35 years old Damian Merlak now lives in Malta, in his house about half an hour from the capital Valletta.
He grew up in a humble family, he says, his mother was a saleswoman, his father works at the Sava in Kranj. The first thing that interested us, kids at the time, was that we could program our games once. He enrolled in a computer programming club, where he quickly realized that you need more knowledge to program a new computer game, he took a bite, went to national programming competitions, he wanted to know more.
It was once at eighteen when he promised himself that he would do anything to stop working from the age of thirty. He set a goal. Many people set such a goal, rarely achieve it. There was a lot of giving up, stress, he was at the computer all day and a decade passed when he didn’t really live at all.
He set the path to success and wealth correctly in primary school. Already in primary school, he enrolled in the programming circle, which attracted him so much that he continued his education at the secondary computer school. It was then that in his spare time he started making websites for companies. The next step was to study computer science at FRI (Faculty of Computer and Information Science in Ljubljana). After three months of study, he started working as a programmer in one of the IT companies. He soon stopped attending lectures at the faculty and only continued programming, investing money from his work in shares. In 2011, he discovered bitcoin and started trading it first, then mining it, and finally founded the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp with his friend Nejc Kodrič. Merlak fully programmed the Bitstamp platform while working, as he worked for a Slovenian IT company for two years after the establishment of Bitstamp. The cryptocurrency exchange hired the first programmers only in 2015.
Did he know right away that cryptocurrencies are the future? Of course not. The first to send him a link was his colleague Sebastjan Trepča, while he was still working for his company in London. He browsed a bit through this online community, which was still in its infancy at the time, it seemed more like a hippie feint than something more serious. Some enthusiasts just want to introduce a parallel currency. He soon forgot about it. Three months later, someone warned him again. At that time, the value of cryptocurrency rose sharply. He immediately became interested.
Then he set about researching how this thing works technically, he started mining bitcoin. What did he see in that? Just earnings? What attracted him most was that bitcoin had the potential to put itself on the edge of the entire financial system.
It was necessary to buy the right computer configuration that would be ideal for mining. Back then, that meant mostly good graphics cards. And this is where the story with business partner Nejc Kodrič begins.
By mining, you are essentially participating in the entire network, and thus contributing the processing power of your computer to the entire network. The more people contribute processing power, the harder it is to theoretically counterfeit bitcoin.
How to mine bitcoins, how do you get them? The algorithm is set so that new bitcoins are created every ten minutes, that is, pre-determined, so how many are created every ten minutes, halved every four years, is patiently explained. It started with fifty bitcoins every ten minutes, every four years out of fifty-five, and so on, until all 21 million were mined.
What did he do when he earned his first million euros?
He bought an electric car Tesla Model S and a plot in Portorož. He later built a house there, which he uses when he is in Slovenia.He earned the most in one day ...
... million. He did not disclose whether it was a profit from cryptocurrencies, shares or any other investment. Among its biggest "generators" of money in the financial markets are shares of Tesla, Amazon and Cloudflare. If I had to bet on only three shares for the rest of my life, I would invest in Palantir, Cloudflare and Beyond Meat.From bitcoins to stocks, real estate and batteries
After leaving the world of cryptocurrencies, the largest share of Merlak's portfolio is represented by shares of American companies. Last year he bought four hotels in Bohinj and started renovating them. He also entered the energy world and co-founded invested 15 million euros - Tesla's batteries keep the surplus electricity produced:
The Slovenian millionaire is also the co-owner of a small passenger plane Bombardier Challenger 350.
Merlak concluded its path in Bitstamp in 2018 and dedicated itself to creating new companies and investing in the financial markets. He sold his stake in Bitstamp for more than one hundred million euros.
He bought four hotels in Bohinj for 8.4 million euros.
He has 51 employees.
He own 51% of Ngen, a company that makes Tesla's battery packs.
He is the owner of the Tokens cryptocurrency exchange.
Stretched between Slovenia, Malta and Dubai
Although he has a "Slovenian" home in Portorož, Merlak has spent most of his time in Malta in recent years, where he rents a house with a swimming pool. In December last year, he announced that he had bought an apartment in an elite location in one of the skyscrapers in Dubai. For now, he does not know whether he will move from Malta to Dubai at all.
What’s the next big thing after bitcoin?What that next big thing is is an eternal question. People, we look for her every day.
Photos in this article are taken from google.com.
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