"Chia" (XCH)

Chia Network's main innovation was its consensus mechanism, which used a concept called "proof of space and time" instead of the energy-intensive "proof of work" mechanism used by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In proof of space and time, participants prove that they have allocated a certain amount of digital space over a specified period, which can be used as an alternative to traditional mining.

Chia Network's mining process involved plotting (precomputing) a large amount of storage space and then continuously verifying and updating the plots over time. This process was designed to be more energy-efficient compared to traditional proof-of-work mining.

However, it's important to note that while Chia Network's approach aimed to reduce energy consumption, it still required significant amounts of storage space and computational resources, which could have other environmental and resource-related implications.