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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#261

Post by UncleMeat »

seibelj wrote: post #17

Crypto is clearly crashing but I’m more curious if a reckoning will hit FAANG, particularly Google. I know one person there who is the spouse of a good friend, and they make nearly 7 figures as a middle manager (although I’m unsure what happens with the stock declines and RSUs). Can these companies support legions of absurdly highly paid people? GOOG is down 25% this year, what will happen when it drops 50%?

Google also makes a huge amount of profit. In 2021, they made something like 350,000 of profit per full time employee. Ads are not nearly as fickle as crypto.

Somebody making nearly 7 figures as a middle manager is only doing so because they are including stock appreciation in their compensation. That isn't the norm steady state, even for L7s.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#262

Post by gnrlst »

avinassh wrote: post #235
vdddv wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

crushing might be a bit too far, but they are certainly ahead of Coinbase in volume with lower opex https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/

I had no idea that Binance is so far ahead. Why do most people use it? Some trust factor?

It has the most pairs available, historically aggressive referral scheme, BNB and BSC also helped a lot. not sure about the trust factor

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#263

Post by saint_angels »

Nextgrid wrote: post #143
golergka wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Crypto is a zero sum game How come? The same network effects that work for social networks work here, as more people and businesses use crypto, it's value proposition raises quadratically.

Nobody's using crypto for its intended purpose - its value proposition when it comes to payments is just as dubious as it ever was. The vast majority of the attention for crypto has been for its speculative aspect.

I'm receiving part of my salary in USDT, and find it valuable. Traditional banking system doesn't work well for everyone.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#264

Post by gtirloni »

Barrera wrote: post #60

> If you are affected, you will receive this notification in your personal email, because we made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees. I realize that removal of access will feel sudden and unexpected, and this is not the experience I wanted for you. Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information, it was unfortunately the only practical choice, to ensu…

I've only seen this in American companies. I'm sure other companies in other countries do it but it's pretty standard for Americans.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#265

Post by rchaud »

golergka wrote: post #70
hftthrowaway22 wrote: post #26

It’s been pretty interesting watching YC backed Coinbase get absolutely crushed by FTX, which has a higher % of crypto trading volume despite having less than 10% of the headcount. Crypto is a zero sum game, and the old Paul Graham essays and other tired VC dogmas really only work in positive sum games. FTX was founded by traders which is valuable when the ultimate purpose of the crypto industry is to separate uninfo…

> Crypto is a zero sum game How come? The same network effects that work for social networks work here, as more people and businesses use crypto, it's value proposition raises quadratically.

The added value you're referring to accrues almost entirely to the exchanges.

People and businesses are not buying crypto to spend on things. They are buying it to trade it back and forth. No value is being created except for the fees exchanges can charge for processing transactions, which is a markup on the fees already charged by miners.

A large percentage of Americans were onboarded to investing via brokerages in the 70s-00s. Did that make day trading any less zero-sum than before?

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#266

Post by otherjason »

ewindal wrote: post #253
NikolaNovak wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We may be mixing things up. You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. They're completely orthogonal. Depends on role, company, situation. It's an assessment and tradeoff - is it worth / do I need the next two weeks of work and KT from this person, vs the risk of having access. The notion of revoking security access to limit risk is definitely not a US thing.

Have had colleagues who were required to not work for their resignation period (3 months). "Professional quarantine," since they were going to competitors.

In the financial industry, this is common and is referred to there as "garden leave."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_leave

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#267

Post by neoberg »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #159
a_chris wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absolutely untrue. In Europe we work several days/weeks after the layoff notice. You can fire people from the night to the morning only in US

We may be mixing things up. You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. They're completely orthogonal. Depends on role, company, situation. It's an assessment and tradeoff - is it worth / do I need the next two weeks of work and KT from this person, vs the risk of having access. The notion of revoking security access to limit risk is definitely not a US thing.

No. In many places the law and the contract states that the company has to provide the required means to do work described in the contract. If they change the job description to "do nothing" then it needs unilateral signing of a amendment to the contract. (And that can count as mobbing.)

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#268

Post by ricardobeat »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #224
nemo44x wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you see the severance the ex-employees are getting? It’s super generous and amounts to months of work. Id rather that than face the humiliation of having to come in for weeks to a company that has fired me. Flexible labor laws are also a major reason Americans are paid considerably more than euros.

Quoted post unavailable.

It is not generous everywhere. In the Netherlands you get 1/6 salary for every 6 months, so only two months salary if you’ve been at the company for six years.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#269

Post by [deleted] »

kaesar14 wrote: post #259
xnorswap wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect you're right, but Coinbase does have a reasonably large London office from their job postings. If anyone there is affected it is important they know their rights. I have worked for US companies going through a mass redundancy where they just avoided any UK based redundancies to avoid the headache. I also value making clear to US-based readers that such protections are important and do make a difference to h…

Unfortunately that world also leads to overly bloated corporations that are never able to clean house.

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#270

Post by leokennis »

kgermino wrote: post #193
samwillis wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest this is the more concerning thing in that quoted statement: > "Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information" Surly they should have very very few employs that have access to that type of information?

Every tier 1 support rep needs to be able to pull up at least some of my account information. Sure IT and other internal teams shouldn't have direct access, but when your business is managing other people's accounts/money a lot of people will need to have access to customer data.

I have a lot of access to very confidential customer information at my job. But based on passwords I need to request that require someone else to approve. Based on a ticket/incident/change number that actually needs to exist. The password rotates as soon as it expires. All password requests and usage are logged and audited.

If you need to completely revoke someone's account overnight to prevent adverse impact, you designed your "access matrix" incorrectly.

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