Pursuit of privacy: AMA Scala

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Mr Kwibs (Pursuit of privacy) : So lets start right away! I think not many people here have heard about Scala before, can you briefly describe Scala’s history to our community?

MasterMind (Scala): Yes sure! Scala is a community and open-source privacy cryptocurrency building a scalable ecosystem with the help of IPFS (Inter Planetary File System) and distributed technologies. The genesis block was mined in January 2018, and development has been ongoing since then. Our name was « Stellite » at our inception – some of you may have heard about us at that time, but we had to rename to « Scala » along the way for legal reasons.
We started as a fork of Electroneum due to the fact that ETN did not keep up their promise about the mobile miner or their claims to privacy. We wanted something that they promised but also with the features implemented the right way, so we rebased our code with the latest XMR code which ETN didn’t as years went by – they just kept making the chain more and more centralized to the point where it was just another payment processor whereas we added features like mobile mining which worked on distributed and decentralized tech.

Mr Kwibs : Yes I definitely remember when it still was called Stellite. Good times.
Yes mobile mining isn’t something you see regularly in the privacycoin space. Brings me to the question, what are Scala’s key features?

MasterMind : 

As of now, our key features are:

* Real privacy with ring signatures and stealth addresses

* Real mobile mining with a friendly interface

All payments via Scala are untraceable and unlinkable – as you all know, privacy is not just nice to have but will become a necessity in the near future as we believe governments and regulators will crack down on cryptocurrencies, the private ones in particular.

As you said, one of the most interesting aspects of Scala is the fact that it can be mined via mobile devices and is optimized for ARM architectures, another trend that we believe will grow more and more in the years to come, as it is enabling anyone who wants to mine to do so – differently to Bitcoin for example where you need to have a certain budget.

A deep learning program called ‘AMYAC’ takes care of monitoring and optimising the mining process in order to find out the maximum temperature that a smartphone should reach in order to ensure safe operating.

You can check a video of our Android miner here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0XkDRUXSIg

Mr Kwibs : Yes please keep additional information like video’s and articles coming. We will add them to our recap article later on.

You have developed a specific mining algorithm for ARM CPU architecture . Can you tell us about it (Panthera algorihm) ?

MasterMind: Actually, this algorithm is not really specific to the ARM CPU architecture, it’s just that it’s very well performing on that specific architecture (if you look at the watt-to-hash ratio).
Our algorithm combines RandomX with our own variant of yespower. In addition, we have combined a quantum-resistant algorithm called KangarooTwelve to create a new PoW algorithm that we called Panthera. It is faster than RandomX and is extremely resistant to not just ASICs and FPGAs, but is also rated quantum-resistant Level 2 due to the inclusion of K12.

Mr Kwibs : Thank you. What is the profitability of mobile mining and is there a difference depending on the smartphone model? Can you give us a range?

MasterMind : The profitability of mobile devices may seem bleak for real mobile mining if you’re selling the coins just as you mine them, but the prospect of mobile mining is in the speculation of the price of the coins, what is called “speculative mining”.
And of course, the device specs matter – the most powerful CPU and L2 cache, the more hashrate you will get.

Mr Kwibs : Is it something you can run in the background on ur phone? Next to the fact that its spec mining it can also be a lot of fun to play with I can imagine.

MasterMind : Obviously, we also have a strong community that believes in our vision and mission and that mines our coin to help secure and strengthen our network 🙂
Yes, you can run the mining app in the background, but unfortunately Android sometimes restricts what applications can run in the background, depending on what version of Android is used. There is also the possibility of running the miner using Termux, for more advanced users.

Mr Kwibs : Interesting. Thanks. You have implemented the « Diardi » DPoW for more than 2 years now. You evolved the technology which was an adaptation of the Komodo technology. Don’t you think the network has become centralized (36 nodes if we’re right)?

MasterMind : Indeed, Diardi is loosely based on the technology of dPoW created by Komodo (KMD), but we completely rewrote the code.
Diardi is not meant as the only way of securing the network, as regular nodes still provide the bulk of the network’s security. We’re not limited to 36 nodes as you mentioned, the 36 nodes work in tandem with the regular nodes to provide a more secure network. Kinda like how there are police officers and then there are police officers that are specialized in certain areas like bomb squads, hostage situations, etc.
With Diardi v1 you could say the election process was a bit centralized, but with Diardi v2 we have moved to a completely decentralized process where people were voted into candidacy based on a staked election. https://medium.com/scala-network/diardi-election-results-dfc65436d655

Mr Kwibs : Yes it was interesting to follow the Diardi elections.
Can you tell us about Scala Share? Is the tool used and still functional?

MasterMind : Scala Share was a project created with a funding grant provided to us by Unstoppable Domains (https://unstoppabledomains.com/). It was a proof of concept of how we can harness the power of IPFS and Scala to create a file-sharing service that is decentralized and secure. We’re currently working on a new version of it that will be released sometime in the future.

Mr Kwibs : Makes me wonder have you guys partnered with Unstoppable Domains? Working together on other things perhaps??

Mastermind : Yes, they are friendly to us and our mission. We have just secured another grant with them to integrate their domains within our application ecosystem. You heard it here first! The news will be out later this week !

Mr Kwibs : Breaking news! haha
The next major network update is Menger V8. What will this bring to Scala?

MasterMind : We’re pretty excited about this update! With Menger V8, there are a lot of new changes coming, like the fact that we’re moving to Diardi V2 which is more decentralized and far more secure than the previous version, changes to the block reward algorithm which makes our coin deflationary and not inflationary, and the addition of a new Proof-of-work called Felidae which is a completely new PoW created by Scala which harnesses the speed of SHA3 and Blake3 to be incredibly fast for Diardi operators and very efficient in terms of electricity expended.

Mr Kwibs : That’s quite a lot of changes indeed. Has a date been set for Menger V8?

MasterMind : The validation on testnet has been completed with our community, and we are currently finalizing the pool updates. We expect the release on mainnet in the upcoming weeks.

Mr Kwibs : Exciting. What is Neofelis’ objective and challenges?

MasterMind : Neofelis is the name of the tool and processes we use to test our products and updates. We knew that finding people to help us with testing is kind of difficult, so we decided to incentivize that process to make it a lot easier for us to find bugs and fix them.
Basically, people register on our platform to test new features, and they get XLA depending on their rank and how much they contributed. We used it to test our latest chain updates. Turned out it worked pretty well, and we didn’t face any major challenges yet with this tool.

Kwibs : Well thats a cool name for a bounty program. Great job.

It’s been 5 years already since you created the project, you are still active and the development continues despite more complicated phases. Many lowcap projects are experiencing financial difficulties. You had implemented the DPoW also to be able to generate financing for the project. What are the results today? Do you think Scala can continue with the current business model?

MasterMind : Indeed, funding the project is always tricky. What helps us a lot is that the core team members are really dedicated to the project and have been working basically for free since the beginning. The premine that we have helps a bit with some financial assistance, but we try not to use it much to avoid impacting our trading volume and market.
Regardless, the dPoW/Diardi model was never meant as a way to generate revenue for the project, it was meant as a way to secure the network.
We now have our Community Contribution System (CSS), where contributors receive bounties in XLA when they contribute to a task.
We are always looking for contributors, if you’re interested you can find more information here:

https://medium.com/scala-network/scalas-community-contribution-system-a51089beef05

Mr Kwibs : Definitely checking this out after the AMA. As a marketing person I always find it interesting to see ways to incentive the community to contribute.
You created the Haku Labs legal structure. Why did you formalize this organization? Do you have any plans to get Scala indexed on other exchanges?

MasterMind : Haku Labs is a foundation with 2 primary directors and is registered as a non-profit organization in the country of Estonia. We registered it so that we can have access to a greater number of exchanges and other similar partnership activities with other companies, such as Unstoppable Domains. Most companies require to do business with a legal entity, and so far it has served us great.
The exchanges topic is a hot one, for sure. With concerns surrounding CEX in terms of regulatory compliance, and the delisting of some privacy coins like Monero (XMR), we feel that spending large amounts of money (typically 100,000$ and more) to get listed on CEX might not be the way to go. That being said, if the opportunity comes to get listed on a CEX at a fair price, we will definitely evaluate it.
We are currently working on our wrapped token (wXLA) on ETH and BSC which should open the door to many opportunities for DEX listings, and we will explore those options actively once our token is released.

Mr Kwibs : Yes many privacy projects feel the same way currently. Perhaps binding together with many projects to fund an all-in DEX would be the way to go. But atomic swaps would be a requirement for this.

MasterMind : Yes definitely. Always open to discuss 🙂

Mr Kwibs : You added « Cryptonator » as a consultant on the project since January 2023. He has a lot of experience and notoriety in the field of privacy. What will be his role in the project?

CR 1337 : My background is in online marketing (generalist with focus on seo back in the days) and i have worked in this field since 2008, both as a freelancer running my own consulting business, as well as for different agencies and a software company in germany
into cryptocurrencies i am for 6 years now, with private finance as my main sector, as i see the biggest need for it in the near future. i know scala for a longer time, originally i was attracted by the mobile mining feature. few months ago i got into closer rcontact with @IamMas7erMind and at some point we decided that i should join as an advisor. mainly i am helping with defining a general marketing strategy, help out with my contacts as i have a great network and spreading the word on twitter & c

Mr Kwibs : Exciting to see you on board with Scala @CR_1337 . I hope you will achieve great things for Scala together with their team

CR 1337 : I am looking forward, too! thanks.

Mr Kwibs : Now we move on to the last question. What are Scala’s main plans for 2023/2024?

MasterMind : The Scala’s 2023 roadmap consists of four main development priorities:

– V8 Menger Mainnet
– Mining Hub
– BSC/ETH Bridge
– Marketing

We have already covered the Menger V8 update previously, so let me present the other roadmap items.
We are excited to announce that we will be working on a new product to democratize CPU-mineable coins, called the Scala Mining Hub. This platform will make it easy to deploy and manage miners for CPU-mineable cryptocurrencies. This new product will bring more utility for XLA and provide new cash flow to the project as well.
One of our goals for 2023 is to expand our exposure beyond the privacy-centric ecosystem.
We have already been working on Solidity contracts that will allow us to build a swap between any ETH-compatible chain. This will allow us to build a gateway for Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum (ETH) that will allow our users to swap wXLA (wrapped XLA) for ETH and BNB.
Once the dust on V8 Menger settles, we will continue working on the cross-chain integration.
Finally, on the marketing side, we have been working on our new revamped website for the last few months, with the addition of a blog to improve our SEO and visibility on the privacy and mobile mining topics. Also, we are always looking for ways of engaging more with our members and also adding new people to our community. This year, we will be actively looking for ways to increase our exposure (for example this AMA!), and cross-project collaboration

Mr Kwibs : Thanks for all the explanations and updates regarding Scala @IamMas7erMind & @cr_1337 . Its been a pleasure to interview you both and please always feel welcomed to share ur updates here with us in Pursuit of Privacy.
If there’s any additional materials or things you would like to add please feel free to do so!

MasterMind/ CR 1337 : Thank you so much for having us! Check out our website for more information: https://scalaproject.io/
And our wiki: https://wiki.scalaproject.io/

THANKS TO MASTERMIND AND CR 1337 FOR TAKING THE TIME TO PARTICIPATE! I WILL BE FOLLOWING THIS PROJECT CLOSELY!

NOW, IF U ENJOYED THIS AMA, PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO LEAVE A COMMENT!

Pursuit of privacy team

If you want to know more about Scala:

Website > https://scalaproject.io/

Telegram > https://t.me/scalaofficial