Amazon Web Services (AWS) releases a mining service for the newly released Chia Coin (XCH) through its cloud computing platform, reported Coin Desk. This new cryptocurrency lets traders allocate unused drive space to support XCH’s decentralized network.
In a now-deleted page on AWS’ Chinese website, the system was supposed to take only five minutes to set up. The cloud platform can be used for XCH farming by integrating the architecture and generating wallet addresses.
Chia Network, the blockchain and transaction platform behind Chia Coins, seeks to provide a more eco-friendly way to trade and mine cryptocurrencies. In fact, it uses the term “farming” instead of “mining” to refer to the process of processing data blocks.
This process also involves solving and verifying data blocks and adding these transaction records to the blockchain to earn the cryptocurrency in question.
The Chia Network was created by BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen to replace BTC. Particularly, it aims to “[supplant] the energy-intensive proof-of-work model (as used by Bitcoin),” explained Coin Desk.
“Instead, XCH uses a proof-of-space-time model, where users show “they have been storing data over a period of time,” the report further detailed.
According to PC World, the reference hardware for Chia farming posted on GitHub uses external storage, particularly racks of solid-state drives (SSDs) and hard drives for minimal power consumption. Notably, the reference hardware did not suggest the utilization of GPUs, whether discrete or dedicated.
XCH farming is becoming more preferable compared to bitcoin (BTC) mining as the latter has resulted in the extreme price inflation of graphics processing units (GPUs) in the market, which affected not only miners but also gamers.
With the alternative farming offered by XCH, network participants can get coins through empty storage filled with the correct kind of data for a certain period. Chia uses unused storage plots to solve coin blocks, which then rewards the user with XCH.
However, the release of XCH in China has resulted in a hard drive storage shortage as users began buying equipment to start farming the coin.
Experts have also anticipated the spike of drive prices because of coin farming just like what happened to GPUs with BTC mining. Some say that the surge in cost has already begun even before the coin was launched.
Meanwhile, the coin debuted at $1,600 with a peak at $1,800 but dropped down to around $700 within the first day. As of writing, it costs $1,104.9.
