Ishaan, 14, and his sister Aanya, nine, mine three different digital coins including the two largest cryptos on the market; Bitcoin, ether and Ravencoin, an altcoin in the top 100 cryptos. The Texan duo set out to learn something new about technology during the summer and decided on cryptocurrency mining – a lucrative but incredibly difficult skill to learn.
“We started because we wanted to learn something new about technology – and also make some money along the way,” Ishaan told CNBC Make It.
Mining cryptocurrencies involves having complex computer programs that can compete and solve difficult puzzles, being successful in this validates the transaction.
“Crypto mining is just like mining for gold or diamonds,” Ishaan commented.
“Instead of using shovels, you mine with computers. Instead of finding a piece of gold or a diamond in the mine, you find a cryptocurrency.”
The siblings learnt how to do this through YouTube and some searches on the internet.
Once they felt comfortable that they understood enough to get started, Ishaan converted his gaming computer into an ether mining rig in April.
Gaming computers are generally more complex than regular work or personal computers, and Ishaan made the conversion by using his graphics card which is able to perform the high volume of calculations needed for mining.
Their parents were quite supportive of their venture, as Ishaan put it: “We could have spent the entire summer playing video games, but instead we used our spare time to learn about technology.”
The pair started with mining ether, as Bitcoin mining is known to be especially difficult.
The difficulty of mining a cryptocurrency increases both with the challenges and calculations that must be solved and the competition which makes it all that more intense.
Ether is currently less popular than Bitcoin, allowing the siblings some breathing room when it came to fighting off the competition.
Ishaan noted that on their first day mining, they made only $3 (£2.18).
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However, the pair wanted to continue regardless, so to make their business official they created their own mining company: Filfer Technologies.
“We liked it so much that we started to add more processors (or chips), and made $1,000 (£725) in our first month,” Ishaan added.
By late July they were able to buy extra equipment like Antminers and high-end graphics cards which would enable them to start mining Bitcoin and Ravencoin, the costs of which ranged from $2,500 – $3,000 (£1,813 – £2,176) per graphics card.
However, their income hasn’t plateaued just yet: the digital duo expect a paycheque of $36,000 (£26,118) in September.
“We can process a little over 10 billion Ethereum algorithms per second” Ishaan said.
Despite their successes, Ishaan and Aanya have noted that the process is far from over and definitely not easy.
As they have now seen, optimising cryptocurrency mining requires a fair amount of technology and equipment which doesn’t come cheap and uses a lot of energy.
At the moment the pair have over 97 processors all of which are funded by a loan their father helped them take out and rent a data centre in Dallas, Texas.
The electricity bills alone take $3,000 (£2,176) of their monthly earnings despite their best attempts to be as energy efficient and eco-friendly as possible.
“We moved from my desk to the garage, since the house was getting too much heat and noise. (We) outgrew the garage, since heat and noise was too much for the garage too,” Ishaan added.
“We now use the garage only for building and testing mining rigs. When they are ready, we move them to a professional, air-conditioned data center in downtown Dallas.”
The siblings don’t intend on slowing down as school starts again, but rather find a way to balance their high-income work with homework.
Aanya noted that when her friends ask about it; “I just tell them we’re just mining in the garage.”
The pair plan to reinvest their profits in their business, with the hopes of having these crypto-earnings pay for their college tuition.
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