Tesla owner mines bitcoin, ethereum with his car

Starting with the 2018 Tesla Model 3, Siraj Raval has tried almost every method for mining cryptocurrencies.

He ran free Bitcoin mining software on the Apple Mac mini M1 and powered the computer by connecting an inverter to a 12-volt cigarette lighter outlet on the car’s dashboard.

He also connects interconnected graphics processing units or GPUs to Tesla’s “Frank” and runs these machines from the car’s internal battery.

However, Raval’s favorite way to create crypto coins like Ethereum is to use JavaScript to hack Tesla’s native CPUs. The CPU is the internal computer of the car that assists system navigation and provides entertainment to the rider.

There is a risk that the car’s warranty will expire, but Raval says it’s worth it.

“It’s much faster and much more energy efficient,” Raval explains. He says he earned as much as $ 800 a month in both mining when ether and polygon prices peaked in 2021.

Bitcoin miner Alejandro de la Torre says that in the end, mining from Tesla is the same as connecting to any other power source.

“The main factor is the price of electricity, if it’s cheaper to do it in an electric car,” said De La Torre.

In 2018, Chris Allessi, who told CNBC that he was the first electric car dealer in Wisconsin, decided to tinker with Tesla.

This is nothing new to Allesi, also known as K-Man on the YouTube channel. He builds custom electric cars in his spare time and calls himself the modern Doc Brown, the character of the movie “Back to the Future.” Convert the car into a time machine.

“I like electricity. I like zapping and making things. You give me an electric motor and I give you a finished product,” he said. rice field.

Like Raval, Allessi tried several different ways to convert the Tesla Model S to an encrypted mining rig.

In the industry, crypto mining is an energy-intensive process in which machines around the world provide computing power across the network to create new coins and validate transactions with existing tokens. They do it by running special software that handles complex mathematical equations. To participate, you basically only need a computer and a power supply.

With the help of a power inverter, Allessi connects the Bitmain Antminer S9, a type of mining rig specially used to cast the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies, directly to the car’s battery. I tried to mine Bitcoin. The inverter adjusts the voltage of Tesla’s battery to a level compatible with his Antminer.

Allessi has also succeeded in mining altcoin using the vehicle’s internal firmware.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said of the process. He used the built-in computer and screen in the car to go to a web page specially set up to mine the popular privacy token monero. “I was able to run the mining program in the browser,” Allessi explained.

Of all the techniques Raval has tried, the most profitable are hacking into Tesla’s internal computer and connecting the GPU directly to the car’s electric motor.

Raval uses JavaScript to create a web app that can retrieve data from Tesla and possibly modify it.

“This is a computer with wheels … it’s very easy to hack into this computer car,” Raval said, allowing the process to basically hijack the car’s internal firmware and use extra power. Explain that it is something to do.

From there, he connects five GPUs to the Tesla battery and switches between running two different hash algorithms. One is mining for Ethereum and the other is to generate polygon tokens.

Professional miners tell CNBC that logistics will theoretically check out.

“The mechanism is all there,” explained Whit Gibbs, CEO and founder of Bitcoin mining service provider Compass.

“There is power, space, and the ability to add cooling. The battery provides enough power to boot and run the ASIC,” continues Gibbs.

Whether Tesla’s cryptocurrency mining proves to be beneficial has a lot to do with when a driver buys a car.

For example, Allessi bought a car before January 2017. This means that it is exempt from the scheme of free and unlimited supercharging until the end of the car’s life.

In 2018, he estimates that he will create $ 10 worth of Bitcoin in a 60-hour window. It all benefited because I didn’t have to pay for electricity.

But even if it was beneficial, it wasn’t worth it, he says.

“Why do you want to hurt a car from $ 40,000 to $ 100,000 like that?” He said. “And now, even if the price of Bitcoin has risen dramatically, the difficulty is also rising … in the same time on the exact same device, I’m probably looking at Bitcoin worth $ 1 or $ 2. increase.”

The mining of Monero proved to be useless as well.

“Did it work? Yes. Was there anything worth it in some way, shape, or form? No,” Alllessi explained.

Raval is more optimistic about his Tesla earnings potential.

He has to pay to charge his car, but the battery itself is “barless,” Laval says.

Raval cars earn 320 miles on a single charge, which costs about $ 10 to $ 15. If he drives for several hours every day, he needs to be recharged once a week and a half, with monthly charges ranging from $ 30 to $ 60.

Raval estimates that it is mining from Tesla’s batteries for about 20 hours a day. Prices for altcoins such as Ethereum and Polygon are volatile, but Raval has baked them on other backstops to ensure profitability.

For one thing, he is betting his Ethereum on “Midas. Investments”. This is a custody crypto investment platform that offers an annual interest rate of 23% on his investment. He also does not monetize to US dollars as his crypto-nest eggs continue to grow.

Raval also buys the GPU used on eBay, so you can save money.

Taking all these steps into account, Raval says he made about $ 400 to $ 800 a month in 2021 and made the venture profitable despite the cryptocurrency slump. ..

Allessi tells CNBC that he doesn’t care about mining anymore.

“The difficulty is very high … I was able to make more money by working at McDonald’s,” he said.

Allessi offered one option. “If you work for a company, it’s better to hide the miners in a suspended ceiling than to mine by car,” he said, sucking free electricity from his employer.

But for Raval, mining cryptocurrencies from his Tesla is more than just a gimmick. Instead, making his Tesla a fully autonomous robotaxi and earning cryptocurrencies whenever he’s not driving is a big part of his plan.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk advertises the potential of vehicles to become autonomous robotaxis, but today’s Tesla isn’t yet able to drive on its own. Nevertheless, Raval believes in this future.

“We will use the revenue from both our transportation and cryptocurrency mining services to pay our own costs for repairs, electricity, upgrades, etc. and invest in a diverse portfolio of new crypto community networks,” he says. .. Said.