HTC’s new partnership to allow XMR mobile mining

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on  Apr 11, 2020
Updated:  Apr 28, 2020
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3 min read
  • HTC partnered up with Midas Labs to enable Monero mining on its blockchain-based smartphone, Exodus.
  • Smartphone poorly-equipped to be used as mining gear, HTC officials pointed out that this may not be the case
  • HTC said that users will benefit from a new mining algorithm, known as RandomX.

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Taiwan-based electronics maker, HTC, recently decided to expand the capabilities of its blockchain-friendly smartphone. The phone, Exodus, will from now on allow its users to mine cryptocurrency Monero (XMR).

HTC’s new partnership and its goals

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The new capability comes as a consequence of HTC’s new partnership with Midas Labs. The company will integrate Midas Labs’ DeMiner app into its smartphone to start mining XMR.

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HTC plans to integrate the app within the following two months. The move will increase the smartphone’s capabilities, and provide crypto enthusiasts with yet another reason to buy Exodus.

Midas’ crypto mining app will allow every HTC Exodus user to use their phone’s memory and CPU for Monero mining. At this point, Monero mining rewards on an annual basis sit at around $60 million. In other words, mining the coin can be very profitable.

At least, it would be, if such rewards did not mostly go to ASIC users. In addition to that, smartphones may not be as competent and well-suited for solving complex equations of blockchain. These require huge amounts of computing power, and even the best of phones pale in comparison to CPUs and GPUs.

Comparing them to professional mining rigs is pointless, as they don’t have adequate computational power. Not to mention the necessary OS that would be able to mine for longer periods, or even batteries that would power them for long.

Does it make sense to mine on mobile?

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However, HTC’s Decentralized Chief Officer, Phil Chen, has a different idea. He said that “Mining on mobile is an important research topic in understanding the development of secure crypto networks. The number of mobile phones in 2020 is approaching 3.5 Billion, which would further decentralize and distribute the hash rate and mining power of such crypto networks.”

According to the firm, it designed this algorithm to make ASICs pretty much non-competitive.

RandomX will also favor CPU miners over others, even if Monero’s network saw a huge shift towards GPU mining. In addition to that, Chen added that the power-saving software for mobile has developed and matured. Meanwhile, laptops and desktops remain very power-hungry. This will also further increase the profitability and efficiency of mobile mining.

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