Cryptocurrency Chia (XCH): what it is, features, how it works

Cryptocurrency requires a lot of electricity to exist. Bitcoin consumes as much electricity as the Netherlands country uses. Etherium uses the same amount of electricity as Peru. Thus, the cryptocurrency increases the amount of carbon emitted into the environment when electricity is generated for its needs. Chia (XCH) is considered a «green» cryptocurrency. Why? Does XCH really have nothing to do with environmental harm?

What is Chia cryptocurrency, its features

Chia cryptocurrency was developed in 2017 by Bram Cohen from California. It is very easy to use and does not require separate powerful computers that consume electricity. For Chia, there is enough free space on the computers of ordinary users.

This is the main feature of XCH - Chia blocks are formed on free spaces of hard drives, seeded and developed. By analogy with agriculture, this cryptocurrency was called Chia, as a useful seed, because coins are growing like grains. XCH became known only recently - in 2021, when the developers were supported by venture capital funds, having invested over $77 million in the company.

Features of Chia:

• A special blockchain programming language, Chialisp, has been developed for XCH. It is easy to audit, powerful and secure.
• The work of Chia is less energy-consuming thanks to special technologies.
• Miners are rewarded not by the amount of energy spent on the blockchain, but by how much space they provide on their hard drive for farming. Proof of Space and Time, not Proof of Work.
• Within the system, users can transfer money to each other.

How Chia works

User installs on his computer a special software for farming Chia. For the blockchain is allocated a place on a hard drive or SSD. Cryptographically encrypted numbers are stored there. Their locations are called rafts, and the process of their formation is called rafting. As the block chain is formed, users check to see if there is a hash that matches the algorithm's solution.

When data is transferred between blocks, it takes some time for this process to occur. By doing this, security is enhanced and electricity consumption is reduced.

Farming requires at least 2TB of storage on the computer, but 10TB is desirable. Since recording is intensive, it is better to allocate SSD rather than HDD for Chia drive. To work suitable for any operating system.

Chia cryptocurrency rafts require the most resources. For seeding, the program consumes some share of network bandwidth and works only with storage. To avoid problems with the storage device, it must be powerful.

Because of intensive work SSD-drive can fall into disrepair after 3-4 months. This requires a significant financial investment because SSDs are expensive. Manufacturing SSDs requires a lot of energy and pollutes the environment. Therefore, Chia is not such a «green» cryptocurrency.