Tesla owner mines up to $800 a month in crypto with his car

Tesla owner Siraj Raval has shared the story of mining cryptocurrencies.

His setup includes free bitcoin mining software on his Mac mini M1, which is powered by plugging an inverter into the 12-volt power socket in the center console of his Model 3.

In addition to that, he has hooked up a GPU to the frunk of his vehicle and runs both machines off of the car's internal battery. Raval said that it was worth the risk of voiding his car warranty. In 2021, the price of ether peaked and Raval said that during this time, he was making $800 a month.

Raval wasn't the only cryptocurrency miner the article mentioned. Alejandro de la Torre, who mines bitcoin, said that mining from a Tesla is just like connecting to any other power source.

"The main component is the price of the electricity. If it's cheaper doing it through an electric vehicle, then so be it."

Whether Tesla crypto mining proves profitable has a lot to do with when the driver bought their vehicle. Another cryptocurrency miner, Chris Allessi, or K-Man on YouTube, the first electric car dealer in Wisconsin, decided to do a bit of tinkering with his Tesla in 2018.

Allessi 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.