By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Bram Cohen, the founder of the Chia network, has warned against the use of unofficial mining pools as they may pose significant threats to the miners.
Newly launched “green cryptocurrency,” Chia Network Coin (XCH) has continued to gain prominence in the digital currency ecosystem, for many reasons, including its price performance. Amid the ongoing crypto market dip, the XCH has maintained a relatively stable price and is currently exchanging hands at $1,300 (-13%) and its trading volume surged upward by 3.95% in the past 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap.
In the trailing 7-day period, the ongoing market correction has dragged the price of the new cryptocurrency from a high of $1,692.62 to a low of $927.28 before the coin regained its momentum to the current levels it is trading at. The interesting bit about the Chia coin is its mode of mining, a process that considerably draws less energy when compared to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies that works based on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) model.
To mine Chia coin, you will need hardware with large storage as the protocol works based on a new consensus of Proof of Space and Time. The bigger space you have, the more the XCH you are likely to mine. With a recent report revealing the reduction in the shelf life of regular storage hardware used in mining the XCH coins, many investors are exploring alternatives to acquire the digital currency. One of the ways being explored is Chia Mining Pools.
The Warning Against Unofficial Chia Mining Pools
It appears the use of these mining pools is becoming popular, and Bram Cohen, the founder of the Chia coin, has warned against the use of unofficial mining pools as they may pose significant threats to the users. While the protocol will not be developing its own mining pool, Cohen noted that the team is working on a Chia pooling protocol development. Anyone developing a public mining pool can maintain the standard defined by the team.
“The supported standard pool protocol will support (1) pools being able to allow any rando to join/leave at any time without having to worry about people scamming them and (2) pool users being able to switch at any time with worst case the pool stiffed you what they owed you,” Cohen said in a tweeter post. “This is far, far better than what people are doing now which is insecure and sketchy as hell. If you’ve ever given your private keys to a pool my suggestion is to set up a new wallet, move everything to that, and replot everything once the new protocol is out.”
The development of the protocol is underway but will not come until the end of the month.
Update on Chia pooling protocol development: We're working on the whole shebang: plotting, pooling, GUI, and testing end-to-end on testnet. Unfortunately it won't be ready by this coming Monday, but it will be done before the end of this month.
— Bram Cohen🌱 (@bramcohen) May 14, 2021
Will Tesla Favor Chia Coin as Bitcoin Replacement?
With the shift away from Bitcoin as a favored crypto payment alternative, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) revealed it is in search of more energy-efficient digital currencies to embrace. This has made many pitch Chia coin which according to its Whitepaper uses up to 10,000 times less energy than Bitcoin’s mining technology.
Other blockchain protocols are also known to be energy efficient especially those that utilize the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validation models. However, for the Chia coin to be adopted by Tesla or other crypto enthusiasts, it may need to transition from its current hype stage to prove more efficient than the other cryptocurrencies and networks in the space today.