Some high-end CPUs (such as AMD's Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X) are hard to come by and, due in part to cryptocurrency mining, graphics cards are nearly impossible to buy at market value these days, adding to the tragic state of PC building in 2021, Solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs) are in danger of becoming the next hard-to-buy items. [It's all because of a new cryptocurrency project called "Chia," the brainchild of Bittorrent creator Bram Cohen, which is billed as "a better blockchain and smart transaction platform that is more decentralized, more efficient, and more secure."

What sets it apart from most cryptocurrencies is that it is mined in unused storage space, rather than on graphics cards or special ASIC hardware.

Chia is built around a cryptographic technology called proof-of-space-and-time, as opposed to Bitcoin, which utilizes a proof-of-work model.

"Proof of space can be thought of as a way to prove that there is unused storage on a hard disk drive, with Chia blockchain users installing software that stores a "plot" of the collection of cryptographic numbers on the disk, 'seed' unused space on their hard disk drives. Such users are called 'farmers,'" Chia's FAQ explains.

"When the blockchain broadcasts the challenge for the next block, the farmer can scan his plot to see if he has the closest hash to the challenge. The probability that a farmer will win a block is the percentage of total space the farmer has compared to the entire network," the FAQ continues.

The time proof part of the equation requires that a small amount of time pass between blocks.

Since Chia has not yet launched and will be available for trading on May 3, 2021, we do not know what impact Chia will ultimately have on the overall market (both on PC gaming hardware and on the cryptocurrency world).

We were somewhat hesitant to report on possible shortages caused by this new cryptocurrency. However, prior to the launch, the price of HDDs soared 67% in China, so there may be evidence that Chia is having an impact on the market, even before the launch. Furthermore, in a recent conference call with investors (via Seeking Alpha), Seagate admitted that "demand is increasing" due to the use of HDDs in cryptocurrency mining.

However, this is not necessarily a direct effect; according to Time Finance (via Tom's Hardware), one reason for the price increase is that some dealers are holding storage inventory in hopes of cashing in on a larger payday.

The storage pipeline in China consists of manufacturers (such as Western Digital), distributors, dealers, and merchants until it finally reaches the consumer. A small number of distributors are reportedly stockpiling storage devices.

In short, this is an artificial demand, partly due to the speculation surrounding Chia and the new cryptocurrency; if Chia becomes massively popular, it is quite possible that this will play out on a larger scale and affect both HDD and SSD prices in other parts of the world. [In theory, HDDs should be more susceptible to price spikes because SSD cells wear out over write cycles. However, as we have seen in the GPU sector, it is not only the best parts for cryptocurrency mining that are in high demand; if Chia gains popularity and HDDs dry up, SSDs are sure to be next. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.