> The Chia Network was founded in 2017 by American computer programmer Bram Cohen, the author of the BitTorrent protocol.[4] In China stockpiling ahead of the May 2021 launch led to shortages and an increase in the price of hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD).[5] Shortages were also reported in Vietnam.[6] Phison, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company, estimated that SSD prices will rise by 10% in 2021 as a result of Chia.[7] Hard drive manufacturer Seagate said in May 2021 that the company was experiencing strong orders and that staff were working to "adjust to market demand".[6] In May 2021 Gene Hoffman, the president of Chia Network, admitted that "we’ve kind of destroyed the short-term supply chain" for hard disks.[8] Concerns have also been raised about the mining process also potentially being harmful to drives' lifetime.[9]

Thankfully the coin seems to have collapsed completely since May 2021 (https://www.coinbase.com/price/chia-network)

But you can see why people are skeptical

People are still struggling to articulate a legitimate use case for cryptocurrencies.

I made some money mining BTC way back in the day with a GPU. I bought a new computer for $1,900 last year and much more than paid for it mining ETH. I’ve spent years now listening to all the claims from BTC, BCH, BSV and a dozen more coins and web3 proponents. But I’ll be damned if I can articulate a legitimate use for it that is better than what we have today or that doesn’t fail to take human nature into consideration.