Archive for the ‘Crypto Coins’ Category

Quantum (QRL) is Another Project that has Forked to RandomX

15, Apr 2020

Quantum (QRL) is another crypto project that has recently successfully forked to the RandomX algorithm, the project initially launched with CryptoNight algorithm. Now with the fork to RandomX mining QRL is viable only with CPUs as although there are GPU miners available, the performance of CPU mining of RandomX, especially with the latest AMD Ryzen processors is significantly better in terms of performance and efficiency compared to GPUs. Of course the latest hardfork brings some additional new features to the Quantum project besides the switch to the RandomX algorithm that you might want to check out as well if interested. There are a number of RandomX miners out there available for you to use for mining Quantum such as XMRig, SRBMiner-Multi and XMR-STAK-RX. If you are looking for an exchange where you can trade QRL, then Bittrex is probably the one to go for, although it might not have the largest trading volume.

HTC Exodus Smartphones to Get a Monero (XMR) Mining App

11, Apr 2020

It seems that HTC is trying to attract more interest onto its blockchain smartphone – the Exodus, by introducing a dedicated mining application for mining Monero (XMR) directly on the device. HTC has partnered up with a company called Midas Labs to develop a mining application called DeMiner that should be available in the second quarter of the year or with other words in less than 3 months. Currently mining Monero on a desktop level processor using the RandomX algorithm is not profitable according to the to companies and their goal is to actually make it profitable to be mined on a mobile device. Not profitable enough to make you rich, but actually getting more than you spend on electricity to mine the coins…

According to Midas Labs the HTC EXODUS 1S users should be able to mine at least $0.0038 USD of XMR per day on average, while the electricity cost should be less than 50% of that. And it seems that you need to have your smartphone plugged into power for that to work well and to be profitable however there is no way that you can do that 24/7, right? The DeMiner app is designed to automatically inactivate mining whenever the phone is in regular use or when the charger is unplugged, removing the stress upon the phone’s normal usage, so you will not be able to mine Monero (XMR) with the device all the time. A more interesting thing is if Midas Labs could in the future provide smartphone manufacturers with dedicated mining hardware to be built-in the devices and provide good performance, power efficiency and in the end profitability for the end user… this could indeed be a game changer for the mobile industry and for crypto as well.

Now, talking about HTC and their smartphones getting Monero RandomX mining capabilities in the near future is one thing, but we have recently tested Scala (XLA) Mobile Phone Miner that is very similar and already available for users with Android-based smartphones. The XLA project uses its own algorithm called DefyX, though based on the same RandomX that Monero uses, and the miner works even when running on battery and not only when plugged in for charging. We have tested on Huawei Mate 30 Pro and although the hashrate is nothing to brag about with, the power efficiency for achieving it is what is more interesting. What is even more interesting is that the miner app is having built-in measurements to prevent your phone’s hardware form overheating and damaging it which is one of the concerns regarding the use of smartphones for crypto mining.

So if you are interested in what HTC could be soon providing for a limited number of mobile devices, namely their own Exodus smartphones, you should check out what Scala (XLA) is already offering for their users with their mobile miner compatible with all Android smartphones. Maybe they are already ahead of their time, although HTC is getting all the attention now with just announcing future plans for what could essentially be the same thing already available… and you just don’t know about it.

NiceHash and MiningRigRentals With Support for the Handshake (HNS) Algorithm

6, Apr 2020

The Handshake (HNS) project is gaining more attention as it is getting wider support from services that are allowing users to sell or buy hashpower such as NiceHash and MiningRigRentals (MRR). Handshake is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root DNS naming zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems. So NiceHash has just added support for buying and selling hashrate for the Handshake algorithm on their platform and just recently added support for mining HNS in their dedicated multi-functional software for miners – NiceHash Miner 3.0.0.7.

You can of course also GPU mine Handshake (HNS) using the latest GMiner or NBMiner standalone software miners, though GPU mining may not be that profitable with BlackMiner F1 series FPGAs offering a bit better performance with lower power usage compared to GPUs. Unfortunately at the moment if you have hosted BlackMiner FPGAs you are apparently not able to utilize them with either NH or MRR, so these services are only available to users that have their own miners available and are not using HashAltcoin’s hosting services! Nevertheless you might still make some profit or bet longer term on HNS mining with GPUs or buying or selling Handshake hashrate until June when we are expecting to see the Hummer Miner Mars H1 Handshake (HNS) ASIC miners starting to join the network and significantly outperforming any existing GPU or FPGA mining option at the moment. HNS is already listed for trading on a few crypto exchanges such as Gateio, Citex and HotBit.


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