There’s gold in them thar data packets

If you want a piece of the bitcoin gold rush, download Bitcoin Billionaire and strike it rich by mining virtual currency.

Strike it rich

Bitcoin Billionaire doesn’t actually pay out in real money, but it’s a dangerously addictive pixel art game that draws you in with the lure of making billions of virtual coins just by repeatedly tapping the screen to make your character ‘mine’ on his computer. The faster you tap the more KB of bitcoins you mine.

Fortunately, there’s much more to Bitcoin Billionaire than just hammering the touchscreen. You can use your bitcoins to make investments in industries that then earn you coins automatically without you tapping, or even having the game open. You can also upgrade your bitcoin software to give you more bitcoins per tap; style out your office with accessories; perform tasks; and complete achievements to earn bonuses.

Box clever

As you beaver away with your mining, cardboard boxes periodically float down from the top of the screen. Tap these to reveal coin dumps, or bonuses such as coin multipliers.

You can also earn more virtual currency by watching videos or opting to add banner ads to the screen for 30 seconds. It’s a very smart way of encouraging you to view adverts – and it works because Bitcoin Billionaire makes you desperately greedy to earn more coins at all costs (including the health of your finger joints!)

Pixel perfect

The pixel art graphics in Bitcoin Billionaire are charming, and remind me a lot of Game Dev Story. You can personalize your character, and although you only see one room throughout the entire time, it starts to feel very homely as you decorate it with new stuff (you can even get yourself a pet once you have enough bitcoins).

Surprisingly, the soundtrack of Bitcoin Billionaire doesn’t get annoying, even though it’s the same upbeat, cheerful tune looping the whole time. In fact, it’s quite mesmerizing, and it’ll get stuck in your head for hours after you’ve stopped playing.

Money, money, money

Bitcoin Billionaire illustrates perfectly the addictive properties of money, even in its virtual form (technically I suppose you should say, ‘virtual virtual money’). It’s very, very hard to stop tapping the screen, such is the strange attraction of seeing your bitcoin haul grow and grow.

Addictive, easy to play, funny, creative, subversive: Bitcoin Billionaire is one of the treasures of the App Store.