.We'll also go over how to farm Chia currency (XCH) on your Windows 10 PC, as well as what you should know before building your own Chia charting rig. Without further ado, here's all you need to know about Chia coins and how to mine them.
What is Chia Coin (XCH)?
Chia Coin is a brand-new cryptocurrency built on an open-source blockchain platform. Unlike Bitcoin and other ‘Proof-of-Work' cryptocurrencies, Chia mining is based on the quantity of hard disc storage space dedicated to it rather than computational power. It is intended to provide a smart transaction platform with the potential to revolutionise global banking and payment systems, according to the founders.
The new cryptocurrency will make digital tokens "more decentralised, more secure, and easier to use," according to Chia Network, the business that creates and manages the Chia blockchain. However, the Chia coin's main advantage right now is that it consumes far less energy than other cryptocurrencies. You might be wondering how Chia coin uses less power. Chia, on the other hand, makes use of your storage space.
Created by Bram Cohen, the inventor of the BitTorrent protocol, Chia uses a new version of the ‘Nakamoto Consensus’ algorithm that gave birth to the blockchain technology as we know it. It is only the world’s second cryptocurrency
But for now, it would suffice to say that it uses a variant of the proof-of-work consensus algorithm on a Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) peer-to-peer network to verify the authenticity of a blockchain. Chia puts a new twist on the existing algorithm by combining the ‘Proof of Space’ and ‘Proof of Time’ algorithms
What is Chia Coin Farming?
Chia coins are mined by ‘farmers’ by running the Chia blockchain software on their computers. To create Chia coins, farmers need to ‘seed’ unused space on their hard disk drive by installing the Chia blockchain software. It stores cryptographic numbers on a portion of the disk known as a ‘plot’. Each plot has a hash and as the Chia blockchain extends, each farmer can see if their hashes match the next blockchain step.
“When the blockchain broadcasts a challenge for the next block, farmers can scan their plots to see if they have the hash that is closest to the challenge. A farmer’s probability of winning a block is the percentage of the total space that a farmer has compared to the entire network,” says the official documentation on Chia Coin
Chia may be farmed on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud servers, which is a unique feature. Users will be able to generate a crypto wallet address where the farmed Chia coins will be credited by integrating the Chia Network architecture on AWS. Chia will no longer be tied to a single device and will be accessible from anywhere, at any time. It will also assure the viability of Chia farming.
What is Chialisp?
A notable new development with Chia is a new blockchain programming language called ‘Chialisp’ that Cohen claims is powerful, easy-to-audit, and secure.
It is an on-chain smart transaction development environment that promises improved security and transparency of cryptocurrencies. Chialisp is a powerful and secure LISP-like language for encumbering and releasing funds with smart-contract capabilities.
Chia Coin: Benefits and Advantages
Chia solves some of cryptocurrency's main issues, such as the energy-intensive mining procedure that most digital tokens require. Here are some of the Chia coin's most prominent advantages:
Eco-Friendly
Chia will be more power-efficient than current cryptocurrencies, which is one of its greatest advantages. In fact, the inventors are promoting it as a ‘eco-friendly' alternative to Bitcoin. Chia's version of the Nakamoto consensus method eliminates the energy requirements of Proof of Work by putting less emphasis on computing muscle and instead focusing on storage capacity.
As a result, I don't think it's a eco-friendly which is creating a massive shortage of SSDs globally. Hard drive prices have already jumped exponentially.
Security
Another advantage of Chia currencies is their blockchain's increased decentralisation, which means they are more secure than their competitors. Chia is also implementing more advanced cryptographic technologies to make smart transactions more intuitive. Chia's single largest defence against hackers is that it does not use the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus process, which Ethereum is moving away from.
Less Volatility
The for-profit corporation behind the new cryptocurrency, Chia Network, also has a pre-farm (Strategic Reserve) to help with market volatility. As a result, it will aid in the prevention of bubbles and crashes. This, they hope, will boost mass consumer adoption of Chia. As a result, unlike Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies, the Chia Network prefers predictable, continual inflation over a hard cap.
Chia Coin: Limitations and Drawbacks
Chia solves some of the most serious challenges associated with bitcoin mining, but it is not without flaws. The technology's single largest flaw is that it consumes a lot of storage space, resulting in a severe SSD scarcity.
How to Farm Chia Coin Cryptocurrency
Hardware Requirements for a beginner, any computer with 250GB+ storage space (preferably an SSD) running Windows, Linux, or macOS is need for first experience with Chia farming. Chances of winning a Chia coin depend on the size of ‘farm’. So the more storage devote to farming, the better chances of winning.
SSDs for Plotting/ Temporary Directory
SSDs are recommended because Chia farming is a highly write-intensive process that would take inordinately longer on HDDs. Depending on technology and interface, SSDs could be 10-20 times faster than mechanical hard drives in terms of read- and write speeds. You can take a pick from the best consumer SSDs but once you get the hang of it, high-capacity data center SSDs are the way to go. They are typically faster and more reliable than the consumer versions and come with massive storage capacities.
Step 1: Install the Chia Blockchain Software
To download the Chia blockchain software, go to the Chia blockchain installation page on GitHub and scroll down to the section on your operating system, including Windows, macOS, Ubuntu/ Debian, CentOS/ Red Hat/ Fedora, Amazon Linux, Raspberry Pi 4, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and more. Go through the instructions and click on the relevant link to download the software for your platform. Windows (64-bit) users can download the EXE file directly from the Chia website
Step 2: Setup Chia Blockchain
Once you have installed the software, open the program and select the “Create a New Private Key” option. If you already have a wallet, use the “import From Mnemonics” option.
The software will create a new wallet for you with a 24-word mnemonic, as seen below. These words are collectively your passwords. Without them, you won’t be able to access your Chia wallet. So copy/ paste them into a document (in the right order), save it, and also take a legible screenshot for good measure. Then, click on “Next“.
You will now see the ‘Full Node’ page. The software will sync with the Chia blockchain to incorporate all the recent changes. You will see the “syncing” count change right in front of your eyes.
Once syncing is complete, the status will change to “synced” instead of syncing. Syncing can take hours, depending on your setup and your location. The software can run in the background while you work on other tasks. Do not shut down the computer or shut off your internet connection because the process will then need to restart from scratch, resulting in inordinate delay.
Step 3: Plotting Chia Blockchain
Just like a real farm, first need to create ‘plots’ before the farming can start. Here’s how you go about it:
To create plots, navigate to “Plots” on the left sidebar and then click on “Add a Plot".
Now have to choose your plot size [1]. We suggest you follow the Chia Network’s recommended settings – Plot size = 101.4GiB (k=32; temporary space: 239GiB). Now choose the number of plots [2] depending on available storage space on your computer.
Each plot needs around 250-270GiB. So for a 1TB SSD, you can only get a maximum of up to 3 concurrent plots (3 x 270GiB = 810GiB). Now select “Plot in Parallel” [3] and select a 10-minute delay [4] between each plot starting.
Now scroll down while keeping the rest of the settings at their default values. Finally, choose your temporary and final directories, and hit the “Create Plot” button at the bottom. Plotting will start instantly.
How Much Can Chia Farmers Expect to Earn?
The probability of solving a Chia currency block is proportional to your share of the total Chia ‘netspace.' The total Chia netspace currently stands at 12.33 EiB (Exbibytes) and is rapidly growing. That means your chances of winning with a normal 10TB enterprise-class SSD, which can carry roughly 91 blocks, are 0.0001 percent with a 10-month projected win-time.
Note This will change with time as the total netspace keeps increasing with 4,608 Chia blocks every day. Please use use an online Chia calculator.
Things to Know Before Getting Into Chia Farming
Chia farming promises to bring you riches, you have to be aware of the potential pitfalls. Here’s what you should keep in mind before jumping into Chia farming:
The first and foremost thing to note is that with the total netspace increasing every day, you’re unlikely to hit a block very often.
Another thing to note is that Chia is a new phenomenon right now, so it will take some time to know whether this is just a passing fad or if it’s here to stay.
Thirdly, it is unlikely to be a rewarding endeavor if you insist on going solo. You are almost surely better off trying to join a pool for guaranteed results.
Now that done with the standard warnings, here are some of the things you need to keep in mind while running your Chia farming operations:
Your farming rig has to run 24×7 for the best chances of winning a block. That’s because interrupting the Chia software will restart the syncing process, which is highly time-consuming. You will not be able to farm until synchronization is complete.
On Windows PCs, change the power setting to ‘Never Sleep’ to ensure your rig stays running throughout the night. For more info, check out our detailed article on Windows power settings.
It is recommended to have at least two computers for Chia farming – one for plotting and another for harvesting. To run the Chia blockchain on multiple computers using the same key, select ‘Import from Mnemonics’ instead of creating a new wallet in Step 2.
Linux is the preferred option for Chia farming because it’s typically faster than Windows or Mac for plotting operations.
If you want to give away or sell your Chia plotting rig in the future, you will have to manually delete the wallet keys using the “Delete All Keys” option. That’s because uninstalling the Chia blockchain software does not automatically delete the keys.
