Hong Kong-based SSD maker Galax has warned users mining cryptocurrencies that need excessive volume and speed on storage devices will void the warranty of their SSDs.
The warning was posted by Galax on its Chinese website, following the big number of people looking to mine Chia – the new digital currency introduced by BitTorrent protocol developer Bram Cohen.
Galax made the warning in light of the fact that unlike Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) that require powerful processing and high energy consumption, Chia requires more storage over processing for its mining.
The first one to comment on the issue
With the move, Galax became the first SSD manufacturer to comment on the emerging impacts of cryptocurrency mining requiring SSD storage.
The company, however, did not specifically name the digital currency Chia. Instead, in its notice, it has stated that users of their SSD products will void their warranty if they use them for mining, resulting in higher data write volume than regular usage patterns.
Chia, as a digital currency, falls under such categorization. Despite the fact that it hasn’t started trading yet, it has already attracted cryptocurrency miners, mostly coming from the Asia Pacific region, specifically China. The country reportedly already has stock-high capacity SSDs to mine Chia.
Chia 101
There is already much to know about Chia and why it has caused concerns for companies such as Galax.
The digital currency is based on the proof of time and storage mining mechanism as opposed to the traditional proofs of work mechanism being used by leading cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum. Because of this, it requires a significant amount of storage and faster writing speeds.
While it is believed to be fairer and greener than the current mining mechanism, the growing interest to mine the currency is seen to negatively impact the SSD market, especially that potential miners have already started hoarding high-performance SSDs.
Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube