‘Pointless but incredible’ — New electric car mines crypto while it’s parked

Canadian light electric vehicle manufacturer Daymak has announced an upcoming electric car that can mine Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) — when it’s charging or parked.

According to the manufacturer’s Tuesday announcement, the “Spiritus” electric car is set to roll out in 2023, and will come fitted with “an industry-leading GPU in mining price-to-profit.” However, details are sparse on what the specific capabilities of the mining hardware are.

“Daymak Spiritus the first car in history with mining hardware and cryptocurrency technology programmed into the user interface,” the announcement stated.

Every Spiritus will be an “environmentally-friendly crypto miner node,” that includes the Daymak Nebula mining hardware, the Nebula crypto wallet, and solar charging capabilities. Daymak has touted that, unlike other vehicles, the Spiritus will not be a depreciating asset:

“Whereas most vehicles are depreciating while they sit in your garage, the Nebula Miner will make you money while your Spiritus is parked.”

Despite the technological feat, it may work out to be uneconomical (or at least not particularly profitable) to mine various cryptocurrencies in the sort of small-scale consumer rig that is likely to be fitted in a car.

The “Documenting Bitcoin” Twitter account found the funny side of applying renewable energy-backed crypto mining to a car, telling their 436,800 followers that this is “pointless, but incredible.”

The Canadian auto manufacturer Daymak, just announced their new series of electric cars will mine #Bitcoin with solar energy when charging, and they're accepting #Bitcoin as payment.This is pointless, but incredible at the same time. pic.twitter.com/mRkYvNtjx5

— Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) June 1, 2021

The firm has also touted that the Nebula Wallet app will offer staking features for drivers, and supports “Bitcoin, Ethereum, DOGE, Cardano and more.”

Daymak is now taking pre-orders for the car and accepts crypto payments in DOGE, Ether, Cardano (ADA) and Bitcoin, and is also “working with a variety of exchanges to offer leasing payments via crypto.”

The Spiritus comes in a “deluxe” model priced at $19,995 and an “ultimate” model priced at $149,000. It appears that the models differ only in driving performance such as top speed and battery life, and added features such as wireless charging and custom paint — but not mining hardware capabilities.

This is not the first time a car has been rigged out with crypto mining hardware. Back in January, crypto-enthusiast Simon Bryne installed a portable mining rig into his BMW i8 hybrid vehicle. At the time, Bryne’s car was estimated to be able to generate $122,000 in profit per year.

“We envision a future where your highway tolls, your parking and your drive-thru order will be paid directly on the fly with crypto. Your online bills and your banking can be handled through the same software platform paid in crypto,” stated president of Daymak Aldo Baiocchi.