WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 Although the massive price hikes and rampant shortages for graphics cards have been stealing 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:09.680 the headlines lately, you might have noticed that hard drives and SSDs are getting more expensive 00:00:09.680 --> 00:00:15.440 and harder to find as well. And unlike graphics cards, these aren't luxury items. I mean, 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:20.000 you need them to operate your computer. So what the heck's going on? It turns out that the main 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.440 reason is separate from the worldwide chip shortage. It's actually due to a new cryptocurrency 00:00:25.520 --> 00:00:30.240 called Chia. Not to be confused with those grassy pets that you can sit on your desk. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:38.160 But hold on a second. Why would you need more storage for crypto? Isn't that mostly based 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:43.120 around graphics cards or asics? So here's the thing. Many well-known cryptocurrencies are 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:48.560 mined with what's called a proof-of-work scheme, where you get rewarded with crypto for working 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:54.640 on a problem. That is, using some of your processor resources to crunch numbers, basically. Chia, 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:59.600 by contrast, is built on proof-of-space. Instead of getting coins for showing you 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:04.960 dedicated processor time, you get Chia by allocating storage space on your machine 00:01:04.960 --> 00:01:10.960 exclusively for storing the cryptographic numbers used by its blockchain. Here's how it works. 00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:16.960 First, the Chia client will create large groups of cryptographic hashes on your drive called plots. 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:22.480 This is a time-consuming process that benefits from having an SSD rather than a mechanical hard 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:28.560 drive since plotting is so right-intensive. A good NVMe SSD can create a 100 GB plot, 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:33.760 the recommended size, in as little as six or so hours, but a hard drive spinning around might 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:39.760 only be able to do one a day or one every several days if you've got it connected to a bare-bone 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.720 system like a raspberry pi. After a plot is completed, it's stored somewhere on your system 00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:51.280 long-term, typically on a hard drive, making a smaller NVMe SSD and one or more multi-terabyte 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:57.040 hard drives a popular setup for Chia farming, which is the term the Chia community uses in 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:02.720 place of mining. The way you get paid is that the Chia network scans the computer's link to it for 00:02:02.720 --> 00:02:08.480 a plot that matches a certain hash. And if that plot is one of yours, then congratulations, 00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:13.600 you're paid out some Chia as a reward. Though right now, with the size of the Chia net space 00:02:13.600 --> 00:02:19.520 surging, it's become less and less likely for home farmers to win Chia. However, with Chia pools 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:23.920 rolling out in the very near future, they might even be live by the time you watch this, a user 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:28.880 with 10 or 20 terabytes of space might be able to bring in a decent amount of money, though of 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:34.240 course it would be divided among other pool members. But if you do want to take the plunge and 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.760 start farming Chia, what do you need besides lots of storage? Well, if you're plotting yourself, 00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:46.720 a baseline rule is at least one CPU thread, preferably two, and four gigs of memory per plot 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:53.440 you're creating at once. So a popular configuration is 32 gigs of RAM and at least a six core 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:59.520 12 threads CPU. Combine that with storage costs and serious Chia farming can be an expensive 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:05.120 proposition. But it is possible to buy plots that have already been created from third parties and 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:10.640 just download them instead. In which case, you can forego having all those threads and RAM and 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:15.120 you really only need just a ton of hard drive space. How about the environmental impact? Even 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:20.560 though Chia was conceived as a greener alternative to traditional crypto mining, as storage devices 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:26.160 use less energy than GPUs, it's already come under fire for putting additional strain on storage 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:32.000 supply chains, not to mention that Chia plotting can destroy consumer grade SSDs fairly quickly. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:38.080 It's recommended to instead use a high endurance or even enterprise SSD to avoid this, but regardless, 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:43.520 proof of space cryptos will still cause people to buy SSDs more frequently, at least in the short 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:47.920 term. Hmm, maybe it's time to look into finally coughing up that 10 bucks a month Google wants 00:03:47.920 --> 00:03:55.440 for cloud storage. So thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video, hit like, hit subscribe, 00:03:55.440 --> 00:03:59.280 and be sure to hit us up in the comment section with your suggestions for videos that we should 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:00.480 cover in the future.