Bitcoin Forum

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Frisco residents Aanya Thakur, 9, and her brother Ishaan, 14, discuss the computer equipment they use to mine cryptocurrency out of their garage.(Stewart F. House / Special Contributor)

Ishaan Thakur, 14, and his little sister, Aanya, 9, typically ran a lemonade stand each summer that netted them about $100 for their college fund.

But in February, after their dad told them a bedtime story about bitcoin prices spiking to over $50,000, the Frisco duo dreamed up a new money-making idea: mining Ethereum.

“We wanted to invest in it, but we didn’t have the money to buy bitcoin,” Ishaan said. “So instead, we bought the equipment to mine for it instead.”

They started mining in March with an old gaming computer, making $1,000 in their first month. For the past month, they made more than $32,000. They use their earnings to buy more mining equipment for their company, Flifer Technologies, which they created on April 30.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it because it’s too high-level, but we watched YouTube videos and my dad and sister helped,” said Ishaan, a ninth-grader at Frisco High School.

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Frisco resident Ishaan Thakur, 14, expains how he is mining cryptocurrency with computers in his garage to make money for college.(Stewart F. House / Special Contributor)

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world with a value of around $44,455 per coin and a market value of $835 billion, according to Coindesk.com. Ethereum is the second-largest with a value of around $3,055 and a $357 billion market value. They decided bitcoin had become too competitive so they chose to mine Ethereum.

Building a cryptomining rig came with one major COVID-19-era complication: a chip shortage.

Ishaan and Aanya, a fourth-grader at Spears Elementary, signed up for supply updates from Best Buy and Micro Center. When they got an evening email alerting them to parts, they’d line up hours before the store opened the next morning.

“There’s usually hundreds lined up but most are looking to resell the parts online for a higher price,” Ishaan said.

Other times, they’ve been able to find deals on eBay. Their dad, Manish Raj, a former Wall Street investment banker, took out a loan to help them purchase supplies to start.

The main equipment needed is graphics cards, which use software to guess the right code to get a bitcoin. They have 94 processors mining and mainly use Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics cards. When the computers guess the right code, they get a bitcoin.

It’s a guessing game, and their current setup makes about 9 billion guesses per second.

“Crypto mining is just like mining for gold or diamond,” Ishaan said. “Instead of using shovels, you mine with computers. Instead of finding a piece of gold or diamond in the mine, you find a piece of cryptocurrency.”

While YouTube videos showed them step-by-step directions, they estimate it takes about 10 hours per rig to set up. But once the rigs are set up, it becomes a passive income maker.

They have 14 rigs comprising 82 processors mining for Ethereum and five small rigs with 12 processors mining for Raven Coin (because those processors weren’t optimized for Ethereum). They’ve ordered four additional rigs from China with built-in processors.

“We want to grow this into a big thing,” Ishaan said.

A whirring sound is constant in their garage, where some of their rigs are kept for building and testing. Ishaan estimates they have about 30 cards in their garage setup, costing about $90,000 total, or $3,000 per card. Their main operations are now in an air-conditioned data center in downtown Dallas because the heat and noise were too great to keep confined to a garage.

Ishaan and Aanya said it was important for them to use renewable energy, which costs about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour versus traditional energy that costs about 10 cents.

The difference in cost is insignificant compared to what they make, especially because mining for Ethereum is more efficient than bitcoin. Last month’s electric bill, including their home and the data center, was $2,500. A typical home electric bill in the summer is $500 for them; with mining, it increased to $850. The downtown data center electric bill was $1,650.

This isn’t Ishaan’s first entrepreneurial pursuit. He also created a hat with a solar-powered mini fan on it to help keep people like construction workers cool in the heat. He and his dad applied for a U.S. patent for the product and plan to sell it. Outside of his business pursuits, he plays the saxophone.

The Thakurs are hoping their profits will help them pay for college. Ishaan hopes to go to the University of Pennsylvania and become a doctor. Aanya wants to go to New York and become a doctor as well. They’re equal partners in the company.

Some investors are wary of cryptocurrencies because of their volatility. But the brother-sister duo said they don’t have concerns about finding a buyer for their Ethereum when the time comes to pay for college because the market is very good. It has a larger market value than the largest companies, like Irving-based Exxon Mobil, which has a market value of $243 billion, they said.

So far, they’ve sold small amounts to pay for expenses such as the electric bill, graphic cards, software and the data center.

Cryptocurrency has grown in popularity this year, leading lawmakers to think more seriously about how to regulate it. Recently, Texas enacted HB 4474, the Virtual Currency Bill, which allows the 216 Texas state-chartered banks to provide safekeeping services for virtual currencies. This week, the U.S. Senate passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that requires more tax reporting for cryptocurrency transactions.

Ishaan said he tries to keep up with news on the cryptocurrency world. But neither he nor Aanya have told their friends about their latest venture.

“Most kids like to play games on their computer,” he said. “We like to build them, I guess.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/entrepreneurs/2021/08/16/what-were-you-doing-in-grade-school-these-frisco-kids-are-making-32000-a-month-mining-ethereum/

They started mining in March with an old gaming computer, making $1,000 in their first month. For the past month, they made more than $32,000. They use their earnings to buy more mining equipment for their company

Their main operations are now in an air-conditioned data center in downtown Dallas because the heat and noise were too great to keep confined to a garage.

There's no way they bought all of those GPUs with only their earnings from an old gaming computer, let alone whatever they have in a datacenter. $1000 in profit seems suspect as well.

The main equipment needed is graphics cards, which use software to guess the right code to get a bitcoin. They have 94 processors mining and mainly use Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics cards. When the computers guess the right code, they get a bitcoin.

Yeah, but this seems to be a thread about this one in the altcoin boards: Kid already making $32k monthly through ethtereum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5355360.0/).

In any case, it's good to hear that at the early ages, the siblings found a way to make money mining ETH. And who knows, this 2 might turn out to be some CEO of companies mining not just ETH but BTC as well. And this could also open up some opportunities to others as well or parents to guide their kids about cryptos.

then why would anyone want to shut down the crypto mining industry? I think this is a topic many could benefit from taking a 2nd look at.

Something doesn't add up about this story. They didn't have money to buy BTC, but they had money to buy mining equipment? Lol, money's money, so they clearly had it and could have spent it directly on Bitcoin. At least, they could've done it with their earnings from, allegedly, an old gaming computer (I also don't believe an old gaming computer could bring such profits). And as others pointed out, their father used to be a Wall Street banker, and IMO the story should've led with that, instead of making it sound like these are poor kids fighting for their right to get a higher education with mining cryptos. Not to mention that kids that young should not really be working, they should rest and study.

Feel good story, but truthful? Nah.
There's no way they bought all of those GPUs with only their earnings from an old gaming computer, let alone whatever they have in a datacenter. $1000 in profit seems suspect as well.

...but I am curious what kind of setup their dad bought for his kids here. How many motherboards are driving the GPUs in one case/rack?

The article suggests that there Dad is a former Wall street banker and he took out a loan to fund all that equipment. 90K for the GPUs and 10K for the other setup means that he probably took a loan of 100K. I am guessing that the Dad just made best use of the fact that the kids are smart and willing to understand the nuances of running a business and making a profit. (The kid has a patented hat and they lined up at BestBuy).

This is clearly a case of a Rich Dad (from the Rich Dad, Poor Dad) guiding his progeny towards an entrepreneurial future. So, while in the foreground you hear this seemingly heartwarming tale of a 14 year old making 32K in ETH, the ringmaster is the father, Mr. Manish Raj.

ETH is going to move to PoS though and soon enough this mining revenue will go to zero. They still have time to break even but nobody should take this as an inspiration to dump 100K worth of loan money into GPU mining. If you do, you are much safer and covered for the long run with ASICs and BTC mining.

The case in point is --> this article is extreme sensationalist, they know people will read because if a boy 14 and a girl 9 make 32k per month anybody can do and is easy, so people think this is easy money and they will get into it till they see the media lied to them, there are lots of lies that the media tell to people and then the people end up suffering because of their own greed and lack of researching about it, in 2018 was the same thing but this time they are much more aggressive.

Yeah there are a few people in my social circle that heard that I am in crypto. And every few months or so, usually during bull markets I get texts and calls about them wanting to join in and get involved.

It usually goes 1 or 2 ways.

First one is some guy who says they got like $10K and they want me to turn it into "only $100K" doing something crypto related. Like making 10x gains is something that is easily done.

Another is someone who wants to mine. They are mad that they can't use their Smartphone, Laptop or i3 desktop. They ask if they invest $1K in "crypto hardware" how long until their $1K investment becomes $100K?

Usually conversation ends in them thinking I am lying to them and keep it a secret to reap all the benefits or they discover that crypto might not be a "get rich quick" scheme.

Yeah there are a few people in my social circle that heard that I am in crypto. And every few months or so, usually during bull markets I get texts and calls about them wanting to join in and get involved.

It usually goes 1 or 2 ways.

First one is some guy who says they got like $10K and they want me to turn it into "only $100K" doing something crypto related. Like making 10x gains is something that is easily done.

Another is someone who wants to mine. They are mad that they can't use their Smartphone, Laptop or i3 desktop. They ask if they invest $1K in "crypto hardware" how long until their $1K investment becomes $100K?

Usually conversation ends in them thinking I am lying to them and keep it a secret to reap all the benefits or they discover that crypto might not be a "get rich quick" scheme.

here is one line you can use to repel nagging clueless social circle noobs who can't/won't/don't understand anything, blinded by get rich quick attempt with no brains behind any action/s taken/to be taken.

me: ..i was recommending it back then (2013), i got lucky but i'm out, yeah i made money but i have no idea where it is going, can be up or down or anything..i'm done with crypto and i have no more coins left.

Reason where I live too many people fall for scams --> "get rich quick", I guess the media hypes bitcoin so much after it have gone up up and up and then after that sheeps want in then bitcoin starts going down down and then down, that is one way they lose money if they do the trades themselves, the other way is when those people give money to people to do crypto trades for them, most in the end get scammed. There were scammers promising 10% every month and people believed, in the end none of them got their money back, thieves scammed them all, time to time shows people losing money they have saved their entire life, I mean how somebody can believe 10% back every month from doing nothing? Anyway, I never tell to anybody what I do, too risky, better to keep it in secret. If I was a scammer I would have become a billionaire in few days, those people are willingly to give all their money they have, you dont actually need to do much to convince them crypto will go up forever hehe, thankgod I have principles, what is mine is mine, if I win is mine if I lose, I lose what was mine, too many evil people in the world and idiots who give their life savings so easily to somebody they dont even know, need to watch out.


I dont even bother, last time a friend came to ask about crypto, I said to him, I dont know anything about it, period.

Anyway, this 32k monthly is pure bs, like I said before, to get that much, need a huge installation plus a lot of money 600k usd minimum and a lot of dedication and work, if a short circuit happens, chances are high that all the hardware will be fried, mining is hard, dangerous and truly not worth the hassle.

I dont even bother, last time a friend came to ask about crypto, I said to him, I dont know anything about it, period.

Anyway, this 32k monthly is pure bs, like I said before, to get that much, need a huge installation plus a lot of money 600k usd minimum and a lot of dedication and work, if a short circuit happens, chances are high that all the hardware will be fried, mining is hard, dangerous and truly not worth the hassle.

Reason where I live too many people fall for scams --> "get rich quick", I guess the media hypes bitcoin so much after it have gone up up and up and then after that sheeps want in then bitcoin starts going down down and then down, that is one way they lose money if they do the trades themselves, the other way is when those people give money to people to do crypto trades for them, most in the end get scammed. There were scammers promising 10% every month and people believed, in the end none of them got their money back, thieves scammed them all, time to time shows people losing money they have saved their entire life, I mean how somebody can believe 10% back every month from doing nothing? Anyway, I never tell to anybody what I do, too risky, better to keep it in secret. If I was a scammer I would have become a billionaire in few days, those people are willingly to give all their money they have, you dont actually need to do much to convince them crypto will go up forever hehe, thankgod I have principles, what is mine is mine, if I win is mine if I lose, I lose what was mine, too many evil people in the world and idiots who give their life savings so easily to somebody they dont even know, need to watch out.


I dont even bother, last time a friend came to ask about crypto, I said to him, I dont know anything about it, period.

Anyway, this 32k monthly is pure bs, like I said before, to get that much, need a huge installation plus a lot of money 600k usd minimum and a lot of dedication and work, if a short circuit happens, chances are high that all the hardware will be fried, mining is hard, dangerous and truly not worth the hassle.