Posts Tagged ‘XLA’

Improved Performance for the Latest Scala (XLA) Smartphone Miner

29, Apr 2020

Last month we have tested the freshly released Scala (XLA) mobile phone miner for Android smartphones and were pretty impressed by what we saw. Probably the best, though definetly not the only smartphone-based crypto mining software out there, although the DefyX algorithm used by the project can also be mined with computer CPUs at a much higher hashrate. A Smartphone crypto miner such as the one being developed by XLA is giving much better power efficiency for the hashrate it produces, even if the hashrate itself is not that high. This is definitely nice, but would’ve been even nicer if the project was only from smartphones with mining done only on them similar to what MIB Coin (MIB) does, because now most miners will just go for CPU mining Scala anyway.

Back to the XLA Mobile Miner, there has been some improvement to the software in terms of features since the initial release with the latest version 1.3 focusing on significant performance improvement apparently. With the first version (on the left) using Huawei Mate 30 Pro smartphone to test we got around 50 H/s as hashrate utilizing 4 out of the 8 available cores. Repeating the test on the same device with the latest version 1.3 (on the right) has shown significant boost in hashrate up to about 170-180 H/s again with 8 out of 8 cores used. As with the first release going for all 8 cores to be used for mining very quickly rises the temperate of the mobile processor above 65 degrees Celsius which is not considered very safe for a smartphone. This is specifically for the high-end Huawei Mate 30 Pro, performance can vary and the usability of the number of available CPU cores can vary from device to device. If you decide to give the miner a go feel free to post your performance result and the model of the device in the comments below.

– To download and try the latest Scala Mobile Miner v1.3 for Android-based smartphones…

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.

Checking Out the Scala (XLA) Project’s Mobile Phone Miner

13, Mar 2020

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/s

AMD 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.


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