The Good Tech Companies - 10 Years of Ethereum: A Pool Founder on the Merge, the Mining Myths, and What Comes Next

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/10-years-of-ethereum-a-pool-founder-on-the-merge-the-mining-myths-and-what-comes-next. EMCD CEO Evgeny Kitkin talks about how the market has evolved and how the company entered the market. Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3. You can also check exclusive content about #crypto-mining, #ethereum-mining, #ethereum-proof-of-stake, #ethereum-ecosystem, #evgeny-kitkin, #modularity-in-ethereum, #hackernoon-top-story, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @MichaelJerlis. Learn more about this writer by checking @MichaelJerlis's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. EMCD CEO Evgeny Kitkin talks about how the market has evolved and how the company entered the market. Kitkin: "Ethereum is a modular and upgradeable system that can handle increasing demand while evolving"

This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. 10 years of Ethereum, a pool founder on the merge, the mining myths, and what comes next, by Michael Jirlis. Greater than in 2025, Ethereum turns 10. This is not only a moment to celebrate, but also greater than an opportunity to reflect on how its ecosystem has transformed. Greater than Greater than Yvgeny Kittgen decided to go against prevailing sentiment and launched in greater than Ethereum pool.

greater than greater than we spoke with Yevgeny about how the market has evolved, what mining taught us, greater than and why infrastructure remains a core issue for Ethereum's ecosystem today. In 2017, it looked like a chaotic experiment at the intersection of blockchain, fiat systems, and sociotech. The architecture was revolutionary, but its business applicability raised questions. In the years that followed, the network went through rapid surges, technological crises, and the most significant update in its history which was the transition from mining to proof of state, known as the merge. These shifts were closely followed by Yvgeny Kittkin, who would later become CBD-O-E-M-CD. From chaos to architecture, Ethereum launched in

2015 as a blockchain with an open logic constructor. Unlike Bitcoin, it allowed developers to embed arbitrary logic into smart contracts. This gave rise to ICOS, DAOs, Defi, NFTs, and many other concepts that essentially created a new digital economy. Yet behind this growth was an architectural fragility. The protocol often faced overloads, security issues, and scalability problems. Still, Ethereum kept progressing not through forks or breaking changes but through step-by-step improvements. From Byzantium to merge, each update added new capabilities without destroying what came before. Today, Ethereum is a modular and upgradable system that can handle increasing demand while evolving without backward steps. This kind of flexibility is what distinguishes it from most

competitors. How EMCD entered Ethereum mining in 2017. When EMCD first began working with Ethereum, the market was completely different. Participants mined using GPUs, set up home rigs, and managed hash rate based more on instinct than analytics. The pool launched by Yvgeny Kitkin initially supported multiple networks, including Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, and was built around adaptive mining strategies that responded to network conditions. The pool captured a significant share of Ethereum's hash rate and became one of the more technically reliable solutions in a highly competitive environment. For EMCD, this was the starting point for a broader goal to build infrastructure where technology and profitability do not compete but complement each other.

What the merge changed and why that is a big deal. In September 2022, Ethereum transitioned to proof of stake. The network no longer required mining. and blocks began to be produced by validators that do not rely on high energy consumption. This was the biggest architectural shift in public blockchain history. Tens of thousands of mining farms were shut down. Entire businesses stopped or pivoted. GPU profitability collapsed. Many saw the merge as the end of the mining era.

EMCD, on the other hand, saw it as a chance to redefine the concept of infrastructure in the post-proof of work crypto landscape. Rather than switching to less sustainable POW alternative, the company focused on building services. It launched staking solutions, non-custodial wallets, peer-to-peer trading tools, and developer APIs. The focus moved from computational power to service, automation, and trust as the foundation for a new crypto economy. Why EIP 7702 is important. Ethereum is constantly evolving, but not every update affects users directly. EIP 7702 is one proposal that could significantly improve the way people interact with the network. It allows regular

wallets to temporarily behave like smart contracts without changing their format or migrating to a new type. This enables several useful features. First, users can combine actions such as approving tokens, staking them, and delegating all in a single step. Previously this required multiple transactions. Second, users can pay transaction fees using a third-party sponsor like a platform. This is crucial in markets where USERS may not hold any ed. Third, developers can introduce time-limited permissions such as spending limits, temporary keys, and action restrictions. For EMCD, these features open the door to delivering complex use cases without added technical burden. The company can enhance products with built-in security, customization, and financial automation directly inside the wallet

without needing to create custom contracts or adopt new stacks. Modularity in Ethereum as a technology and a philosophy. Most blockchains follow a break and rebuild logic. Ethereum has been built with backward compatibility in mind. This means that new features, such as gas cost optimizations are scaling via dank sharding, are introduced as extensions rather than through full paradigm shifts. Currently, Ethereum supports account abstraction, optimized validator auctions for maximum extractable value, and is preparing for sharding. All of this IS deployed gradually and smoothly, which is essential for businesses. For EMCD, this enables predictable product development without breaking its tech stack,

changing internal logic, or forcing users to relearn interfaces. The company can integrate staking directly into the wallet, manage identity and transaction limits, and connect external APIs without fragmenting the user experience. ETH might reach $10,000, but the ecosystem is what truly matters. In 2024, analysts are increasingly discussing a potential ETH price target of $10,000. There are reasons for this optimism such as ETF capital inflows, stable coin growth, rising defy TVL, and renewed institutional attention. Spot ETFs alone attracted more than $500 MLN in one week. Staking on Lido surpassed $34 BLN, but Ethereum's true value does not come from market performance. It comes from U-Sage. The protocols built on Ethereum are not startups. They are foundational elements of a new financial system. processes trillions in trading volume.

Ave and Curve provide lending and liquidity. Rocket pool is pioneering decentralized staking. This ecosystem is already indispensable. Resilience over yield. A new phase in crypto infrastructure. EMCD sees the future as a strategic focus on infrastructure. For the company, Ethereum is a technological framework whose modular design supports rapid development without sacrificing resilience.

EMCD has experienced the entire journey from mining. higher journey from mining to the post-merge world, from legacy models fading to new ones taking form. In this context, sustainable growth in crypto is only possible when two conditions are met, which are open architecture and mature participants. The company believes the next phase is the shift to a stable and secure infrastructure interaction model. This is the main priority for EMCD today. Let's discuss. Do you believe Ethereum will become the foundation of the NEX-T-F-I-N-N-C-I-L system, OR is it overrated? What Ethereum-based products are Y-O-U-A-L-R-E-A-D-Y using? Thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by artificial intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn, and publish.