Tesla’s Secret Crypto Project

A Few Hints and my Speculation About Upcoming Products

During the Q1 2021 Earnings Q&A Session, Emmet P Asked:

Master of Coin, can you tell us anything about Tesla’s future plans in digital currency space? Or when any such major developments might be revealed?

Here are the key points of Zack Kirkhorns answer regarding their Bitcoin investment. Please have a look at the whole transcript.

• Tesla did invest $1.5 billion into bitcoin in Q1 and sold a 10% stake.
• Tesla allows customers to make purchases using bitcoin.
• Tesla uses Bitcoin to store cash, trying to get some level of return, but also preserve liquidity.
• Tesla thinks about Bitcoin as a kind of global liquidity for the business in risk management.
• Tesla believes in the long term value of bitcoin. Tesla intends to hold what they have long term and continue to accumulate bitcoin from transactions from customers as they purchase vehicles.

So obviously, Tesla is experimenting and gaining experience in the crypto space. They tested out the mechanics bought and sold bitcoin.

Bitcoin is just the beginning.

In addition to that Zack mentioned other aspects, which are detached from bitcoin. This creates some space for creative speculation.

Specifically with respect to things we may do, there are things that we’re constantly discussing.

Using Bitcoin as a store of value and allowing customers to purchase Tesla Products may only be the first step. Tesla is one of the most innovative companies and is constantly challenging the status quo. They most likely thought about all the possible use cases of using alternative technologies for corporate treasury and risk management. Global operating companies need to handle multiple currencies. Imagine using only one global currency. The implications are enormous.

The key points that I want to make about our experiences in the digital currency space is that there’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic here.

If Zack and Elon do have a lot of reasons to be optimistic, there is more to the story than the bitcoin investment. Tesla always uses the first principle approach to figure out the best way to pursue their mission, which is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.Accomplishing their missing does include providing Products globally. Those products provide electric vehicles, energy generation and storage, insurances, autonomous driving and the most overlooked development: Autobidder — an automatic energy trading platform that allows individuals and utilities to monetise battery assets. In other words: Autobidder enables you to sell excess energy. But what if selling excess energy is not an option and your batteries are fully charged? Please continue reading.

The Mining Rig

We’re not planning to make any announcements here, and we’re watching this space closely. So when we’re ready to make an announcement on this front, if there’s one to come, we’ll certainly let you all know.

So it’s is just a matter of time. An announcement will come, but Tesla is not ready yet.

Let us do a little thought experiment. Imagine you have a fully Tesla equipped home. Solar roof is covering your house, and you have a Tesla Powerwall+ that stores all the energy your household needs. Depending on where you live, the size of your roof, how much energy you consume etc., there will be days where you produce more energy than you need.

What do you do with this energy?

Option 1 — stop producing energy. You “shut down” your factory. You leave money on the table.

Option 2 — Use Teslas Autobidder to sell excess energy to your neighbours. It only works if there is enough demand.

Option 3 — You use the excess energy to contribute to a decentralised computing network. You could mine some Tesla-Coins, provide computing power to a decentralised application. The possibilities are endless. The missing piece of the puzzle is some heavily specialised computer and software to make a contribution.

Tesla’s products are all vertically integrated. Maybe one day, Tesla will build a new accessory for your home. A Tesla Computer for you home, that manages all your energy operations, including contributing computational ressources to the Tesla network. This will be a super fancy mining rig that gives you additional options to use your excess energy.

Final thoughts

Obviously, this is pure speculation. Time will tell if these ideas may or may not come to reality. The idea of a global decentralised utility is fascinating. Imagine that every single house on this planet is not only producing energy, but also contributes computing power to a decentralised network of computers. Everything stitched together by a global currency — the Tesla Coin. Or Dogecoin.

Best

Willi

PS: Thanks for reading. You are awesome.