Is Chia, the only project in history that has caused hard drives to be out of stock, really a mining opportunity for ordinary people?

This is the 1338th original issue of the Vernacular Blockchain

Recently, many media have been reporting news about "hard drive out of stock". The main reason is "hard drive mining". The attention paid to "hard drive mining" in Baidu Index has skyrocketed by nearly 100 times.

You know, there have been "hard drive mining" projects before, including the top blockchain project Filecoin, which did not cause such a stir when it was launched.

So what is this hard drive mining project called "Chia"? Is it really a "mining opportunity for ordinary people" as the media said, with such high attention?

01
Why is Chia so popular?

Many media have already reported on why the blame for the "hard drive shortage" was directed at Chia, a project that many people had heard of for the first time. I will not go into details here and will just talk about the important points.

1. Chia, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

Chia is the full name of Chia Network. It has a Chinese name of Qia. It is not a new project. It was established as early as 2017. Bram Cohen, the founder of Chia, is the one who invented the BitTorrent protocol in 2003.

It can be said that BitTorrent is the originator of peer-to-peer content distribution and transmission protocols. People also call him the "Father of BT". As the founder of a revolutionary technology, the Chia project launched again after 2014 has naturally become a star that people pursue, and some investors even call it an "epic" project.

Since its establishment in 2017, Chia Network has received about $16 million in venture capital, including participation from top venture capital firms such as A16Z, Slow, and IDEO. Therefore, Chia, known as the "green bitcoin", was "born with a silver spoon in its mouth".

2. Why do you want to participate in Chia mining?

In fact, Chia's popularity is not only due to its "star" halo, but also due to some features that make people more willing to participate. At present, in the crypto bull market, many people are eager to try "mining gold", but the high threshold and high cost of Bitcoin and FileCoin make many people stay away.

The Chia mining system aims to "break" centralized mining, which means that ordinary people can also use idle hard drives to participate in mining, allowing people to see a mining opportunity that "ordinary people can participate in". Some people even say that this may be the last mining opportunity that ordinary people can truly participate in.

02
How ordinary people can participate in Chia mining

Since Chia mining mainly utilizes the surplus disk space that is already in oversupply in the world today, replacing the single-purpose ASIC hardware that consumes a lot of electricity for verification and transactions, and ultimately achieving the green, low-energy consumption and decentralized "green" characteristics, many people with a keen sense of smell and strong execution have already made arrangements early on.

Currently, there are two main ways to participate in Chia mining:

1. Mining on your own disk

According to the configuration currently recommended by netizens, Chia needs to provide an enterprise-level server configuration computing chip and two hard disks when P disk, one SSD with a capacity of more than 480G as a cache disk, and the other as a P disk file storage disk, that is, the disk capacity for mining can be as large as possible.

In addition to the cost of the P disk, let’s talk about the technical threshold. Since the final battle is about hard disk space, you will eventually need to mount as many hard disks as possible on one or more computers. This is different from installing one or two hard disks in an ordinary home computer. You need to know how to build a hard disk storage cluster as a low-cost solution. Otherwise, as the computing power of the Chia main network becomes larger and larger, the Chia produced by the entire network will become less and less, and it will be difficult to make a profit at this time.

2. Cloud computing mining

For Chia mining, if you have strong hands-on skills and professional technical knowledge to configure the machine, then it is definitely the lowest cost and the best. But the problem is that most ordinary people do not have such ability, and a large number of people are very afraid of trouble.

In fact, with the experience of Bitcoin, Ethereum and later Filecoin's cloud computing platform, Chia, which has a lower threshold, is naturally no problem, and the cost per unit computing power can actually be much lower than Filecoin's cloud computing product.

Therefore, some cloud computing brands with strong strength, resources and quick response have taken the lead in responding to market demand and launched Chia cloud computing products. For example, the old and fast-moving DEX Whale Exchange has quickly launched a cost-effective Chia cloud computing product package.

03
How to choose Chia cloud computing power mining product?

In fact, for most people, cloud computing has obvious advantages over mining on their own disks, and it may even be the only choice. But now, due to the popularity of Chia, the Chia cloud computing market has inevitably become a mixed bag.

For example, some people even take advantage of information asymmetry and users' lack of knowledge to launch high-priced, low-spec products. The various cloud mining pits that have been used on Bitcoin and Filecoin have also been exposed one by one. Therefore, if you want to participate in mining now, choosing a Chia cloud computing power brand is the key.

1. Choose a brand

The cloud computing platform may seem simple, but in fact, a large part of the platform's user experience, products, service quality, and financial security depends on the strength of the cloud computing platform, and brand is a criterion for judging long-term strength.

Therefore, it is a good idea to choose a cloud computing service provider that is well-known and well-known in the industry. However, among the Chia cloud computing platforms, only a few brands such as Whale Exchange are relatively well-known. Cloud computing should be familiar to everyone, that is, it is all handed over to professional service providers for centralized processing, such as Whale Exchange, which already has rich experience in operating cloud computing platforms.

As a professional service provider, Whale Exchange has actually solved the problem of high P-disk equipment costs by purchasing top-level P-disk equipment and quickly generating P-disk files. This is because a large number of users directly share the cost of the P-disk equipment. Ultimately, most of the costs are concentrated on hard disk mining, which is low-cost in itself, and the utilization rate of funds and hardware is higher.

In addition to being more efficient, another advantage of home mining is that its scale can be infinitely expanded and the profits can be amplified.

2. Cost-effectiveness

The following table is a horizontal comparison of several brands on the market in terms of price, service cycle, computing power product entry threshold, effective time, fees, P disk time and other dimensions.

Based on the above table, we can conclude that if you need to choose a stable and reliable cloud computing platform, there are only two well-known platforms to choose from, L**k and Whale Exchange. Among the old platforms, Whale Exchange has an absolute advantage in almost all features.

If you want to choose a more affordable and cost-effective platform, Whale Exchange still has an advantage because its price of 31U/T/year is the lowest among all competitors, and it provides a service period of up to 3 years, a low threshold of 1T and a P-disk time of 20 days. The overall brand cost-effectiveness is currently the highest.

The 1T minimum purchase threshold set by Whale Exchange's Chia cloud computing power is very user-friendly, avoiding the risk of blind investment in the early stage. It means that users can currently use the minimized participation experience and then make fixed investments or gradually invest later. It has a low threshold and flexibility.

In addition, the T+20 P-disk delivery time is also very fast, ensuring that users can quickly obtain profits, accelerate return on investment, and even seize the bonus period faster than others.

In fact, when Whale Exchange first released its Chia cloud computing product, the P disk time was set at 30 days. Recently, it suddenly announced that it would be shortened from 30 days to 20 days. In order to improve the competitiveness of its products, Whale Exchange also worked hard and shortened the P disk cycle under pressure, considering users and winning unanimous praise from users.

Don’t underestimate the 10-day time difference. For a first-time miner, time is money. It is crucial to maximize returns when the competition for mining computing power is not too fierce for any mining.

3. Service stability and security

In fact, what most people outside the industry may not be aware of is that operating a cloud computing platform requires a lot of professional work behind the scenes.

Things like purchasing a large number of mining equipment, communicating and cooperating on network infrastructure (computer rooms) or commercial contracting, operation and maintenance, optimization, and security assurance of mining software and hardware all require a lot of manpower and material resources, and these cannot be done without a little bit of strength.

If it is a new entrepreneurial platform, it will face many pitfalls to step on and fill. As an old cloud computing platform, cloud computing platforms like Whale Exchange are already very mature in all aspects. After having successful operating experience in the past, the services provided will be more stable and secure.

Users basically don’t have to worry about the platform’s frequent shutdowns affecting their earnings, and there will be no risk of small platforms “running away” due to poor operations.

As we all know, the longer the service period, the more stable and lasting "bonus" you can enjoy, across bull and bear markets. The validity period of computing power also determines the output. On the premise of filling up the effective storage in the same amount of time, the longer the validity period of computing power, the smaller the input-output ratio.

It is understood that the Chia computing power service period provided by Whale Exchange is 3 years, while many platforms only provide 1-1.5 years for selection. In this regard, Whale Exchange's cloud computing power platform is a "long-termism" concept of making friends with time.

In addition, because most platforms are centralized, the mined income must be held in custody on the platform most of the time. To put it simply, it is "put in someone else's pocket." Therefore, many people are most worried about the security of their assets.

As a well-known DEX brand, Whale Exchange itself has a complete system security risk control system to ensure the safe flow of funds. Compared with the risk of centralized custodial funds of some centralized mining machine manufacturers running away, the security of Whale Exchange is 100%.