Imagine a world where mining cryptocurrencies is not an energy-intensive and complex procedure but one that is fluid, less complex, and more environmentally friendly. This might seem like a distant dream beyond our immediate grasp as our notion of cryptocurrency mining has been marked by expensive hardware and electricity. However, the introduction of Chia Coin has flipped the switch and now, our wildest dreams can be realized.
What Is Chia Coin?
Chia Coin is a major improvement of blockchain technology as we know it, making cryptocurrency transactions seamless, secure, and efficient. It places decentralization as the cynosure of its operations through the use of the revolutionary Nakamoto Consensus in addition to Proof of Space and Time.
Standing apart from the noise, Chia Coin distinguishes itself by being an energy-efficient project, improving upon the existing Proof-of-Work consensus which has proven to be electricity and hardware consuming.
The limitations of Ethereum, Bitcoin, XRP, and other blockchains and the security and scalability issues birthed the idea of Chia blockchain to ensure privacy, security and allow users to be able to mathematically predict inflation.
Chia Coin is the native token of the Chia network with XCH as its ticker. It was founded by Bram Cohen, who founded BitTorrent.
How to Earn Money from Chia Coin: The Concept of Farming
With Chia, the primary method of making money is through farming. In other networks, the process of getting new tokens is called mining but the Chia community refers to the process as farming.
Unlike Bitcoin that uses Proof of Work and other networks that adopt a Proof-of-Stake, Chia utilizes the innovative algorithm of Proof of Time and Space with an emphasis on space. Instead of the energy-intensive Proof of Work that makes use of expensive specialized hardware, the Proof of Time and Space algorithm simply requires storage space on hard drives that are dedicated to farming Chia.
Just like real-life farming, you’ll need a cleared piece of land which is an allusion to the storage space. Afterwards, you’ll need to till the land and plant the seeds (downloading software) and patiently wait for the Chia to grow.
For every block that is farmed, users can expect 2 XCH and every three years the amount is halved. Approximately, there are around 4, 600 blocks generated every day.
As easy as this may seem, it is necessary to keep some factors in mind. Firstly, the blockchain issues a poser to be solved for the next block, and the chances of a farmer solving it lie in direct proportion to the amount of space he has on the network.
At the moment the network has around 30 EiB which is a lot of space and farmers have to get assigned space on the network. To win a block solution, it will be in the best interest of farmers to have more storage and while there is an element of luck, in the long term, the law of averages will set in.
Farming Equipment
Having understood the concept of farming, the next thing to understand is the kind of equipment that is required. Although you can just use your regular PCs for Chia farming, a sure way to increase your profitability is by stocking up on the hardware.
Since storage space is the principal thing, HDDs and SSDs are a must-have to farm Chia Coin. For SSDs and HDDs, it is important to pay significant attention to the speed and storage space as using one with limited space may quicken the effects of wear and tear, and the number of plots that can be carried out is greatly limited.
Examples of quality HDDs are the Seagate Exos X10 10TB which contains helium for improved performance. The specs on it make it suitable for Chia farming but if you are looking for an SSD with even bigger specs with a higher data transfer rate, you should consider the Seagate Exos X18. Its size is 18TB and is also built with helium and as an added perk it is super sturdy and reliable.
While it’s an expensive piece of hardware, it is ideal for the task of Chia farming. A major pointer to bear in mind is that the faster an SSD is, the smaller the storage capacity and the ideal sweet spot is an SSD that can handle at least 8 concurrent plots.
Chia has been created such that anyone can farm using an average PC with little to no problems. However, for better plotting speed in farming Chia Coin, you will need a PC with a really good motherboard, RAM, a powerful CPU like the TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 32GB.
The Process Of Farming Chia Coin
Now that you’ve ticked all the boxes for equipment let’s get down to the actual business of farming Chia Coin. First on the list is to head over to the Chia website on your PC and download ‘Client.’ After installing the Client on your device, it will automatically sync the Chia Blockchain.
After getting that out of the way, you should install and run the blockchain, then create a new private key. The private key is necessary to recover Chia and should be stored in a safe, confidential place.
To get started with actual farming, click on plots to “add a plot”. You will be shown a prompt asking you to input the necessary information. After filling in the details, you will have to wait for the plot to get filled before you can reap the rewards of your efforts.
The process of plotting is the most time-consuming part of the process and takes around 5-9 hours which is dependent on the type of SSDs that is in use. Plotting with HDDs is also possible, however, more time will be required. To get past this problem, one can use a MadMax Plotter which significantly increases the plotting speed to 1-2 hours on an average PC.
Users looking to do more can decide to hasten the process by doing multiple plots but again, this depends on the type of hardware that is in use.
Mining Solo vs Mining in a Pool
Joining a pool is a sure-fire way to improve the profitability of mining Chia Coin. If you can’t afford all the expensive hardware running into thousands of dollars, a pool is a worthy alternative to consider.
It has been established that the chances of farming Chia lie directly in proportion to the percentage of net space the farmers own. Invariably, this means that if you own 0.012% worth of space, your chances of successfully farming Chia are at 0.012%
Right now, the Chia Network is expanding and this means that with each expansion, the net space owned by Chia farmers would shrink. As the chances of getting Chia narrows, farmers may wait many weeks before getting a block but in a mining pool, farmers can get small fractions of Chia as the blocks can be won frequently.
However, if you’re patient and can afford the running cost of farming for extended periods, you can farm solo. To increase your odds of landing a block now and then will see you shell out more money to get better farming hardware. It is pertinent to note that pooling has not yet commenced on the network but upon launch, it looks set to improve the profitability of farmers.
Chia Coin’s Metrics and The Future of Its Value
Chia Coin made its debut with a price of $1,595.04 and went on to reach an impressive all-time high of $1,934.51 barely two months ago. Although the token currently trades at around the $300 mark, it is important to highlight that trading volumes have tripled since the day of launch. The last 24 hours have recorded trading volumes in the region of $18.8 million which is an increase of 37.33% over the previous day.
Chia coin has a fully diluted market capitalization of around $6.1 billion and a total supply of 21,514,760 XCH. The fact that its total supply is capped is an indicator of increased value because as supply reduces, demand will drive up prices.
Given the improved decentralization, utility, and attention that the network pays to environmental sustainability, experts are confident of an increase in the value of the network and we could see Chia Coin go head to head with Bitcoin in the coming years.
Dogecoin rose to popularity on the back of Elon Musk’s tweets despite not having any practical real-world value. Chai coin proponents are banking on the “green” nature of the project, its utility, and the fact that the searchlight of climate change has beamed on energy-intensive projects as reasoned for a bullish season in the future.
Generally, cryptocurrencies are entering their golden age, with a bevvy of institutional investors jostling to get a piece of the pie with 8 out of the top ten largest publicly traded companies taking steps to embrace cryptocurrencies. More significantly, Apple, Paypal, and even Amazon have taken steps to integrate cryptocurrencies. The inflow of these institutional funds in the ecosystem is bound to trigger even further growth for the network.
Conclusion
Cryptocurrencies are still in their nascent stages and 12 years after the creation of Bitcoin, developers have seen its shortcomings and have sought to make improvements. It is upon this premise that the Chia Network was created to prevent centralization and high energy consumption through the innovative use of Proof of Time and Space.Users on the network can earn by becoming farmers with the right hardware and upon the launch of mining pools, users can join one to increase their chances. As the network grows and the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies burgeons, it is believed that the profitability of farming Chia will also rise.