“In the near future, the market will be saturated with next generation equipment” — CMO MYRIG
Yevhen Marchenko, CMO MYRIG, on the rise in cryptocurrencies value, promising markets and customer loyalty
Tell us how the current growth of the cryptocurrency market has affected your business. What differences can you point out from past rallies?
We surely welcomed the exponential growth of bitcoin and cryptocurrency market as a whole in such a short period. However, this became a strong challenge for the company, since because there has been an increase in the interest in cryptocurrencies and mining, customer flow has increased, as well as the referrals that have to be processed efficiently and effectively.
This is a very important indicator for us, because customer focus has become part of the DNA of our every employee in the course of their work for the company. Therefore, when assessing the performance of our activities, except for the business financial indicators, we take into account another important indicator — the customer satisfaction level. The company has created a Customer Success Management team. This is an expert body that measures the level of customer loyalty, and then generates the resulting document as a problem solution map, which describes pain points and customer issues that arise when interacting with our products and services. The heads of the key directions together with the company’s full-time business analyst work out the problem solution map, whereafter they immediately generate technical requirements, included in the backlog of the heads of the directions or the team of IT developers, if it has something to do with the client’s interaction with our information products. In fact, the market growth was catalytic for us, as it accelerated optimization and improvement of business efficiency.
Operating at the market since 2015, we have received and still receive a sufficient number of critical feedback from our clients, often fair, sometimes not really. But at the same time, we always perceive the client’s complaint as a gift that helps us to get better, do our work better, making it possible to better set up our internal processes.
Cryptocurrencies growth has multiplied our own level of responsibility for the quality of service before our users, especially to new clients who are just beginning to view mining as a way to invest, preserve and increase their capital.
As for the differences from previous rallies, it can be noted that the clients have become more cautious about choosing a hosting operator, buying miners, and repairing used equipment. If the miners were ready to invest almost all their money into cryptocurrency production in a period of high excitement, now they make more informed decisions.
You have representative offices in Russia, Ukraine, USA, Venezuela, and Japan. How have these countries reacted to the current growth? What was specific about each of the countries?
There is an unquestionable increase in demand in every single country you’ve mentioned. The current growth inspires absolutely everyone. The differences lie exclusively in the different approaches of state institutions to cryptocurrency mining. For example, in Russia and Ukraine, the situation is approximately the same. Decentralization of mining in the form that currently exists makes the emission of cryptocurrencies uncontrolled by administrative regulation becoming attractive for potential miners and investors. The current US administration is being suspicious about cryptoeconomics, but is not setting a clear framework for mining. In general, there remains a noticeable desire in the United States to give cryptocurrency a clear legal status. Venezuela is at a completely different pole of interest in cryptocurrency. It is interested in the potential of blockchain technologies to attract circumventing US sanctions investments. Now in Japan, cryptocurrencies are considered a means of payment, but with a change in legislation, they will be considered as a financial product. Exchanges will be required to strengthen their clients’ protection and keep their funds separate from their own. The country will be able to issue derivatives for bitcoin and other coins.
What is the most promising region now, in your opinion?
To answer your question correctly, I would divide it into two components. The first component is promising regions for the development of their own mining infrastructure. We currently operate three modern data centres with a total capacity of 110 MW in such countries as Russia and Kazakhstan. The choice of these regions is not accidental and is due to a number of factors. Of course, this is the presence of a large amount of excess power generation, the low cost of electricity, suitable climate conditions, free sites for the construction of data centres, a sufficient legal basis for such activities, the cost of labour in these regions, and equipment delivery logistics. On this basis, we have identified a number of CIS countries that are attractive for investing in building a mining infrastructure that can withstand all of the previously listed conditions.
The second component is promising regions to attract new clients. Here, the situation is reversed. In our pull strategy, we focus on countries with an increased interest in cryptocurrencies, where the cost of electricity is high, the temperature environment is unfavourable, or, for example, the legal framework for cryptocurrency mining has not yet been formed. We target our advertising activities to these countries, which produces a good result. Over the past months, we have acquired a large number of new clients from Western Europe, USA, Middle East, Asia.
Do you plan to expand, and if so, to which countries?
We have defined a mission for ourselves to make mining comfortable and profitable for every client. To do this, we build a modern high-tech infrastructure of products and services that create an entire ecosystem around our client and provide him with an opportunity to manage his equipment and mining process in just a few steps or clicks. Three modern data centres in Moscow (20 MW), Krasnoyarsk (50 MW) and Pavlodar (40 MW) are not the least in our infrastructure portfolio. We are already planning to increase capacity at existing facilities and to invest in the construction of innovative data centres of a new technological level.
Our ambitions and strategic goals of the company make us continuously work on the digital system development, as well as on establishing long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with our clients from all over the world. It goes without saying that in the long run we are serious about Europe, the Middle East, America. If we talk about immediate plans, then we are aimed at strengthening our position in the CIS as one of the leaders in industrial mining.
What advice would you give to those entrepreneurs who are just starting their mining journey in 2021?
Perhaps the most important advice is to make decisions with a “cool” head. Mining requires a person to make quick, but informed decisions.
Also, in the near future, the market will be saturated with new generation equipment; by the middle of the year, old devices will become ineffective. Novice miners have to keep this in mind, because a complete transition of the entire world hash rate to equipment of a new technological level is on the way.
When choosing an integrator company that provides hosting services, I would recommend answering myself a few important questions:
· how long the company has been on the market, and how high is the level of its expertise;
· if there is a service equipment repair centre directly at the facility;
· if it is possible to manage, configure and monitor equipment in your personal account;
· if the company uses legal electricity and if there are long-term contracts with power supply companies;
· if there is technical support for the hosting, and how quickly it responds to requests;
· if there are any feedback about the company from real users on specialized forums and websites;
· the cost of placing and maintaining equipment is a very important, but not always the determining factor; penny-wise, but pound-foolish.
What mining trends/innovations in 2021 can you point out?
The pandemic has greatly affected both traditional markets and this fairly young and completely unformed industrial mining market. This had a quite strong impact on communication with clients. The whole world is actively moving online, and remote work has become commonplace. The world is changing rapidly, and we are changing with it. Although we caught this trend before the quarantine restrictions began. Right from the first days of the company’s operation, we began to create an electronic-digital system that would allow our clients to receive comprehensive information about work, movements, and repair of their equipment in electronic channels: smartphones, computers, and tablets.
Another undeniable trend in cryptocurrency mining is focusing on renewable energy sources. We are also actively working in this direction and our R&D department studies best practices and develops our own solutions for heat recovery, energy efficient use of resources and reducing the carbon footprint. Any innovative activity that brings not only income, but also causes minimal harm to the environment is bound to succeed in 2021.
How do you prepare for the Blockchain Life Forum?
Blockchain Life is a significant event in the crypto environment, and the lack of such events due to the COVID-19 pandemic makes it even more expected. The MYRIG team is actively preparing for the forum in accordance with a marketing plan that takes into account the company’s short and long term goals. We want to make the most of the opportunity to get in touch with potential clients and partners. Our existing clients, whom we will be very glad to see, will surely be present on the forum. Then again, we did not come to the forum empty-handed: our team is preparing a new product announcement, which, we hope, will make industrial mining even more comfortable. So we are waiting for all forum participants, clients, partners and competitors at our stand. Only our joint efforts can make the decentralized digital world of cryptocurrencies legal, comfortable and fundamental, and mining — affordable and profitable.
