It Is All About BTC, LTC, ETH, DOGE, KAS mining as well as other alternative crypto currencies
The Scala (XLA) project, formerly know as Torque (XTC), and Stellite (XTL) prior to that, may have some controversy surrounding it along the way, but we are not going to be talking about that. The project has just released their Scala Mobile Miner v1.0.0 intended for Android smartphone owners to mine XLA on their devices and we just wanted to give it a go and see how it works, but more of that in a moment. Scala (XLA) uses the s called DefyX algorithm for mining. DefyX is a customized hybrid algorithm combining RandomX, Kangaroo12 and Yescrypt with the memory requirements optimized to fit more energy-efficient CPU and ARM architectures according to the developers. Apart from Android smartphones that can just now be used to mine Scala (XLA) coins, you could use a normal computer processor to mine with significantly higher hashrate for quite some time already.
Let us take a look at the Scala Mobile Miner software that you need to download directly as an APK for the moment and manually install as it is not yet available on the Google Play store. We like the fact that the apps starts with a warning message noting the important things regarding the battery and CPU having a high load on your smartphone. Then at the Settings screen there are the options for how many of the CPU cores to use and what temperatures to maintain as safe for both the processor and the battery. Then all you have to do is choose a mining pool and set your worker or wallet for the pool in order to start mining.
Now as far as mining is concerned you should not expect too much from a smartphone, even if it is top of the line Android smartphone. We have tested with Huawei Mate 30 Pro and got around 50 H/s as hashrate with 4 out of the 8 CPU cores active. If running with full 8 cores the CPU thermal threshold of 65 degrees Celsius is reached immediately, not to mention that you still would want to be able to use your phone while the miner is running on the background. With 4/8 CPU cores for mining it is possible, not draining that much battery and keeping reasonable operating temperatures for both the processor and battery.
So in short we like the Scala Mobile Miner, it is well made and works fine maintaining the safety and usability of your device. As far as performance is concerned, well there is more to be desired, especially if you compare the hashrate of just around 50 H/s to a high-end desktop CPU such as Intel Core i7 6850K or AMD Ryzen 3900X like we did and you can see the results below:
Intel Core i7 6850K (6C/12T):
– XLArig 5.0.1 – 2100 H/s
– SRBMiner-Multi 0.4.0 – 4650 H/sAMD Ryzen 3900X (12C/24T):
– SRBMiner-Multi 0.4.0 – 11970 H/s
The latest official XLArig 5.0.1, based on XMRig, is not the best performing miner at the moment with support for the DefyX algorithm used by Scala (XLA). You should opt out for the latest SRBMiner-Multi 0.4.0 significantly better hashrate for mining Scala (XLA) using the DefyX proof of work algorithm. Do note that the DefyX algorithm has been used for a while already by the Scala project and prior to that XLA coins were mined using CryptoNight algorithm, so it is both not a new project and not a new algorithm. If you are looking for crypto exchanges where to trade the mined XLA coins, you can go to Trade Ogre, Crex.
AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 3990X Processor is the latest and highest-end workstation CPU from AMD offering staggering 64 cores and 128 logical threads to the user or with other words really massive performance if you can manage to take advantage. The Ryzen Threadripper 3990X CPU does not come cheap at a retail price of about $3990 USD it is really expensive, so most definitely not for everyone and unfortunately not the best choice for mining if you want to pay back for it mining crypto at the moment. Nevertheless we managed to get our hands on one of these monsters of CPU power and the first thing we did was to run some RandomX CPU benchmarks in order to see what level of performance we are going to get. You can read our first impressions and results below…
We have started our RandomX testing on the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X CPU with the latest XMRig 5.7.0 that was just recently released and we managed to get all 128 threads at 100% and a hashrate of almost 40 KH/s. Performance wise great result, but still earning you just about 3 and something US dollars per day mining Monero (XMR) that uses the RandomX algorithm, making it pretty pointless to use that particular processor for mining. Mining ARQma (RandomARQ) got us 198 KH/s hashrate, for LOKI (RandomXL) the hashrate was 46.6 KH/s and for WOWnero (RandomWOW) the result was 49.1 KH/s when using the latest XMRig miner. Trying out the latest XMR-Stak-RX got us a bit higher hashrate at 41.3 KH/s for RandomX and the latest SRBMiner-Multi miner did perform even slightly better with 41.8 KH/s as hashrate mining Monero (XMR).
All of the miners for RandomX did manage to properly load all of the available 128 logical cores on the 3990X processor, but be aware that not all CPU miners out there and all algorithms may be able to take full advantage of so many CPU threads for mining. An example of a miner that had trouble automatically using all 128 threads is the PEGNet (PEG) miner at the Orax Pool that did put a load on only half the logical threads available or with other words only 64 threads instead of the full 128. Trying to manually fix the issue by increasing the number of sub miners to 128 from the automatically detected 64 unfortunately does not help to take full advantage of all 128 logical cores that the processor offers.
The latest SRBMiner-MULTI CPU and AMD GPU Miner version 0.2.0 has added support for another RandomX variant, namely the RandomV algorithm (MoneroV) as well as some additional tweaks, you can find the full changelog below. The previous release has also added support for the RandomSFX algorithm (SafexCash), so you can say that there is revival for CPU mining lately centered around RandomX, unfortunately that also has some negative side effects such as botnets mining. We’ll see how things go and for how long RandomX will remain in the CPU mining domain only with the growing interest around it and with many different variations becoming available as well.
SRBMiner-MULTI CPU & AMD GPU Miner 0.2.0 beta changelog:
– Added RandomV algorithm (MoneroV)
– Added –randomx-use-tweaks, to select the MSR tweak/s to apply
– Added RandomX tweak support for Intel Core2 processors
– To download and try the new SRBMiner-MULTI CPU and AMD GPU Miner 0.2.0 Beta…