‘You can make thousands of dollars from mining if you know these strategies,’ – Interview with Michael Jerlis, EMCD founder and CEO

Table of Contents

• Michael, how is the mining market organized today? Who are the main players?
• How has the market changed since the halving? What do miners need to know about the new conditions?
• So halving will benefit institutional and corporate investors?
• And how can miners earn income from holding assets? Isn't that a tool for investors?
• Speaking of unauthorized activities. How safe is it to have money in EMCD? Every month we hear about wallet hacks, protocols and thefts of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.
• Everything you are talking about is very attractive if Bitcoin goes up. But what should miners do if it doesn't? Or, on the contrary, if the value falls sharply?
• How to choose a pool for mining? What should you pay attention to?

Bitcoin halving happened, which means that the size of the rewards for each mined block shrunk to 3.125 BTC, while the cost of mining, on the contrary, has doubled and crossed the $53,000 threshold. Miners around the world are trying to adapt to the new market conditions and revise their operating strategies. The head of the largest mining pool in Eastern Europe and the top 7 pools in the world EMCD, Michael Jerlis, is sure that even after the halving, miners have a good chance to earn more if they follow clear strategies and join forces. We will talk about it below.

• Michael, how is the mining market organized today? Who are the main players?

M.J.: The mining market today is more developed than ever before. Mining cryptocurrency is no longer something too complicated and obscure. On the contrary, mining has become familiar and quite profitable. If we talk about the market as a whole, there are quite a few players, but the leaders are several mining pools, which own from 7% to 15% of all computing power. These include our pool, EMCD, which is one of the top 7 largest mining pools in the world. Each of the leading pools has a fairly high hash rate and offers a different rewards’ percentage. Notably, we have quite attractive conditions, and the size of payments is one of the highest in the industry, we are consistently among the top 3 leaders in terms of profitability, and also offer one of the lowest interest rates on the market – 1.5% on all mined coins, including BTC, BCH, DOGE, DASH and others.

How Long Does It Take to Mine 1 Bitcoin?

• How has the market changed since the halving? What do miners need to know about the new conditions?

M.J.: The recent halving led to a halving of rewards. And if earlier miners received 6.25 BTC for each mined block, now, the size of rewards has been reduced to 3.125 BTC. At the same time, the cost of mining has doubled. I am talking primarily about the cost of electricity, equipment, firmware and other components that are necessary simply to organize the process of block mining.

On the other hand, we see a growing interest in mining from large investors. Since the beginning of the year, the price of shares of mining companies has been increasing, appreciating on average by 5-8% per month. This clearly indicates that large investment funds and companies are trying to buy shares of mining pools and data centers, counting on a serious increase in the value of Bitcoin after the halving and in the following years. We all know that companies like J.P.Morgan have been talking about a possible rise in the price of BTC to $100,000 by the end of the year. If this happens, mining will be capable of generating millions of dollars in profits per month.

• So halving will benefit institutional and corporate investors?

M.J.: And not only that. If Bitcoin does grow according to the predicted scenario and the value of the coin reaches $100,000, absolutely everyone will benefit: miners, who will offset rewards halving with the price increase, retail long-term investors, who hold coins counting on BTC growth, and large investors will profit from the value increase of the companies which shares they own.

• And how can miners earn income from holding assets? Isn't that a tool for investors?

M.J.: Absolutely. Initially, products like staking and savings accounts were launched for other investors. But later on, other market participants, including mining pools, began to introduce these features. For example, we launched our new product, Coinhold. Now, pool members can automatically transfer their mining rewards to a savings account and receive up to 8% per annum in mined coins.

Users can also hold non-mining coins on their savings accounts – USDT and USDC stablecoins. In this case, the size of the rewards will vary depending on the account’s conditions. For example, for USDT, this figure is up to 14% per annum for a fixed account and up to 10% for a flexible one. This way, our miners get a double benefit – rewards for mining and rewards for holding coins.

At the same time, clients can withdraw their funds at any time convenient for them. Withdrawal is carried out within 24 hours from the moment of application submission. During this time our security service checks all information to avoid unauthorized withdrawal.

• Speaking of unauthorized activities. How safe is it to have money in EMCD? Every month we hear about wallet hacks, protocols and thefts of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.

M.J.: The problem with security is quite relevant for the whole market. But I would like to point out right away that we have never experienced any hacks during the whole period of our operation. We safely store user funds and constantly work on the security of our systems.

• Everything you are talking about is very attractive if Bitcoin goes up. But what should miners do if it doesn't? Or, on the contrary, if the value falls sharply?

M.J.: This is also a possibility. Then, miners will need to reconsider their strategies. For example, mining other cryptocurrencies – like Dash or Kaspa – in parallel with Bitcoin.

In addition, I highly recommend using savings accounts as an extra tool for generating profits. This will allow you to grow your rewards in Bitcoin or other coins while you mine the next block.

• How to choose a pool for mining? What should you pay attention to?

M.J.: First of all, you should pay attention to profitability, because the key goal of mining is to make a profit. Next, you should dive deep into the conditions offered by mining pools, namely how the support service works, where user funds are stored, how often rewards are paid out, and other factors.

You should also pay attention to the transparency of the company and the founder personally. If the team and the company as a whole strives for anonymity, this is a factor that should alert you. Study the market, read more news and try to understand what is happening in the sector. This is very useful knowledge in any case.