Chia Network has raised $61M in Series D funding and is considering an IPO this year. The cryptocurrency startup, which has its own Chia Coin, claims to be more environmentally friendly than other coins because of its consensus method, which relies on proof of space and time rather than the traditional proof of work utilized by Bitcoin and others. Chia Coin only began trading in April of 2021 but has already consumed large amounts of storage to the point where hard drive companies are seeing their stock prices affected by demand. But what of Chia’s patents?

The startup has one published patent asset for its proof of space and time consensus system. Japan’s NEC Corp does have an issued patent for proof of storage, which is similar to proof of space. For now, cryptocurrency patents mostly focus on proof of work, which gives Chia an advantage as it seeks exclusive rights. Keep up with Patent Forecast® to see if Chia will expand its patent portfolio and how other companies will respond.