Does crypto mining damage SSD?

In previous articles we talked about the impact of ming on other parts:

Now let's answer this

If you are ming a cryptocurrency that depends on proof-of-work than the answer is no but if the coin depends on proof-of-capacity like Chia the answer is different.

In this article, you will learn;

Chia Mining Will DESTROY SSD in No Time, Miners Warned

Despite not being as profitable as Ethereum mining, chia mining is still a viable choice for crypto miners these days. However, if you're using a standard 500GB SSD, you'll need to replace it more frequently than you might expect.

TweakTown claims that using a 500GB SSD to mine Chia will completely ruin it in as little as six weeks, whether it's an NVMe M.2 or a 2.5-inch SATA drive. That's just over a month's worth of consumption. When you increase the storage capacity to 1TB, it will last you 80 days, and a 2TB would last you roughly four months.

And we're not just talking about a significant decline in storage device performance; we're talking about hardware failure.

Chia may be mined on any type of SSD, but it will die quickly.

According to a TechRadar article, the information comes from a Chinese language website named MyDrivers. The key reason, they claim, is the write-intensive nature of Chia mining on the disc. Even super-fast SSDs have a limit on how much data they can write before they fail, as every tech geek knows.

It appears that few people considered how taxing Chia mining can be on hardware.

Chia Mining: What Is It, Exactly?

Chia was only recently recognised as a commodity: it wasn't until May 3 that it became marketable. It's a newcomer to the cryptocurrency mining market, and it's unique in that it's mined utilising storage devices such as SSDs and HDDs. Miners, on the other hand, prefer SSDs because they are just faster.

Chia is still attracting cryptocurrency mining enthusiasts due to its lower power requirements, despite not being as popular as other alt coins such as Ethereum. It's easy to understand why: a crypto mining system with 100 SSDs uses significantly less electricity than one with the same number of high-end graphics cards.

Chia is a cryptocurrency that uses a "proof of space and time" paradigm to promote "sustainable" cryptocurrency mining, according to PCGamer. This implies that alt coins should be mined on unused storage space, which graphics cards lack.

Why Chia Mining Kills SSDs?

Chia, a new cryptocurrency, uses far less energy than Bitcoin and Ethereum. It reduces electricity waste, but it also generates a lot of e-waste by degrading hard drives. Chia mining is also not completely green because it consumes energy, albeit at a lower rate than Bitcoin. Farming chia is cost-effective when compared to mining other top-performing cryptos, but the entire operation could become costly because to the frequent writing demands on solid-state discs (SSDs). The procedure entails allocating and then releasing space on storage devices on a regular basis. This puts a lot of strain on the device, and SSDs can fail very quickly. It means that, in the same way that Bitcoin damages electricity, Chia harms hard discs.

According to reports, if a consumer-grade 512GB SSD is used for Chia farming, it would fail in 40 days, while a 1TB SSD will die in less than 3 months and a 2TB drive will die in 160 days. Because a conventional 512GB SSD can last up to 5 years, the rate at which SSDs are failing is alarming. Furthermore, SSD manufacturers have refused to provide any kind of warranty or repair for drives that fail as a result of Chia mining. Galax has already posted a warning on its Chinese website that mining cryptocurrencies with Galax SSD will violate the warranty.

Excessive strain is the cause of hard disc or SSD failure during Chia mining. A typical consumer SSD has a 600TBW (terabytes written) rating, which is adequate for everyday use. Consumer-grade SSDs have the potential to last several years if utilised properly. Chia farming, on the other hand, necessitates continuous writing to the device, putting undue load on the SSD and shortening its lifespan.

Storage Makers Being Vigilant

GPU manufacturers are doing everything they can to keep their goods out of crypto mining rigs, and now that Chia exists, storage manufacturers are being obliged to do the same.

It's worth noting that GALAX sent a warning to potential cryptocurrency miners around the end of April, stating that mining cryptocurrency on the company's SSDs will void the warranty. And it's possible that GALAX was correct to try something like this because it wasn't clear how difficult Chia mining could be on hardware.

Due to the current GPU shortage, it appears that even crypto miners are having difficulty obtaining graphics cards for their rigs. Chia gives you the chance to do it in a unique way while still saving money on your electricity bill. However, SSDs won't survive long in a mining system, so having to replace storage devices every few weeks might put a serious dent in anyone's wallet.

Does this imply that SSDs will become prohibitively expensive? If the Chia craze takes off, the answer is, unfortunately, yes. But it remains to be seen, as Ethereum remains the market leader at the moment.

Potential HDD and SSD Shortages

Based on existing sales patterns in Asia, Chia, a new eco-friendly cryptocurrency, is expected to cause a shortage of hard drives and solid-state drives.

The development of crypto miners has resulted in a graphics card shortage in recent years. Cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed, which has been bad news for anyone trying to buy a new GPU. Following a period of relatively constant prices over the first nine months of 2020, the price of Bitcoin began to rise dramatically in October, surpassing the previous high of $20,000 in December, and reaching $35,000 in January 2021. The Ethereum cryptocurrency doubled from under $200 in early 2020 to over $400 by mid-2020, and over $1,000 by early 2021, contributing to the GPU scarcity.

Concerns about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Ethereum have escalated in recent months as climate change has become a major topic. Mining cryptocurrency consumes a lot of energy and requires complex computer calculations to verify transactions. According to research, Bitcoin uses roughly 121.36 terawatt-hours of energy, which is more than whole countries. As bitcoin prices climb, cryptocurrency miners will be even more enticed to run more equipment, resulting in increased energy usage.

The new Chia cryptocurrency, developed by BitTorrent developer Bram Cohen, mines by relying on storage rather than processing power, consuming significantly less energy. However, similar to how other cryptocurrencies have caused GPU shortages, there are concerns that this new, energy-efficient one may cause HDD and SSD shortages — and there are already evidence of this. Despite the fact that the Chia cryptocurrency has yet to start, the Hong Kong-based tech blog HKEPC has revealed that miners are already purchasing larger capacity drives ranging from 4TB to 18TB in large quantities. Jiahe Jinwei, a Chinese hard drive manufacturer, has reportedly sold out of its high-performance Gloway and Asgard 1TB and 2TB NVMe M.2 SSDs, with the business boosting manufacturing to match demand and developing a crypto-mining-specific SSD.

However, the SSDs being purchased are higher-end enterprise ones, which is marginally better news. While consumer SSDs can be used for mining, enterprise or data centre SSDs provide durability in addition to speed and storage capacity, thus consumer drives should be safe.