Live data from Hacker News

Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

sfgate.com

291–300 of 461 posts

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the Ponzi claims stem from the fact that so many people are in the market for speculative profit (and not to revolutionize finance or whatever), and the fact that earlier investors can only capitalize on their investments by proselytizing, recruiting, and ultimately selling their bags to new investors. Framed that way, it’s quite Ponzi-ish.

This is true of any value storage vehicle. You only make money - or get your money back out - by passing it on to the next person. Art, baseball cards, stamps, stocks, gold etc. all work this way.

None of the things you mentioned are "value storage vehicles". Currencies may be a stores of value.

Gold is a hedge against hyper inflation and global crisis. Art is an elaborate mechanism for money laundering. Baseball, stamps, and pokemon cards are collectibles and eb and flow with the tides of pop culture And I am too tired to explain stocks to you.

> You only make money - or get your money back out - by passing it on to the next person. It might actual shock you to learn that the US money supply historically grows faster than inflation.

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#292
post #7

Coinbase tried to recruit me last summer. I politely told the recruiter that I felt it was all bubble speculation mania. Also the amount of equity sold by the CFO at the public listing indicated little confidence in the long term prospects. I guess I was right? Not trying to brag or anything. Just a tip to everyone job hunting I guess. Watch what executives do (not what they say). Well, and human history of speculati…

I honestly don't get the point of Coinbase. Isn't it a centralized system to manage what is supposed to be decentralized and that kinda defeats the purpose? I may be dumb.

Crypto is indeed a decentralized system (well, the well-functioning ones at least).

However, it's also a closed system and you need to get crypto from somewhere. A centralized exchange is the most efficient facilitator of buying/selling crypto, and after that you can withdraw it and enjoy digital transfers without a centralized party.

(You can also get crypto buy mining or selling things for it, or even buy it for cash, but an exchange like Coinbase is much faster and more convenient.)

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#293
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is honestly a minimum to avoid getting sued. Otherwise an enterprising lawyer might be ready with some arguments about promissory estoppel.

What is the severance offered? I don’t know how you can determine what the minimum is without knowing the severance and etc.

I’ve read two months pay in a CNBC article, which for most of these folks is tens of thousands of dollars. They won’t be starving by any means while they search for a new job.

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#294
post #278
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. If someone wants to be angry, that's their choice. Yet a lot of people get angry easily, and being an easily-triggered person works against a person's life. No one wants to constantly have to walk on eggshells around another person in order to be their friend, partner, child, etc. Personally, I don't enjoy the emotion of being angry. If you do, more power to you.

It's nice to be able to afford to not get angry. That's not an option for everyone.

With respect, it's not a matter of money or resources.

Getting angry is optional. With some practice (largely, mindfulness) people can learn to notice their emotions and not become strongly identified with whatever is happening in the moment, and choose to do something more productive than simply stewing or ruminating in the unfairness of life.

Thanks for engaging.

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#295
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is that Coinbase's interviews are difficult. If I'd spent months studying, rejecting other (good faith) offers, and then had this happen I'd not only be in a bad spot (without a job entering a recession) but I'd be furious at the inequality of input and output. I've been interviewing for the past month and I made a rule that I won't be doing any algorithm interviews. I didn't have time to study; some f…

This sentiment seems common on Hacker News but I'm not sure its wise. Companies that have high standards are far more interesting places to work at and with more interesting colleagues. They all require whiteboards and leet code. It's definitely true that not all companies that use these algorithm interviews are worth working for. But, at least in my experience, companies that don't require them at all are pretty awf…

Companies that have high standards

The parent commenter wasn't saying we shouldn't have "high standards"; just that filtering for maximal prowess at leet code grinding does not serve as a useful instance of such, in their book.

Further, this distinction seems basically quite obvious -- there's no other way to read their text, actually.

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#296
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Past booms are no guarantee of future booms. Fundamentals of crypto don't appear sound to me. So I wouldn't put much stock in them.

General sentiment is too many people made too much money not to give it another go.

Pyramids don't resolve upside down.

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#297
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason you cannot say Coinbase is isn't a scam is because it is impossible to prove that the people involved were lying in regards to the viability of crypto not being effectively a Ponzi scheme.

There is value in a global blockchain with the level of participation of crypto. And sure there are scams, there are scams in the real economy too. Ponzi is not an acronym for “I don’t understand its value therefore it’s a Ponzi scheme”.

It is an acronym for "I do understand it has no value but as long as I'm not the idiot holding the hot potato in the end..."

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#298
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is that Coinbase's interviews are difficult. If I'd spent months studying, rejecting other (good faith) offers, and then had this happen I'd not only be in a bad spot (without a job entering a recession) but I'd be furious at the inequality of input and output. I've been interviewing for the past month and I made a rule that I won't be doing any algorithm interviews. I didn't have time to study; some f…

Are there ANY companies that pay well and don't do algorithm interviews?

Depends on your definition of "pays well", really. I think it's unlikely you're gonna find many companies paying Amazon or Google-tier salaries without these kinds of interviews, especially for junior or mid level.

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#299

Companies that are rescinding offers are just terribly managed companies. If you're in that bad of shape, then you should have done a hiring freeze months ago and there shouldn't have been any offers left to rescind (sure, there are odd ones where maybe they accepted 3 months early).

Not many companies expect or plan for their valuation to drop 75% in 6 months, that's gonna lead to tough choices. In the case of coinbase I'm guessing they're also seeing trade volume (and therefore future revenue) plummet and don't project it to increase anytime soon. Not sure this is evidence of a horribly managed company so much as a company dealing with a crisis and doing costly things to their reputation to man…

I mean, if you're in the crypto business you should have more foresight than that. It's literally the definition of a volatile market

Re: Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email is a decentralized protocol and the fact that you use a centralized provider such as gmail only somewhat defeats the purpose of email being a decentralized protocol instead of Google Messenger.

Email is _a bit_ similar, but the analogy doesn't work too well. While email might be a decentralized protocol, participation in the protocol requires quite a bit of technical effort. Whereas in crypto (e.g., Bitcoin) you can participate by just downloading a simple client and sending transactions via a nice little UI. In your example, Google actually provides a pretty huge value add by abstracting the complexities o…

It's even weirder than that, it's like if Google received your messages for you and bundled them up with everyone else's, then allowed you to read your share of the bundle but never actually delivered them to you as far as the protocol is concerned.

The email protocol isn't complicated though. Back before spam was a thing, lots of people could just open a port and manually talk SMTP (you could send messages as Santa, or whatever). The only service Gmail provides that's not trivial (and I mean, something that can be done in a whiteboard interview) is the spam protection.

Post reply on HN