as others have said, you're probably spending more on electricity than they're paying you. You wouldn't be likely to notice if your electric bill went up by a dollar or two but if you're only earning 80 cents in the process, you're losing money.

[amarowsky]

It does remind me of mining for Bitcoin.
A lot of Universities actually banned the practice due to the power consumption and the bandwidth that was being used.

How much payout are you seeing from this?
I doubt it offsets your increased electric bill or the wear and tear on the computer.

It sounds like an interesting idea, but I don't think the payout could possibly be worth it

omg a guy I worked with for a brief period had pulled something like that. He was very adept robotics and computer student, and some of his friends and him set a whole computer lab to mine bitcoin while they were out for some vacation. He never told me how much he wound up getting (but it was back in like 2014 or 2015). I asked it they mined north of a hundred coins, and he said no, but he did confirm he did mine over 10 coins.

If I recall proper, he left my old job back in 2017 ish. And he sold like half of his lot back when it was 16,000 per coin, and paid for his wedding + part of his move out west. (Really interesting guy, he had some crazy projects!).