When Shannon Hames, a Western Digital public relations expert, first heard about the cryptocurrency Chia, she was intrigued by the hype around the storage-enabled virtual coin. Shannon said, "It seemed like everyone was talking about it."
Shannon and her husband have been mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum for a few years, but Chia's concept as a cryptocurrency that uses storage piqued her interest. “It piqued my attention since it was a novel method to mine cryptocurrency,” she said.
In terms of space and time
Cryptocurrencies rely on a network of linked computers to protect transactions and preserve decentralized governance. This process is known as "mining." A monetary incentive is offered in exchange for this effort. Some cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, do this via a notion known as "proof of work," which involves the use of computing. Chia, on the other hand, utilizes a notion known as "evidence of space and time," which involves the utilization of storage space.
Shannon said, "Chia is utilizing your storage, which might be SSDs [solid-state drives] or HDDs [hard-disk drives]." “If you wanted to, you could mine it on your phone. The concept is that everyone gets some extra space.”
Shannon spotted a chance to recycle a couple of hard discs she had lying around the home with this idea in mind. “I had some storage that had been removed from PCs and was no longer being utilized. It was simply sitting there doing nothing. Why not put it to good use?”
The storage possibilities
Shannon has gained even more insight into the importance of storage in powering the world's digital experiences as a result of this new use-case for her hard drives, a subject she often encounters in her job.
Her job has allowed her to comprehend the wide range of storage applications. “You start thinking about all the many types of things that storage is engaged in, all the things that wouldn't be feasible without storage, and that leads you to think about additional possibilities that might happen with storage,” she said.
Shannon said, "That's where [my] fascination with Chia was." “It's another option that has become available as a result of storage.”
Concerns about the environment
Shannon was also drawn to Chia because of its reputation as an ecologically friendly cryptocurrency. Chia's vocabulary is based on this greener claim. This procedure is referred to as "farming" rather than "mining," and the currency is named after a seed. According to Chia's inventor, the cryptocurrency may be less energy-intensive since it utilizes storage rather than processing power.
The effect of cryptocurrencies on the environment has been a source of growing worry. Researchers from Cambridge University claim that Bitcoin mining uses more energy per year than certain nations, according to an often-cited analytical tool.
Shannon has thought about these things throughout her bitcoin ventures. “Even though it's small-scale mining, it's been a worry for my family,” she added. “We constantly have to strike a balance between how much electricity we use and how much we can mine.”
Chia Farming
Shannon found the setup for her Chia farm to be very simple because of her experience in cryptocurrency. “Other than waiting for plotting as service [the phase when the software generates the files that reserve space on your hard drive] to finish, the toughest and most time-consuming aspect is installing a hard drive into a computer.”
Shannon started her Chia plantation with the extra storage she already had. She upgraded to higher-capacity drives soon after, buying two 18TB HDDs. She has completely devoted these two HDDs and one 960GB SSD to Chia growing at the moment.
Shannon's Chia farm has yet to reap the benefits. She added, "I haven't won any [coin] yet, so I'm still waiting to see what happens." Nonetheless, she considers her Chia farming endeavors to be experimental. She said, "I simply wanted to understand how it all works and play with it."
Shannon's experiment proved the importance of storage and the job she performs at Western Digital to her. “In Western Digital, storage is constantly at the forefront of our minds. “It becomes your world,” she said.
