Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 616 posts

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#291

Post by quickthrower2 »

codebolt wrote: post #85
grey-area wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTX is also going to feel a lot of pain when the crypto market crash completes. None of these companies are IMO sustainable without mass interest in cryptocurrencies, which is rapidly fading as people realise they're not going to get rich quick.

FTX is in deep with Tether. I expect they'll pull some tricks out of their collective hats to avoid a complete collapse.

Pulling tricks needs a new sucker pipeline. But sucker pipelines will dry up as old suckers get burned and money is generally drying up due to interest rates.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#292

Post by xiphias2 »

bko wrote: post #148
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…

I agree and am in general a big fan of FTX and the guys that work there. The CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried one of these HFT guys from Jane Street and his net worth shot up from 0 to $24 billion in just a few years. He kept things super lean and focused. But in the last few months it looks like he's hired a PR team and is all over the place: podcasts, obviously planted news stories, etc. He even hired a head of fashion and l…

Why is being a celebrity BS? After a few tens of millions (or maybe $100M) dollars money doesn't matter at all, it's all about status, and money is just a tool to achieve it.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#293

Post by andyjohnson0 »

What struck me about this announcement was that the CEO states a couple of times that he is accountable for the decision, but doesn't say what form that accountability takes. I try not to be cynical, but I suspect in this case that there will be no actual, real accountability.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#294

Post by ohgodplsno »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #272
ohgodplsno wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. In France, this is a breach of contract as you are not providing your employees with the means to work, and you can be sued for it if it is not done as a disciplinary measure (which you can also be sued for if not done in good faith) EDIT: my dudes stop trying to link legifrance articles to me, I have literally been…

Are you sure? This is a quite common practice for businesses to put the fired employees on paid leave until the contract is terminated, I would be really surprised if that would not be possible in France. Article L1234-5 [1] of French Labor Code looks like it is possible. * [1] https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/id/LEGISCTA000006195622...

Paid leave is entirely different. Paid leave is, well, leave. You do not have to show up to the office, unable to do anything.

L1234-5 (which is a very nice number) merely says that you have to pay the employee a compensation if the préavis is not respected, equal to the amount of days the employee would have worked, in addition to everything else (severance package, etc). It gets more complicated in the case of massive layoffs, because the CSE/lawyers get involved, and for a 50+ employee company firing over 10 employees, a plan de sauvegarde de l'emploi is put into place, which lasts multiple months.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#295

Post by puranjay »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #273
puranjay wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Case in point: OpenSea's monthly volume: https://dune.com/rchen8/opensea There's no hiding on the blockchain. Monthly volume has gone down from a peak of nearly $5B in January to $372M in June so far.

I see the point and I agree with you. But let me point out 2 things for the sake of being scientifically correct: * we're just at the middle of the month * the price has dropped 4x, those charts are in USD So comparing June (14 days) to Dec is not entirely fair. Your point still stands.

That's the problem - your expenses (salaries, rent, hosting, etc.) are paid in USD.

Meanwhile, your revenue is in ETH.

Even if you can maintain the same volume, your revenue can drop drastically if ETH price drops.

A 100 ETH sale earns you 2.5 ETH. In January, this was worth $7.5k. Now, its worth $3k. Your revenue dropped by over 50% but your expenses are going to stay the same.

I can't see how the economics of businesses like this can work out.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#297

Post by NikolaNovak »

boringg wrote: post #239
UncleMeat wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Friendly, smiley, fake. My father had to lay off a bunch of people in 2008. I am now a manager. He told me that if I am ever forced to do this to not ever do this crap to my team. Tell them that this is bullshit. Tell them that you are upset. Tell them that you haven't slept. Tell them that the are right to be mad, disappointed, and even to hate you for choosing their head to roll. Anything better than fake smiles…

A friend of mine's manager had to lay him off but the manager was the nicest guy and was basically in tears through the exit process. My friend essentially had to do the break up. We felt for the manager but also, keep your isht together. If you can't then you are putting that on the individual that you are letting go.

That's exactly the thing. Don't make it about you! How much of telling employee "this is bullshit, I could't sleep over this" is actually doing for them? Vs absolving yourself of guilt, having them like you, and making you look like the victim you definitely aren't?

Respect and support and empathy and sincerity are the key, always. Deflecting blame and ranting are not long term helpful.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#298

Post by synu »

bambax wrote: post #257
synu wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe you have to keep paying the person, but it's not uncommon for them to be told not to come in anymore.

Yes but you can't really "cut them off". You can tell them they don't need to be there, and most will be happy not to. But you can't revoke their access for no reason. If you want to do that you need to prove they have (already) committed a fault of such gravity that allowing them to stay would harm the company irremediably -- it's a high bar to cross.

I've definitely seen people told there's nothing left for them to do, and their accounts and access immediately turned off. Why would they need access to systems or the office if they have no tasks? Are you saying there's some kind of right they have as an employee to come in and work even if they are told not to and there are no tasks assigned to them?

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#299

Post by failedengineer »

willcipriano wrote: post #243
dgfitz wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Company I worked at had a layoff in 2012, security manager escorted 200 people out of the building. At the end of the day, he was escorted out of the building. It was quite shitty for that fellow, I felt terrible for him.

One place I worked at briefly would call the cops and have them escourt you out if they thought there was any risk of "disruption or back talk" (their words). I decided not to work for assholes who lay off little old ladies and then to add insult to injury, call the cops on them.

"Pardon, Officer, but we're firing several employees today and would you like you to assist. We're concerned they might say bad things to us."

"ON OUR WAY!"

This is a disgusting scenario. I hope they weren't misusing on-duty police resources for this.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#300

Post by Hellbanevil »

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…

Can anyone explain their 6 plus billion dollar yearly operating costs?

I hope it's not mainly advertising.

Post reply on HN