Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero
“It’s a computer with wheels” – Tesla owner mines Bitcoins with his car
A man allegedly earns up to $ 800 a month with his Tesla by mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (symbol image)
© Artur Widak / Picture Alliance
A Tesla owner uses his car to mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and allegedly earns several hundred dollars a month. Although experts doubt a real profit, they confirm that crypto mining is possible with a Tesla vehicle.
Like any other car, a Tesla is actually used to transport people. You can also use the electric car for another purpose, as Siraj Raval reports. The car owner claims that he uses his Tesla Model 3 to mine cryptocurrencies and that, at the best of times in 2021, has made a monthly profit of 400 to 800 dollars.
After several attempts, according to American television, Raval has found a method for crypto mining that is particularly lucrative: a mixture of hacking the internal Tesla computer and connecting graphics processors directly to the battery of his car. To do this, the Tesla owner says he connects his computer to the twelve-volt socket in the center console of the vehicle, connects five graphics processors to the Tesla battery and runs an algorithm.
With this, he begins mining the crypto currency Ethereum, in which users basically provide the capacities of their computers for checking and encrypting transactions and are rewarded for this in the respective crypto currency. “It’s a computer with wheels … It’s so easy to hack into this computer car,” Raval told CNBC about his 2018 Tesla.
Whit Gibbs, CEO and founder of Compass, a Bitcoin mining service provider, told the broadcaster: “The mechanisms are all in place.” Gibbs continues, “You have a power source, you have space, you can add cooling.” The battery definitely delivers enough power.
Doubts about profit from crypto mining with Tesla
According to the CNBC report, the electric car dealer Chris Allessi from Wisconsin converted his Tesla Model S, built in 2017, into a crypto mining facility in 2018. Then he mined bitcoins. “It wasn’t a big deal,” says Allessi of the process. He has a free charge offer from Tesla for the entire life of his car and, according to his own statements, also made a profit from Bitcoin mining.
Still, he doesn’t think so, as he says in the report: “Why should you wear out a car worth $ 40,000 to $ 100,000 so much?” He asks. He also estimates the current profit from 60 hours of mining to be just one to two dollars. He sees the benefits of mining the Monero crypto currency in a similar way. Therefore, Allessi no longer deals with crypto mining. The Tesla hacker and crypto miner Thomas Sohmers is also sure that such high profits as Raval claims are simply impossible, it continues. According to him, a maximum turnover of around 13 dollars is possible with Ether.
Raval wants to continue mining cryptocurrencies
According to CNBC, Raval is still convinced of cryptocurrency mining. Although he has to pay to charge his Tesla Model 3, he says the battery is “unbeatable”. He gets a lot for his money and mines an estimated 20 hours a day cryptocurrencies whose values he has hedged against fluctuations. He also buys used graphics processors to save costs. He pays between 30 and 60 dollars a month for the electricity charges on his Tesla, which has a range of around 515 kilometers.
The enthusiastic crypto miner already has another plan: He wants to turn his Tesla into an autonomous robotaxi that always mines cryptocurrencies when it is not on the move. Tesla boss Elon Musk praises the function of autonomous driving, but the cars are still far from being able to drive completely autonomously.
Bitcoin and Co. partly banned because of immense power consumption
Tesla has also had a direct connection with Bitcoin in the past. A few months ago, a vehicle from the US automaker could still be bought with the cryptocurrency. Last May, Elon Musk surprisingly announced that it would no longer accept Bitcoin as a means of payment due to environmental concerns. “Our mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” said the company. Elon Musk finally shared on Twitter: “We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and related transactions.” He is particularly concerned about the use of “coal, which has the worst emissions of all fuels”. The Tesla boss later even described Bitcoin energy consumption as “insane”.
Cryptocurrencies are created by solving complex equations. It is not possible to say exactly how high the electricity demand actually is – but it is immense. The current unrest in Kazakhstan is linked to Bitcoin mining. Because it plays a major role there and the power supply in the country is also critical. At the beginning of the year, Kosovo imposed a temporary ban on mining cryptocurrencies in order to reduce electricity consumption. Last week, police in Kosovo confiscated hundreds of cryptocurrency mining machines and arrested one person.
China also introduced a nationwide ban on crypto mining last September due to the energy shortages. While the Bitcoin miners in China were still completing around three-quarters of all Bitcoin transactions in 2020, the USA finally overtook China as the global market leader. When the ban on crypto mining came into force, many miners also migrated to neighboring Kazakhstan. In fact, crypto mining is happening around the world.
Sources: CNBC, Frankfurter Rundschau, With material from DPA and AFP