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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#311

Post by lostcolony »

nfRfqX5n wrote: post #56

how can anyone still trust this company as a prospective employee? I guess if they aren’t hiring it doesn’t matter but long term it’s not a good look

I never really understood why people wanted to work for them in the first place. I knew they had large RSU packages (probably rather depressing now for the people tempted by it), but their culture always sounded horrible. Everything I saw screamed "you'll be expected to work > 40 hours every week", and even when they talked about culture it was hustle, make the company money. Which is probably more honest than most companies, but being so on the nose with the exploitation normalizes the expectation.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#312

Post by puranjay »

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…

Alameda is the single scariest entity in crypto. They're absolutely brutal. I exit every trade once it becomes apparent that Alameda is in.

If I was a VC firm, however, I would back anything SBF was doing. He's a genius when it comes to making money.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#313

Post by altacc »

UncleMeat wrote: post #208
NikolaNovak wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's common enough. It's harsh, it's cold, but ultimately for companies it's a real necessity. The explanation is blunt and correct - even a single malicious actor can enact HUGE devastating harm. It doesn't have to be hot wallet / cold storage. Source code, business plans, revenue & profit statements, SSH to servers, physical access to datacentre, client contact lists, etc etc... there's a myriad thing…

> 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…

>>I think I'd just quit if I was told to lay off people on my team.

I did that in the dotcom bust. As a manager I was highest paid and had least billable hours, so when asked to reduce costs in my team I was the logical choice to go. The company went through a series of layoffs but at least for that cut I managed to leave my team in place for a bit longer. I went travelling for a year, so also benefitted from not having to deal with any more rounds of layoffs.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#315

Post by puranjay »

llamaimperative wrote: post #62
greatpostman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. FTX people clearly know a lot more about market making and how exchanges work. Makes coinbase look like amateurs. Coinbase hired their CPO with a 650 million dollar pay package. They should have spent that money on 2 - 5 million a year hft programmers and traders

What do you make of Sam Bankman-Fried describing his business as a literal Ponzi scheme on Odd Lots podcast? The commentary isn’t necessary to see the insanity but here’s fastest way to get to the relevant content: https://youtu.be/C6nAxiym9oc Edit: To clarify, though not sure how much a mitigation this is, yes SBF is describing much of the underlying activity he takes commission on as a Ponzi scheme. Sure, he’s not…

yeah SBF doesn't believe in crypto. He might pay some lip service but he doesn't hold any position extensively.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#316

Post by djvdq »

a_chris wrote: post #131
nemo44x wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee submits a resignation on good terms. Just a way for the company to cover themselves.

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

The same happens in Europe. It did not happen to my but a friend but he knew that he was the one to go when he couldn't login to his laptop after lunch break. And when they let him do it to finish some things he got someone watching behind his back.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#317

Post by davewritescode »

nemo44x wrote: post #72
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…

Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee submits a resignation on good terms. Just a way for the company to cover themselves.

This was a well known thing at a company I worked for that was involved with government work. If you were leaving for another industry the last 2 weeks were for finishing up work and saying goodbye to your coworkers.

If you were leaving for a competitor you were walked out within an hour of submitting your resignation and promised your 2 weeks pay. It was so well known that engineers would schedule vacations starting the day after they planned to resign and say their goodbyes to coworkers before telling their bosses.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#318

Post by nicbou »

highwaylights wrote: post #124
melling wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It is fascinating just how quickly sentiments can change” Sounds like a classic bubble that people have been warning about. Tulips all over again? https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/02/warren-buffett-wouldnt-s...

They’ll be fine. There’s another sucker born every minute (although, you know, declining birth rates). No-one learned their lesson after 2018, so they aren’t about to start now. People like easy money. If you tell them the truth, they’ll just accuse you of trying to trick them into staying poor. It’s a can’t lose business model! Sarcasm aside, the total return of Bitcoin since the peak in 2017 is now approaching 0% (…

The problem is that people have started to invest other people's money in crypto. Quebec, El Salvador, and probably a few private funds now hold crypto and crypto-related assets.

Then there are people who simply don't know better and were conned into throwing money at crypto.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#319

Post by fullshark »

blocked_again wrote: post #284

Is there a single YC company which is doing good in public market? It seems like all YC companies are net loss making investment for the retail investors have they bought the stocks in IPO.

What tech company that IPOed in the last 5 years is even above IPO price at the moment? This is not unique to YC, but maybe unique to the pump and dump VC scene that was cultivated in this bull run.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#320

Post by bushbaba »

bko wrote: post #161
greatpostman wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to that, he even predicted the Luna crash in that interview. When that guy talks, it’s very clear he understands markets. Very different approach to Bryan Armstrong, who’s more of a Bitcoin “believer”. I think the blatant description of a ponzi scheme was a rare window into an insiders thoughts.

What FTX does is introduce financial products that could potentially put downward pressure on a lot of these scam coins. To be fair, he also introduces products that allow people to play around w/ crazy amount of leverage, but it could theoretically be done without as much counterparty risk and interconnections that caused the 2008 financial crisis.

lots of exchanges provide crazy amounts of leverage. Kucoin lets you have a margin loan that's 10x your capital. I'm not sure this is unique to FTX.

The exchange itself doesn't need 1000s of people. Coinbase went on a hiring spree in 2021, but it didn't seem to have a clear strategy for all that headcount.

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