Is Chia Really An Eco-Friendly Cryptocurrency?

The world of cryptocurrency is strange, confusing and often controversial. It’s a highly speculative, volatile market with hundreds of different tokens and currencies. We don’t know yet if any of the technology behind them will pay off in the long run.

Many detractors of cryptocurrency point towards the damage they cause to the environment. Mining them imposes an enormous energy burden. Cryptocurrencies use a ledger, called a blockchain, to record every single transaction. But this requires independent machines or computers to validate these transactions.

For Bitcoin, a Proof of Work algorithm verifies transactions and mines new tokens. A specific number or hash corresponds to the block added to the ledger. Powerful computers need to solve difficult equations to verify this unique hash.

Because of the work involved, it’s very difficult to forge a transaction or token. This comes with a downside, mining Bitcoin uses more energy than the Netherlands or the Philippines. Someone with more computational power/money has the advantage in such a system.

An alternative to this is Proof of Stake. Here the amount or verification or mining power you hold is proportional to how much of that token you hold. Ethereum, the second-highest valued cryptocurrency, is transitioning to this system. Are there, even more, energy-efficient ways to mine and verify cryptocurrency? Introducing Chia.

Source: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/is-chia-really-an-eco-friendly-cryptocurrency-555b08c4194b?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency