Storage-based cryptocurrency Chia grows 6x in April to 1 Exabyte as SSD makers register a major bump to sales

Chia, a storage-based cryptocurrency recently registered record gains. Across April 2021, a single month, Chia's total storage capacity grew from 120 Petabytes to over 1 Exabyte, a nearly 6x increase. At the same time, a DigiTimes report indicates that ADATA, a major player in the storage market, registered a 500 percent increase in sales. 

Last week, Chinese sources indicated that prices for high-capacity hard drives were up by 50 percent, with the situation likely to worsen as Chia miners buy up more supply. For the time being, SSD and HDD prices in other markets do not appear to have increased significantly.

However, if more miners turn their attention towards Chia, we could end up with a storage shortage on top of existing GPU supply woes. Unlike conventional cryptocurrencies, Chia leverages "proof of time and space," relying on storage capacity instead of computation as its proof of work. If storage makers are unable to meet increased demand, 2021 could turn into a very expensive year to build a new PC.