A crypto wallet browser extension has been noted for excessively wearing out some user SSDs at a rate of 5 MB/s, which translates to roughly 500 GB per day.

This alarming figure accumulates to around 175 TB per year. Such high disk activity is correlated with the popular MetaMask crypto extension, which has reportedly led to significant and unusual data writes for some users.

As highlighted by CoinTelegraph, Consensys, the developers behind MetaMask, acknowledged that users reported experiencing high levels of disk activity.

“While browser extension wallets do regularly write state to disk, which is expected behavior, we’ve taken note of a recent observation shared by a small number of MetaMask users who reported unusually high disk activity.”

Details from user reports indicate that after installing MetaMask on a Chromium-based browser (like Chrome or Opera), data writing of 5 MB/s persisted continuously on the SSD. With SSDs having limits on write cycles, this behavior raises serious concerns regarding their lifespan.

In contrast, a typical SSD has a limited number of write cycles before failure occurs, which means that prolonged use of the wallet extension at this rate could diminish the life expectancy of the drive significantly.

To combat this issue, a fix is reportedly underway and will be released soon, aiming to reduce the excessive data write rates.

For those interested in cryptocurrency, it’s advisable to carefully consider not only the coins being traded but also the actual software tools being utilized to manage and store those assets.