Electric cars and digital currencies are considered two emerging technologies that can make the world a better place.
Both are also becoming increasingly popular around the world.
Tesla is the car brand popular for its approach in all-green electric vehicles, founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
With the vehicles' reputation, they are capable of doing many things other cars couldn't. They include self-driving, smart summon, automatic parking, as well as many other gimmicks and fun features.
And here, a cryptocurrency enthusiast has managed to turn his Tesla's onboard computer system into a full node Bitcoin.
To do this, the Bitcoin user uses the Bcoin project, which is an alternative implementation of the Bitcoin protocol that any machine, including Tesla‘s onboard computer, can run via its internet browser. In other words, the setup made the Tesla car connect to the Bitcoin network, helping with the process of running the world’s largest digital currency.
Downloading full blocks to this @Tesla pic.twitter.com/j4L84QycxX
— bcoin (@Bcoin) January 16, 2020
While running a full node in machines other that dedicated hardware isn't anything new, the fact that a car is used to run a full node is certainly new.
However, considering that running Bitcoin in a system requires an extensive amount of resources, this setup by the Bitcoin user may not the very best idea. Since the process is extensive, running a full Bitcoin node can eat a lot of the car's processing power, which in turn may dangerously interfere with the UX experience of the car’s computer.
Then there is the fact about wear on the car's internal storage,
Then there is the problem about Tesla's memory module lifespan which has limited read/write cycles. Tesla memory modules were already known for being problematic, and using the car for running a blockchain node is likely to interfere with them further. Even Bcoin’s developers stated a warning on their website that reads:
“This will use a lot of your bandwidth, CPU, and potentially disk space.”