On May 3, tokens stemming from the Chia network, a sensible transaction blockchain created by the Bittorrent creator Bram Cohen, will start trading and transactions are going to be fully enabled. instead of leveraging the proof-of-work consensus algorithm, Chia will utilize a model called proof-of-space which relies on storage. With Chia’s transactional launch pending, the project has sparked shortages over the demand for hard drives and solid-state drives (SSDs).
Chia Network Fuels High-End disk drive and SSD Shortages
Bram Cohen, the inventor of the favored torrenting application Bittorent has created a cryptocurrency that’s set to launch next month. Because Cohen is behind the Chia project, the pre-stages of the digital currency network have seen significant exposure since Chia was announced. Chia’s team believes that the project can allow anyone the power to verify transactions without being hooked in to “single-use hardware or an enormous electricity bill.”
Chia released the project’s Business white book in February 2021 and therefore the mainnet launched on Saint Joseph . This allowed participants to start accessing farming rewards, but it also spurred the beginning of demand for hard drives and SSDs. Transactions are going to be enabled on May 3 and at that time in time, exchanges and brokerage services can allow people to trade chia tokens. The closer the Chia network’s transactional launch gets, the more demand grows for storage components.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) explains that there’s been a serious shortage in China when it involves SSDs and hard drives. Chinese disk drive and SSD manufacturers are selling out quickly and merchandise prices have skyrocketed on secondary markets.
Chia documentation says “a Proof-of-Space protocol is one in which: a Verifier can send a challenge to a Prover, and therefore the Prover can demonstrate to the verifier that the Prover is reserving a selected amount of space for storing at that precise time. The proof of space protocol has three components: plotting, proving/farming, and verifying.”
Chinese e-commerce markets like JD.com and Taobao have seen high-grade disk drive models sell out fast since the Chia mainnet launch. A customer service agent for Taobao has seen the demand spike and underscored that the purchasers are chia miners.
“Many people have inquired about large hard drives for chia mining within the past few days,” the Taobao agent noted. The agent also explained that brand-name equipment from Western Digital and Seagate has been experiencing shortages.
A visual explanation of the Chia network’s Proof-of-Space protocol.
On Chinese e-commerce platforms Taobao and JD.com, multiple models of enterprise-grade hard drives with large capacity have sold out. a tough drive and SSD seller in Shenzhen called Qin explained that on secondary markets, prices on this equipment are often up to 50% to 60% above retail. “You can mine chia with 4TB hard drives also because we don’t have any hard drives over 4TB available ,” Qin stressed.
“At peak times, prices are a minimum of 60 percent above usual. Prices dropped a touch recently but they're still about 50 percent (higher than normal) now,” another vendor named Chen detailed. The Chia network’s storage incentives have increased storage product requests considerably and hard drives between 4TB and 18TB are seeing the very best demand.
Cohen’s Success With Bittorrent Has Fueled Chia Hype
Besides the hype stemming from the creator Bram Cohen and therefore the speculation forming within the crypto community, risk capital seems curious about Cohen’s crypto also . In 2018, Chia raised $3.4 million from Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz, and Angellist’s Naval Ravikant.
Chia could even be an Ethereum competitor because it has its own onchain programing language called Chialisp. Cohen has explained that the smart transactions Chialisp will allow range from colored coin tech, atomic swaps, multi-sig wallets, recoverable wallets, authorized payees, and more.
Cohen’s previous project which cemented his fame, Bittorrent, was sold to Justin Sun and is now owned and operated by the blockchain firm Tron. The file-sharing operation Bittorrent was reportedly sold to Tron for $126 million in 2018.
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