Block (chain?) The latest cryptocurrency above, ChaiCoin (XCH), launched yesterday with an opening price of just under $1600, but after a brief uptick, it quickly bottomed out at $700. That's less than half the launch price. Maybe, just maybe, the latest cryptocurrency is not as advertised.

In case you missed it, Chia is a storage-based cryptocurrency, and some feared that it might lead to storage shortages in the same way that traditional cryptocurrencies have affected the availability of graphics cards. Also, prices for high-capacity drives are rising in China as demand increases, but there is no need to rush out and buy high-capacity hard drives before they run out.

The fact that currency values are on the decline could be good news for regular PC gamers, but be that as it may, the way Chia works, it will not have much of an impact on regular drives anyway. To operate efficiently, one would need a large capacity hard drive or SSD, say over 10TB, so unless Chia reaches ridiculous values, the direct impact on "normal" storage should be minimal.

Clearly, it is still early days for Chia, and many long-term investors will be looking at it as the "next big thing". However, as far as PC gaming is concerned, this is just one cryptocurrency that is almost negligible.

While Chia has had problems since day one, Ethereum (ETH), the cryptocurrency of the moment, continues to set records with a new high of $3,530. Unfortunately, the demand for graphics cards will not stop while this surge continues.