A new report has emerged from China suggesting that Chia cryptocurrency mining could consume SSDs at an alarming rate. Instead of using processing power, the chia extraction system relies on storage capacity and speed. However, the writing-intensive nature of chia extraction could put some readers under pressure they weren't designed to resist. According to MyDrivers, Chia extraction could destroy a 512 GB SSD in just 40 days (less than six weeks), with an assumed write volume of 256 terabytes. The largest 1TB drives are expected to survive for 80 days, while the 2TB models could handle around 160 days of continuous mining. Standard SSDs typically last around ten years under normal usage levels and typically come with a three to five year warranty. Beyond the total drives, it is said that removing Chia could also void warranties, forcing SSD owners to exceed the stated maximum write volume.
Chia cryptocurrency mining
The Chia network was envisioned by Bram Cohen, founder of BitTorrent, as an antidote to the growing centralization of the cryptocurrency mining industry, which has seen individuals ousted by large mining syndicates. The coin is also designed to address one of the main criticisms of Bitcoin, which has to do with the environmental cost of mining. What sets Chia apart from other major cryptocurrencies in this regard is the mechanism used to maintain and secure the network. Bitcoin, for example, uses a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which pits miners against each other and is highly power-hungry. A study from the University of Cambridge suggests that Bitcoin consumes more energy annually than the Swedish country. The Chia network architects opted for an entirely different system, called test-for-space, which relies on storage capacity rather than computing power. Here, so-called farmers reserve storage space to store cryptographic numbers, called parcels. “When the blockchain broadcasts a challenge for the next block, farmers can scan their plots to see if they have the closest hash to the challenge. The probability of a farmer winning a block is the percentage of the total space that a farmer has on the entire network,” the website explains. However, a new analysis of the lifespan of SSDs used for Chia mining will cast doubt on the cryptocurrency's green credentials and its mission to rejuvenate the lone wolf mining scene. While MyDrivers does not mention the specific SSDs the data is based on, it is likely that consumer models were used for testing. While the enterprise level units are much more durable and perform much better under pressure, they are also much more expensive, which means that people could be turned off Chia extraction from the start. Via CoinTelegraph