Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Youtube personality Siraj Raval converted his Tesla EV into a mining rig, allowing him to use a free re-charge deal to mine cryptocurrency.
This Tesla owner says he mines up to $800 a month in cryptocurrency with his car
PUBLISHED SAT, JAN 8 202210:00 AM ESTUPDATED SAT, JAN 8 20226:22 PM EST
MacKenzie Sigalos@KENZIESIGALOS
- Tesla owners speak to CNBC about how they’ve used the internal computer and battery power of the car to mine cryptocurrencies.
- San Francisco-based Siraj Raval mines ethereum by hooking up graphic processing units directly to the Tesla car battery.
Siraj Raval has tried just about every way there is to mine for cryptocurrencies from his 2018 Tesla Model 3.
He’s run free bitcoin mining software on his Apple Mac mini M1 and powered the computer by plugging an inverter into the 12-volt power socket located in the center console of his car.
He’s also hooked up interconnected graphics processing units or GPUs to the “frunk” of his Tesla, running these machines off the car’s internal battery.
Though it risks voiding his car warranty, Raval says it’s worth it.
When the price of ether peaked in 2021, he claims he was netting as much as $800 a month.
…
Profitable but worth the hassle?
Whether Tesla crypto mining proves profitable has a lot to do with when the driver bought their vehicle.
Allessi, for example, purchased his car before Jan. 2017, meaning that he was grandfathered into a scheme where he has free and unlimited supercharging for the life of his vehicle.
In 2018, he estimates that over a 60-hour window, he would make $10 worth of bitcoin, all of which was at a profit, because he didn’t have to pay for power.
But even though it was profitable, it was hardly worth it, he says.
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Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/08/tesla-owner-mines-bitcoin-ethereum-with-his-car.html
Obviously this was just a stunt. Making a few hundred bucks does little to offset the purchase price of a Tesla.
But an “EV” does not have to be a shiny new Tesla to qualify for access to a charging point. A cobbled together EV using parts salvaged from wrecks, or a set of questionably sourced deep discharge marine batteries on a trailer would work almost as well.
As green energy policies drive Californian electricity costs ever higher, as electricity bills become increasingly unaffordable, taking an hour to suck a few tens of KWh of electricity from a subsidized EV fast charging point, then bringing the electricity home and using it to power a decent night of affordable home heating or whatever, may become an increasingly attractive proposition.
Note: RE the image, Siraj was mining Ether, not Bitcoin – but can you remember the symbol for Ethereum without looking it up? I can’t.
Note 2: I’m not encouraging anyone to attempt to do any of this – 50KW fast charge power through an amateur charge circuit lashup gone wrong would be pretty spectacular, and kind of dangerous for anyone in the vicinity.
I vote a 5 star to note 2, and one star for the reality of the pure bored fantasy being played out.
Another example of, just because it can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done.
They just arrested a guy in Kazakhstan for running a 30 gigahash crypto farm on what is apparently free electricity… Don’t know if it’s because they’re in the middle of a civil war, but just goes to show that NOTHING from your government is ever FREE.
Well you know the best advise for electric car owners is never park it near something you like.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I know people who moved to apartments where the power bill is included in the rent, specifically to mine cryptos. If they had to pay their own power bill they couldnt mine them economically. This way the landlord eats the bill.
What he doesn’t consider: the constant charge and discharge cycles of his Tesla battery will also shorten the battery’s lifetime. I wonder if what he has “mined” will pay for that.
“Mining” crypto currency? And people think crypto currency has value? Please. Wasting resources to get virtual money isn’t “mining” anything anymore than trading that virtual money for something tangible is valid, although it is being done. This scam is almost on par with Climate Change but I bet virtual money collapses first.
Rogue crypto mining power thieves are a common occurrence in E. Washington, where railroad cars and semi trailers filled with servers park under power poles to steal juice. Abandoned warehouses and apartment buildings sucking electricity are sure signs. The power companies have had to hire utility cops to address the crypto mining crime wave.
Eric, Ether symbol is 2 triangles mirrored and joined at the base.
Another Telsa rich somebody who’s found a way to live off the taxpayer. So hip. So cool.
Wot? Like incinerating Frankfurt’s entire bus garage
Add it to the woke (marketing) list of advantages of EV ownership so we can all watch.
“50KW fast charge power through an amateur charge circuit lashup gone wrong would be pretty spectacular, and kind of dangerous for anyone in the vicinity”
Given the propensity of Li-ion batteries to burst into flame, the same could be said of factory standard BEVs.
Cut-rate electricity can have many uses. 🙂
Speaking of crypto-mining, be sure to check if your antivirus software has installed a miner on your computer:
Norton 360 Now Comes With a Cryptominer
and
500M Avira Antivirus Users Introduced to Cryptomining
Am I the only one, or does someone else worry about the mental well-being of Eric as he sifts through the crypto/ether/Tesla/Youtube world analyzing reports that connect to climate change on behalf of Anthony? Maybe abundant adult beverages might help?
I guess it’s a lot easier than stealing electricity for aluminium smelting. That was my fantasy 40 years ago.
How much extra electricity is consumed when doing this? Just because it’s marginally profitable does not mean there won’t be numerous copycats.
Youtube personality Siraj Raval has finally discovered a really useful activity for the electric vehicle. Perhaps he also warms his house with the surplus waste heat
Californy has bigger problems than that with woke economics-
‘If not us, then who?’: inside the landmark push for reparations for Black Californians (msn.com)
The only question is how sustainable it will be with middle class and well-to-do flight that doesn’t feel obligated to pick up the tab for all that sorry money for past generations on top of all the dooming resourcing for future ones. Go woke go broke.
Tulips Chickens, Care Bears , Beanie Babies, etc. Crypto is a fad. This isn’t going to end well.
It’s not free.
In the “You get the behaviour you reward” category we have a winner.
And kudos to the guy for thinking of it.
Free electricity means someone else pays.
Just like emissions free cars just means the emissions are somewhere else in the world.
Smoke and mirrors games.
From the cnbc.com article quoted above:
“He’s run free bitcoin mining software on his Apple Mac mini M1 and powered the computer by plugging an inverter into the 12-volt power socket located in the center console of his car.”
Then from the last sentence in the article itself:
“. . . I’m not encouraging anyone to attempt to do any of this – 50KW fast charge power through an amateur charge circuit lashup gone wrong would be pretty spectacular, and kind of dangerous for anyone in the vicinity.”
Pardon the pun, but there is an obvious disconnect here. Siraj Raval is NOT trying to charge the Tesla’s battery pack with an “amateur charge circuit”. Rather, he is just tapping the electrical energy in that battery via the car’s 12-vdc console outlet, petty much the same as plugging a 12 vdc electric shaver into that same outlet.
Assuming Siraj has not overridden the Tesla’s built-in fusing for that circuit (i.e., that he has not bypassed the existing fuze or has has used a much higher amp fuse), he will be fine . . . the built-in fuse should prevent any dangerous circuit overload if his inverter and/or Mac mini M1 creates a short or other high current demand.
Same would apply if he has connected computers (via inverters) in the Tesla’s “frunk” (= front trunk) using a factory-installed 12 vdc, fuzed outlet located there.
I think we should all have access to free electricity.