Tesla owners are now mining crypto using the power from their cars. The electric vehicle company is arguably the most recognizable name in the EV industry and has found major success in the space making it the biggest EV player. It gained even more prominence when it began accepting bitcoin payments for the vehicles, which it had subsequently stopped.
Nevertheless, the number of Tesla owners has continued to grow and these vehicles are definitely not cheap. Some of these owners have begun to find ways to make extra money using their electric vehicles and they have landed on using the electricity stored in the vehicle’s batteries to mine for crypto.
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Making Money With Teslas
A recent report from CNBC has shared light on a new crypto mining method that electric vehicle users are now employing to bring in extra money each month. The report follows Siraj Raval, who shared his journey and method for using his Tesla to mine for crypto using a 2018 Tesla Model 3. Raval had managed to mine crypto using his Apple Mac mining M1 by plugging his computer into an inverter, that is connected into the 12-volt power socket in his car’s console, which serves as the main power source for his mining activities.
CNBC also reported that the electric vehicle owner “hooked up interconnected graphics processing units or GPUs to the ‘frunk’ of his Tesla, running these machines off the car’s internal battery. Basically, by doing this, Raval does not have to pay electricity charges related to his crypto mining, only the electricity costs for charging the Tesla’s battery.
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This activity puts the owner at risk of voiding the car’s warranty, but the EV owner claims that it is worth it as he reportedly earned up to $800 a month last year by doing this.
Earning Crypto With Teslas Is Doable
The report also focused on another Tesla owner who uses a similar method as Raval to mine crypto, albeit for a much longer time. Chris Allessi has also been figuring out ways to make his Tesla earn money for him by mining crypto.
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Allessi started out in 2018 and began using his electric vehicle to mine for bitcoin. At the time, the activity was netting him about $10 every 60 hours, made possible by the fact that he had free and unlimited supercharging on his vehicle. He however has had to stop this particular mining activity as it is no longer as profitable as the price of the digital asset has gone up and his equipment has grown into obscurity.
The major expense when it comes to crypto mining is the electricity requirements which miners have to pay heavily. One bitcoin miner, Alejandro de la Torre, sees nothing wrong with using a Tesla to mine for crypto. “If it’s cheaper doing it through an electric vehicle, then so be it,” de la Torre noted.
Featured image from BBC, chart from TradingView.com
