In 2025, Ethereum turns 10. This is not only a moment to celebrate, but also an opportunity to reflect on how its ecosystem has transformed. Evgeny Kitkin decided to go against prevailing sentiment and launched an Ethereum pool. We spoke with Evgeny about how the market has evolved, what mining taught us, and why infrastructure remains a core issue for Ethereum’s ecosystem today. In 2025, Ethereum turns 10. This is not only a moment to celebrate, but also an opportunity to reflect on how its ecosystem has transformed. Evgeny Kitkin decided to go against prevailing sentiment and launched an Ethereum pool. We spoke with Evgeny about how the market has evolved, what mining taught us, 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-Stake, known as The Merge. These shifts were closely followed by Evgeny Kitkin, who would later become CBDO at EMCD. EMCD 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 upgradeable 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 hashrate based more on instinct than analytics. The pool launched by Evgeny 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 hashrate 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 alternatives, 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 ETH. 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 or scaling via Danksharding, 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, stablecoin growth, rising DeFi 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 usage. The protocols built on Ethereum are not startups. They are foundational elements of a new financial system. Uniswap processes trillions in trading volume. Aave 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 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. EMCD Let’s discuss. Do you believe Ethereum will become the foundation of the next financial system, or is it overrated? What Ethereum-based products are you already using?
