Even more so since the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, tweeted last month that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are driving up fossil fuel consumption.
As per a recent report, large-capacity hard drives have virtually gone out of stock in Vietnam because Chia miners have gone berserk.
Chia is built around a cryptographic technique called ‘proof of space and time’, which relies more on unused hard drive space than processing power.
Recently, hard drive maker Galax warned users — without naming Chia — that mining cryptocurrencies that require excessive volume and speed on storage devices will void the warranty of their SSDs.
Even if Chia causes less damage to the environment than its rivals, it’s not like Bitcoin miners would just switch to mining the new currency.
But despite the heavy fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin, and also the price of Ethereum, along with that of other digital currencies, the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to grow with an increasing interest in ‘green’ alternatives such as Chia.
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