Hard Drive Supply Threatened Rare Because of This Cryptocurrency

TechRadar

Crypto miners (cryptominers) are said to be one of the parties that makes stock graphics processing cards (GPUs) scarce on the market and their prices are high. This is because mining activities require a sufficiently capable GPU.

Not only GPU, storage media component stock, aka storage (HDD / SSD) is also reportedly going to be rare due to cryptocurrency mining activities. Why can?

This is due to a brand-new cryptocurrency called "Chia" which turns out to be able to be collected using free space in storage.

The illustration is this, if the user has a 1 TB SSD, then they can allocate 500 GB via special software to collect Chia.

In this condition, the 500 GB storage space cannot be used to store photos, videos, and so on.

However, when the mining process is complete, the space used to harvest Chia can be reallocated to its main function, which is to store various files.

Well, because it does not use a GPU, Chia mining is claimed to not require much electricity and is said to be more environmentally friendly.

HDD / SSD prices have gone up?

According to the initiator, Bram Cohen, users can allocate some of their unused storage capacity as a "place" to mine Chia.

For information, Chia itself is currently not widely available and purchased by users.
However, a number of users are said to have planned to buy up these components for fear that Chia will actually make HDD / SSD scarce.

This has reportedly happened in Hong Kong, where one of the local media, HKEPC has monitored that sales of storage with a capacity of 4 TB to 8 TB in the area have increased drastically in recent times.

If it continues like this, it is not impossible for storage to become scarce like GPUs and the price will automatically be more expensive, as compiled by KompasTekno from TechRadar, Sunday (18/4/2021).

In fact, the HKEPC predicts a price increase could range from 200 Hong Kong dollars (approx. USD $ 25.54) to 600 Hong Kong dollars (approx. USD $ 75.94).

In addition, Jiahe Jinwei, a storage media manufacturer from China, admitted that their stock of NVMe SSDs with a capacity of 1 TB and 2 TB was sold out.

Jinwei then plans to prevent these miners from buying up storage components intended for consumers.

The trick is to make a special SSD for miners, similar to the CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) product from Nvidia which is specifically for miners,

Jinwei then plans to prevent these miners from buying up storage components intended for consumers.

The trick is to make a special SSD for miners, similar to the CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) product from Nvidia which is specifically for miners,

kompas.com