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A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#311

Post by username90 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #278
dingaling wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> work are themselves political decisions But those political decisions are ones relevant to the mission of the company. Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. Insert other topics as you see fit. And hence its employees should leave their opinions of such matters at the door. Coinbase should…

Taking "no stance" on a political issue is itself a political stance for the status quo. It is impossible to not be political

If the outcome of society would be the same if you exist or not then you are not political. For example if you don't vote and don't support any political causes, then the people who take the time to get involved decides everything and you had no influence.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#312

Post by kelnos »

dingaling wrote: post #231
ketzo wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive. I get that desire, I really do, but I think it's so important to recognize that your work is not apolitical. It doesn't matter what you're building. What you build does not exist in a vacuum, and the decisions you make around politics at work are themselves political decisions.

> work are themselves political decisions But those political decisions are ones relevant to the mission of the company. Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. Insert other topics as you see fit. And hence its employees should leave their opinions of such matters at the door. Coinbase should…

I'm sympathetic to this argument because on the face of it, it seems correct and should be the way we ideally do things.

But many things in the world that should not be politicized are, in fact, politicized. Perhaps Coinbase wants to hire a more diverse bunch of people, and starts an internal initiative to do so. Perhaps they do this not out of any political motivation, but because they genuinely believe (as they should!) that having a more diverse workforce will help them make better decisions about their product.

But of course there will be some (many?) who will decry this as Coinbase "being political". You just can't win, really.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#313

Post by samatman »

kelnos wrote: post #310
knorker wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (Almost) everything is political. Only in a world where words have no meaning.

That's an uncharitably pedantic way of looking at it. I think the parent meant that (almost) every endeavor will have some element of politics in it. That doesn't mean the word "politics" has no meaning.

That's an uncharitable way of looking at it.

I think the parent meant that the more you use the term "political" to refer to everything, the less meaning "political" has.

That only means the word "politics" has no meaning at the limit.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#314

Post by noitpmeder »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #296
codezero wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes all roles at the company are equally able to exit the company in the midst of a global pandemic and find opportune work with the same growth opportunities, salary, and locality.

Who knows if official numbers are kept for our industry, but I haven't noticed a decrease in the pace of hiring. Bitcoin isn't hurting, either.

I have definitely been seeing a decrease in some FAANG spots. Things may have started to ramp back up, but I believe there were several companies who put blanket freezes hiring for certain levels.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#315

Post by joecot »

codezero wrote: post #254
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #10

For reference, the severance package was 4 months of salary for employees with =3 years of tenure at Coinbase. The severance also included 6 months of health insurance. (Source: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-severance-apolitical-missi... ) What percentage of employees at Coinbase are actively interviewing for other jobs at any given time? 5%? If someone has one foot out the door already, taking a bonus equivalent…

This assumes all roles at the company are equally able to exit the company in the midst of a global pandemic and find opportune work with the same growth opportunities, salary, and locality.

Maybe not, but are at least 5% able to do that?

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#316

Post by samatman »

RIMR wrote: post #250
skybrian wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Missions are often in pursuit of political goals. (It's a political stance that promoting the use of cryptocurrency is good, and not one I share.) But, this doesn't mean an organization has to take a position on every hot-button political issue. Even the Biden campaign, a a political organization if there ever was one, needs to focus on getting their candidate elected, and not on things that divide Democrats. To agre…

But that's not what is being addressed. Not getting involved in "every hot-button political issue" is clearly advisable, but Coinbase is preemptively deciding that all political conversation is off the table while they run a highly unregulated multi-billion dollar currency exchange. There are going to be political issues that involve Coinbase, and if they're deciding already to ignore any role they play in society, w…

This has been explicitly contradicted by several of their communications, including the one which launched this thread.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#317

Post by stale2002 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #171
libria wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It signals that a person did not want to be politically active at their workplace enough to lose/quit their job. I think that says nothing of a persons political views and is just self-preservation or even indifference. Hiring would have to make some very tenuous assumptions to consider that a signal.

Indifference to politics is a political view.

If it is a political view, then it is such a common political view as to be banal.

A whole lot of people in the world are actively indifferent to politics.

Those apolitical people vastly outnumber all the hyper political "your with us or against us" group.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#318

Post by jimmygrapes »

throwaway4715 wrote: post #218
dlivingston wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is not. Politics apathy is present across all races, all classes, all genders. Those who are politically possessed like to claim that “everything is politics” and that “it’s a privilege to not care about politics”, but every Hispanic and Filipino immigrant I’ve known (which is not a negligible number) care about family, hard work, and stability: not politics.

How does one ensure "stability" without getting involved in politics?

Possibly by observing the actual changes implemented and interpreting them in their own context (i.e. IRS changes tax forms, but all the numbers stay the same when filling it out). Not being convinced that their fundamental right to attempt existence is threatened by imaginary what-ifs.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#319

Post by kmeisthax »

So, if the government bans crypto, does Coinbase remain apolitical?

It's not a hypothetical. Satoshi created Bitcoin as a (particularly ineffective) act of insurrection, and the only reason why governments haven't responded to it like so is a matter of political and judicial economy. Existing money-laundering and securities laws likely already ban Bitcoin, we just haven't seen them fully enforced. Using Bitcoin is inherently a political statement (which I don't entirely agree with); the apolitical choice would be to wind down Coinbase as an ongoing concern.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#320

Post by morsch »

We won’t:

Debate causes or political candidates internally that are unrelated to work

Why limit yourself to the 40-50h you spend at work. Let's just ban political debate everywhere. It's so divisive! At maximum, you should debate causes or political candidates with people who think exactly like you. But even this may lead to unexpected frustration, it's much better to just rest assured that everybody thinks exactly like you.

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