Decentralized Markets Are Springing Up All Around Us & It’s Great

Farming green cryptocurrencies, investing in Doge, and collecting NFT baseball cards are all part of my new identity.

Steve Campbell
Ascent Publication

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Artwork: Tithi Luadthong

I became a proud Chia farmer a few weeks back, and… that’s probably one of the weirder sentences I’ll ever write, honestly.

For those who don’t know (which is still most people, I’m guessing), Chia is a new, recently released eco-friendly blockchain and a greener alternative to energy-intensive cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It was created by Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, so it has real potential I think.

I first heard about it on Kevin Rose’s new podcast, Modern Finance, which is a topic I’ve been diving deeper into lately. I’ve long been a fan of the nostalgia market and particularly sports cards as investments but I’m just now getting into things like cryptocurrencies and NFTs. “Why not?” is what I say.

Anyway, when I heard all one needed to do to “farm” Chia coin was set up a few digital plots on some empty hard drive space, I said sure and navigated over to Amazon to purchase a five terabyte external hard drive. Then, I installed Chia’s software, connected my “full node” to its “mainnet,” and several hours later (basically a full night), everything…

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Steve Campbell
Ascent Publication

Aspiring author. Editor-in-Chief of the Ascent Publication. Out to help you share your voice, document your journey, and discover the path to a happier you.