Hey cool! My favorite blockchain!

Chia is seriously cool technology. It incentivizes decentralization through a clever bit of economic judo:

Farmer 1: Use their over-provisioned storage capacity on machines they already own. This provides blockchain security and rewards the farmer with some income. The productive inputs effectively cost our “hobbyist farmer” nothing, so they have the lowest cost-to-farm-one-token.

Farmer 2: Builds a giant Chia farm by purchasing equipment: yes, you get lots more tokens. But this time the cost-to-farm-one-token is greater than zero. Also, scaling storage capacity tends to get more expensive, the larger you want to go.

Hobbyists WIN in this arrangement, and “professional miners / farmers” are the ones speculating on token prices.