Adata
A new article published by DigiTimes revealed that well-known manufacturer Adata has seen a 500% increase in SSD orders since the beginning of this month, and an industry analyst firm said the new storage race is spreading. outside Asia. All of this is happening as SSD prices are already on the rise due to the continuing shortage of SSD controllers.Unlike other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, Chia's mining relies on storage space, bringing to an uncontrolled demand for large hard drives and SSDs. The cryptocurrency is non-tradable until May 3, but it has already caused a dramatic increase in demand for high-capacity hard drives and SSDs in Asia.
Adata told DigiTimes that orders for high-capacity SSDs from Asia. company have increased between 400% and 500% over the previous month. The seller is working hard to increase their inventory in order to meet the growing demand for the devices. One of the strategies adopted involves maintaining more than three months of chip inventory to prepare for the surge in SSD orders.
What worries most, however, is the fact that Trendfocus has reported seeing signs unequivocal that the rush to purchase large amounts of Chia's mining storage devices is spreading outside of China, meaning shortages could get worse. This is particularly significant, as some SSD controller vendors, such as Phison, are already raising the prices of SSD controllers due to component shortages caused by the pandemic.
The current shortage is largely limited to Asia, but could spread globally if miners continue to purchase large quantities of SSDs and hard drives ahead of Chia's valuation.
If you are looking for an SSD with good technical characteristics and RGB lighting, ADATA also offers the 512GB XPG AS40G, which you can buy on Amazon.
Chia crypto mining spurs 500% jump in Adata SSD sales, warranty warning from Galax
In brief: As if the GPU/CPU shortage wasn't enough of a headache for PC owners, it appears concerns that Chia mining would impact the storage industry were warranted. According to a new report, Adata has seen its solid-state drive orders increase 500% this month, with large-capacity SSDs experiencing exceptionally high demand.The Chia blockchain uses a 'proof of space and time' model instead of 'proof of work' (Bitcoin) or 'proof of stake' (Etherium 2.0). People can mine or farm the crypto by allocating their unused disk space, along with a time factor tied in for increasing the blockchain's overall security.
Chia isn't tradeable until May 3, but there's already been a surge in demand for large capacity hard drives and SSDs in China. DigiTimes reports that orders for Adata's high-capacity SSDs have risen 400% to 500% in April compared to the previous month
Earlier this month, Jiahe Jinwei, China's fourth-largest memory manufacturer, said all its Gloway and Asgard-branded 1TB and 2TB NVMe SSDs were sold out.
We're hearing more reports that demand for drives is starting to expand outside of Asia. Given that component shortages are increasing the price of SSD controllers, Chia mining could exacerbate the problems of low drive availability and high prices.
There is a glimmer of hope. Galax has placed a warning (via Tom's Hardware) on its Chinese website stating that using their SSDs to mine crypto or other operations where the data write volume is higher than standard will void the warranties. Hopefully, this might discourage people from buying vast quantities of drives.
There's always the chance that Chia or other storage-based cryptos won't be as popular or lucrative as, say, Bitcoin. However, with people panic buying in case it is the next big thing, Chia could become another reason why there's never been a worse time to build a PC.
Image credit: Sergei Elagin