The current bull market is breathing life into a long-forgotten crypto project challenging Bitcoin mining’s environmental impact. Now, Amazon is joining Chia Network’s green mission.
Amazon Backs Chia Mining
Chia is a blockchain that uses a new type of consensus mechanism called Proof of Space and Time. To mine, or rather, farm its native cryptocurrency XCH, users must prove they have unused storage space on hard drives. This space is used to store the Chia distributed ledger.
According to South China Morning Post, hard drive prices in China have doubled in recent months as many decide to mine Chia. Amazon has capitalized on this trend by advertising the use of its cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to mine XCH. AWS claims that users can set up a mining operation in just five minutes.
Chia’s consensus mechanism is a direct response to the environmental impact of Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work mining mechanism. In comparison, mining Chia requires available storage rather than computing power, making it much less energy-intensive.
The rising popularity of the network is likely tied to the recent crackdown on coal-powered Bitcoin mining in China as Beijing actively enforces its energy-saving targets.
Disclaimer: The author held BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.
