This Tesla owner claims to mine up to $800 in cryptocurrencies in a month with his vehicle.
Saturday, January 8, 2022 | Chimniii Desk
Key Highlights
- Tesla owners tell CNBC how they've mined bitcoins using the car's internal computer and battery capacity.
- Based in San Francisco Siraj Raval mines ethereum and polygon by hacking into his Tesla's native CPU with JavaScript.
- Others have attempted to connect graphic processing processors to the Tesla car's battery directly.
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Siraj Raval has used his 2018 Tesla Model 3 to mine for bitcoins in almost every method possible.
On his Apple Mac mini M1, he ran free bitcoin mining software and powered the machine with an inverter plugged into his car's 12-volt cigarette lighter connection.
He's also linked interconnected graphics processing units, or GPUs, to his Tesla's "frunk," powering them with the car's internal battery.
Raval, on the other hand, prefers to use JavaScript to hack into his Tesla's native CPU to mint crypto currency like ethereum. The CPU is the car's internal computer, which assists with system navigation and entertainment for passengers.
Raval feels it's worth it, even if it means voiding his automobile guarantee.
"It's significantly faster, and it's much more energy efficient," Raval noted, adding that when the prices of ether and polygon peaked in 2021, he was earning up to $800 per month mining for both.
Bitcoin miner Alejandro de la Torre claims that mining with a Tesla is essentially the same as mining from any other power source.
"The cost of electricity is the most important factor. "If it's cheaper to do it in an electric vehicle, then be it," de la Torre added.
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How to mine cryptocurrency with a Tesla
Chris Allessi, who claims to be Wisconsin's first electric car salesman, chose to tinker with his Tesla in 2018.
Allessi, who builds custom electric automobiles in his spare time and bills himself as a modern-day Doc Brown, the character from the film "Back to the Future" who retrofits a car into a time machine, is no stranger to such situations.
"I enjoy being around energy. I enjoy zapping and constructing things. He answered, "You give me an electric motor, and I'll give you a finished product."
Allessi, like Raval, has experimented with a few different ways to turn his Tesla Model S into a crypto mining equipment.
Crypto mining, as used in the business, is an energy-intensive process in which devices all over the world donate their computational power to the broader network in order to create new coins and verify existing token transactions. They accomplish this by using specialised software to solve complex math equations. All you really need is a computer and some power to join.
Allessi experimented with bitcoin mining by connecting a Bitmain Antminer S9 — a sort of mining rig designed particularly for minting the world's most popular cryptocurrency — to his automobile battery through a power converter. Tesla's electric battery's voltage is adjusted by the inverter to a level that is compatible with his Antminer.
Allessi has also successfully mined altcoins using the vehicle's internal programming.
He described the procedure as "no big thing." He navigated to a web page he had set up specifically to mine for the popular privacy token monero using the car's built-in computer and screen. Allessi explained, "I could execute the mining application within the browser."
The most profitable technique Raval has tested is a combination of hacking into Tesla's internal computer and directly putting GPUs into the car's electric motor.
Raval utilises JavaScript to develop a web app that can retrieve and, in certain situations, manipulate data from his Tesla.
"It's a wheeled computer...
"Hacking into this computer automobile is so straightforward," Raval added, describing the procedure as "basically hijacking the car's internal code to allow for additional power utilisation."
He then connects five GPUs to his Tesla battery and alternates between running two separate hashing algorithms: one for ethereum mining and the other for polygon token generation.
Professional-grade miners told CNBC that the logistics appear to be in order.
Whit Gibbs, CEO and creator of Compass, a bitcoin mining service provider, noted, "The processes are all there."
"You have access to a power source, space, and the capacity to add cooling." Gibbs remarked, "There's clearly enough power delivered by the battery to fire up an ASIC and run it."
Tesla owner Siraj Raval uses his Model 3 to mine for cryptocurrencies.
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Profitable, but is it worth the effort?
The date the driver purchased their Tesla has a lot to do with whether or not crypto mining is lucrative.
Allessi, for example, bought his car before January 2017, which means he's eligible for free and unlimited supercharging for the rest of his vehicle's life.
He thinks that in 2018, he made $10 worth of bitcoin in a 60-hour window, all of which was profitable because he didn't have to pay for power.
Even if it was profitable, he claims it was not worth it.
"Why would you want to put that much wear and tear on a car that costs $40,000 to $100,000?" he asked. "At the moment, even though the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed, so has the difficulty level... I'm probably looking at $1 or $2 worth of bitcoin in the same amount of time with the exact same equipment."
Monero mining proved to be useless as well.
"Did that work?" says the narrator. Yes. Was it profitable in any way, shape, or form because it mined anything worthwhile? "No," Allessi clarified.
Raval is more bullish about his Tesla's earning potential.
Raval claims that his vehicle's battery is "bar none," so he gets a lot of bang for his buck, even though he needs to pay to charge it.
Raval's car has a range of 320 miles per charge and costs between $10 and $15 to charge. If he drives it for a few hours every day, he will need to charge it once every one and a half weeks, resulting in a monthly bill of $30 to $60.
Raval says he mines for about 20 hours a day on his Tesla battery. Despite the fact that the prices of cryptocurrencies such as ethereum and polygon are subject to volatility, Raval has built in various safeguards to assure profitability.
For one thing, he invests his ethereum in "Midas.Investments," a custodial crypto investing platform that pays him a 23 percent annual percentage interest. He also never cashes out in US dollars, allowing his crypto portfolio to expand.
Raval often buys his GPUs used on eBay, which saves him money.
Taking all of these processes into account, Raval claims that he earned between $400 and $800 per month in 2021, making the venture lucrative even amid the crypto bear market.
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Siraj Raval getting root access (admin control) of the Tesla operating system.
According to CNBC, Allessi no longer mines.
"The difficulty is so tremendous," he explained, "that I might make more money working at McDonald's."
Allessi did provide a possible solution. "You'd be better off hiding a miner up in the drop ceiling than mining with a car if you're working for a corporation," he said of getting free electricity from a boss.
Despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk's claims that automobiles could one day become self-driving robotaxis, Teslas are still a long way from being able to do so. Raval, however, remains optimistic about the future.
"It will use its earnings from both transportation and cryptocurrency mining services to pay for its own expenses, such as repairs, electricity charges, and upgrades, as well as invest them in a diversified portfolio of new crypto-community networks," he explained.
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