Can the Chia Network Reduce the Environmental Cost of Cryptocurrencies?

We already mentioned how much electricity was needed to mine bitcoin. It was anticipated that the Chia coin would provide a solution and establish itself as the first sustainable coin. In fact, all that was required to farm the coin was hard disc space.

But over time, it became clear that Chia is essentially “eating” hard drives. An SSD should typically live for at least ten years, but if you use it for Chia farming, the drive may fail in a matter of weeks.

When their CDs were used for Chia mining, some hard disc manufacturers refused to honour warranties. On certain of their discs, Chia growing was prohibited.

Yes, Chia does not directly produce carbon dioxide. However, because of the high consumption of SSDs, it generates a separate sort of trash that is just as hazardous and harmful: rare metals, which are used to make specific parts of hard discs. This trash is so poisonous that it nearly cannot be recycled.

Chia growing also uses a lot of energy. You need a lot of computer power to succeed in challenges, which requires a lot of energy.

Chia was therefore thought to be a “green” coin at the time of its debut, but we can now see that the coin has failed in this endeavour.

How to Get Chia Coin?

We’ve already talked about farming. By conquering obstacles, you can collect coins.

Purchasing your Chia coins through an immediate exchange service like LetsExchange is an additional choice. You may do it here on our site without having to register and at the greatest prices.

Conclusion

Chia was a large-scale undertaking. In the long run, the coin was thought to be the ideal investment. However, it is now clear that the coin’s primary goal—being ecologically friendly—has been unsuccessful. Long-term, there will likely be plenty of adjustments and advancements that will raise the coin to new heights.

What Is the Chia Cryptocurrency?

Chia (XCH), one of the newest cryptocurrencies, was introduced at the start of May 2021. Chia claims to be developing an eco-friendly cryptocurrency on a blockchain that is sustainable for the environment. How does Chia Crypto operate? What is it? Chia Crypto Network: a reliable or fraudulent venture?

One of the newest crypto initiatives on the market is the Chia coin. It was introduced in 2018 and has since caught the curiosity of investors, cryptocurrency traders, and those who are just generally curious in cryptocurrencies.

Bram Cohen, who also founded BitTorrent, founded the coin. The coin is meant to be a strong substitute for fiat money.

Chia uses the proprietary ChiaLisp programming language to operate. Chia is thought to be the most secure cryptocurrency on the market because it is written in an enterprise-level language.

How Does Chia (XCH) Crypto Work?

Chia was introduced as a cryptocurrency that was “green.” We are all aware that mining for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin consumes a lot of electricity. Chia and Bitcoin are quite similar in that they both employ the original Nakamoto consensus algorithm. These two coins alone will suffice. Therefore, you may anticipate that they would be too similar, and this is true.

There is, however, a significant distinction between the two. Bitcoin uses the ‘proof-of-work’ algorithm, which is what makes it so energy-intensive to mine. Proof of Space and Time is a different algorithm that Chia employs.

The Chia Network’s Proof of Space and Time (PoST) Algorithm

Unlike the Proof-of-Work method employed by Bitcoin, the Proof of Space mechanism used by Chia operates on a totally different tenet. Extra storage space is used by the Proof of Space algorithm. It implies that customers won’t need to invest in pricey mining machinery. Instead, individuals can join the cryptocurrency community by making use of the resources at hand.

Similar to Bitcoin mining, the Proof of Stake and Time algorithm makes use of empty storage space for “farming.” The software creates a “plot”—a sizable collection of cryptographic data—on the disc in order to farm the coin. The Chia network sends a challenge every 18 seconds. You get Chia coins if you manage it. The difficulties get trickier when disc space is increased.

Differences from Bitcoin

Despite using the identical Nakamoto consensus technique, both coins are quite distinct from one another. The biggest distinction between Bitcoin and ChiaBitcoin, the most well-known and pricey cryptocurrency, has a serious issue. Mining requires a lot of energy, which results in significant amounts of carbon emissions. Bitcoin is in no way ecologically friendly.

Chia currency is grown, not mined. You need hard disc space to farm chia. Cohen, the company’s inventor, thought Chia could just use the free space on any regular computer. The coin should have been eco-friendly as a result.

The centralised nature of Bitcoin was intended. But as everyone is aware, the majority of the mining power does not belong to individual miners but rather to a few large mining pools.

This problem was also expected to be solved with the Chia coin. Now, though, is the time to discuss the mission’s failure. In the present, HPool, the biggest Chia farming pool, receives more than 36% of all Chia prizes. Its capability is expanding.

Explained | How New Cryptocurrency Chia Aims to Rival Bitcoin With Sustainability

Instead of calling this technique mining, Cohen’s Chia Network refers to it as “farming,” and it claims that the model it employs is “proof of space and time,” as opposed to energy. In plainer terms, the Chia Network claims that Chia will use free disc space to farm the currency rather than high speed graphics cards and computers. Users must therefore demonstrate that they are allocating portions of their storage space over an extended period of time, which is possible even with a relatively standard computer setup. Chia is just a more practical money than Bitcoin and Ethereum, as it would cost the typical crypto enthusiast far less.

The announcement by Amazon that Chia can now be mined directly on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computers has increased the excitement. The integration of the Chia Network architecture on AWS is said to take “as little as five minutes,” after which users can create their crypto wallet address where the mined or “farmed” Chia coins are to be credited and begin using it. This information was reportedly archived from a now-deleted AWS China explainer page. Due to its versatility, Chia is not just restricted to a single device but is also fully adaptable and accessible for mining even without a lot of hardware resources.

Such a step might significantly help with the ongoing global chipset supply shortage, which is largely the responsibility of the cryptocurrency mining industry. Gamers were unable to obtain recently released graphics cards due to a persistent obsession with mining components, which significantly increased the price of graphics cards on the market. Chia’s ability to completely replace the requirement for graphics cards and processors and instead shift the emphasis on storage makes it an additional side advantage that helps to balance out unbalanced market forces.

THE SUSTAINABILITY EDGE

All of this contributes to Chia being one of the most resilient cryptocurrencies at the moment. Even though there is already a moderately high demand for storage in China, Chia utilises much less energy overall than either Bitcoin or Ethereum. The latter two employ the proof-of-energy approach, which forces miners to continuously run high-throughput GPUs at their maximum efficiency. This not only confines the crypto mining operation to a small area, but it also causes significantly higher energy use and emissions.

With Chia, which is also promoted for its more environmentally friendly approach and more sustainability, users can continue to mine the coin while using the same amount of power as a PC normally uses while it is idle. Chia’s decentralised distributed ledger technology will still be given room and time by those who are able to incorporate it into an AWS cloud platform even without that. Although some have already argued that whether Chia can be considered “green” or not really depends on how it compares to other cryptocurrencies, such as in this CNN Business report, there is no denying that Chia does have a much more sustainable model – both in terms of energy consumption and the kind of PC components that a user would need to have.

THE CATCH

The Chia Network’s current major (and most evident) drawback is its need for disc space. Hard drives and solid-state drives would be Chia’s primary resource demands, and if XCH gains popularity as quickly as Bitcoin (and, thanks to Elon Musk, Dogecoin) did, a key market crisis might result from a shortage of HDDs and SSDs, similar to how we currently lack graphics cards. Therefore, it’s too soon to say whether Chia would cut back on these resources as well, but storage will theoretically be at a premium.

However, Chia is off to a fantastic start. In the early stages of its trade, the cryptocurrency is already up to almost $1,375 (about Rs. 1.01 lakh), and over the following six years, growth of almost 6x is anticipated. Cryptocurrencies, as we have seen with Bitcoin, have the ability to rise in value above market expectations as well. If Chia can deliver on all of its promises, XCH will likely be the most exciting cryptocurrency to be introduced since Bitcoin itself.