Interview with our top miner Vasya

Minergate (M) took an interview with our top miner Vasya (V). We asked him about his past experience with cryptocurrencies, some difficulties a miner can face and his general thoughts on the subject. Hope it will be inspiring to our mining community. 

On the top, as usual

M: Every miner has a story to tell and experience to share. How would you describe your mining experience: was it like a bumpy road with its ups and downs or easy and profitable from the start?

V: My mining has never been easy and profitable. If you want to make some money, you need to be a devoted miner, mine cryptocurrency and save it for the future. Certainly, it involves a great deal of risk. My history has different periods, I used to mine various currencies, some of which I sold right away and some I saved and sold later. Like with any job, you need to understand your subject, understand your currency in order to succeed, the perfect scenario is to create it yourself. I had a lot of bad luck, however there was a bit more of good luck.

M: What was your first interaction with bitcoin and how did you find out about it? Did you discover it by yourself or somebody introduced you to it?

V: I became interested in cryptocurrencies after the crash of Liberty Reserve. I lost some money there. I needed to find a good digital service to store and transfer money. At the same time, I was worried that my money was stored in an online bank that could be shut down at any moment. It was then that I discovered bitcoin. I became curious and started to learn how it worked. I installed a bitcoin wallet and began trying it out. What I liked about bitcoin was that all the data was stored on my computer.

M: What do you think about the future of cryptocurrencies? Could they replace fiat currencies someday? Do you think governments can do anything about it?

V: In my opinion, cryptocurrencies will take their place as a kind of virtual goods. I don’t think fiat currencies will be replaced in any case. At the same time, crypocurrencies will have high market liquidity. I think you can compare cryptocurrencies to precious metals or oil. All the governments acknowledge the value of gold, the same will happen to cryptocurrencies soon. Computing process that takes place when you make cryptocurrencies may seem useless but it’s not and it depends on the cryptocurrency itself and its application. You can include any problems in the algorithm of cryptocurrency making and their solutions will stay in the blockhain. If the problems included aren’t up-to-date, the cryptocurrency will die. If they are, the cryptocurrency will grow. Bitcoin network is great for public financial goals. There are some other currencies that do different computing work. I think that cryptocurrencies algorithms will become more complicated.

Success with different coins

M: Do you spend a lot of time thinking about mining? Could you say there is something that keeps you up at night?

V: Mining is a process of making cryptocurrency by solving the problem of its algorithm. The only thing miner can think about is how to optimize and upgrade the solving algorithm. Sometimes I can spend some time reflecting on it, but sadly I’m too busy to concentrate only on this process.

M: Can you tell us about a time when things didn’t go the way you wanted: you’ve made a big mistake or forgot to do something crucial, in a word, things didn’t turn out how you had hoped. How did you pull yourself back on track?

V: Once I launched a cryptocurrency wallet that generated the address but couldn’t save the wallet file to the directory because there was no access. However, from my perspective it was working normally. I transferred a lot of the currency from the exchange there. Usually I make all the important transfers in several transactions. I lost only the first part; it was a small sum of money. The second part, which was a big sum of money, froze with an error at the exchange and the exchange returned it to my account the next day. That’s why I advice everybody to be very careful when you are transferring money, it applies not only to the cryptocurrencies.

M: Are there some things you still find difficult about bitcoin?

V: Bitcoin network is highly developed. Bitcoin has various wallets. Bitcoin has online infrastructure: shops, exchanges, wallets and so on. I think any person who knows even a little about bitcoin won’t have any problems using it.

M: Do you remember your first mining rig? Do you still have it?

V: My first rig was my laptop Intel Core 2. I launched bitcoin mining program there for the first time.

M: Nowadays cryptocurrency community is kind of a private club. Do you ever have a chance to discuss some problems and solutions with your friends and relatives? Do they know something about mining?

V: My friends and relatives have their vocations in life and they have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies. I mean my real life friends. I can discuss any cryptocurrencies problems with my friends from online communities. They help me and I help them.

“Vasya, share the secret of your success with us)”. Other miners like communicating with Vasya

M: If we are writing you in a year asking what has changed for the best in Minergate, what is it for you?

V: I would answer that Minergate now has an api interface to operate my account where I can change my mining settings, see the stats of workers connections, current difficulty of the network, current hashrate of the network, hashrate of the pool, my hashrate, transfer and withdraw cryptocurrency, get an access to the blockchain on Minergate and other information.

M: Do you think it is too late to join the party for a prospective miner? Can you give any insights for the newbies?

V: It is always difficult to learn new information. A newbie won’t be able to make money at once. Maybe you will need to lose some money learning. But if you are interested in the subject, you will always be able to master it and become an experienced user. And an experienced user is able to improve the application he is interested in or invent something new. It all depends on your will and the power of your dream.

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