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Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

coindesk.com

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Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#531

Post by nemothekid »

smsm42 wrote: post #500
xapata wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (and probably some luck) I'd reverse the skill and luck relationship. Success at that magnitude is almost entirely luck (and probably a little skill).

When one becomes rich because of one IPO that went right - ok, let's say it's luck. When one creates several successful businesses in a row - no, sorry, I can't say "it's just dumb luck" anymore, it's more realistic to assume there's something else involved.

Taleb has a more succint way of putting it[1], but no it can still be luck just like hitting black in roulette several times in a row can also be luck.

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/nntaleb/status/153417277358051328...

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#532

Post by dcow »

colinmhayes wrote: post #192
oh_sigh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just a run of the mill average joe, who has a rock that has been in my family for generations. Turns out some weird little cult likes my rock and wants to buy it for $1B. Should I be forced to sell my rock, because I'm getting a $500M tax bill from the government because some weird little cult said they would pay $1B for it - regardless of whether I want to sell my rock?

Yes, if your rock is worth twice as much to the cult as it is to you you should have to sell it.

No. The rock is worth vastly more to the owner than the cult which is why they won't sell it. However, the value is intrinsic... it's priceless. It's worth infinitely much to the owner regardless of how much anybody else thinks it should be worth. Therefore, it's impossibly to tax the owner infinitely for their intrinsically valuable rock...

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#533

Post by skizm »

sytelus wrote: post #503

I don't understand why Coinbase is feeling such a crunch. They are just middleman in buying and selling. Their advantage is supposed to be that they make money whether crypto goes up or down. How can they screw this up?

They make money when trading volume is up. Trading volume and BTC price are pretty much directly correlated. Trading volume is way down.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#534

Post by fullshark »

spookthesunset wrote: post #130
TameAntelope wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An equally as irrational position as, "Crypto is the best thing ever!"

I mean the end state of crypto isn’t a very positive one. Either it will crash catastrophically or it will slowly fizzle out until the majority of people just forget about it. Either way, at some point virtually nobody will be using it.

The end state of crypto is the currency of illegal transactions, which are never going away.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#535

Post by SirYandi »

sytelus wrote: post #503

I don't understand why Coinbase is feeling such a crunch. They are just middleman in buying and selling. Their advantage is supposed to be that they make money whether crypto goes up or down. How can they screw this up?

I imagine they do own significant amount of crypto. Also, less people are buying as the price dips.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#536

Post by RHSeeger »

shinryuu wrote: post #365
throwaway894345 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, billionaires' wealth isn't parked in a vault, right? It's invested in companies, so it's working in the economy whereas it would otherwise go to the government. It's not obvious to me that the government is going to provide more value for the public in general than industry, but I would like for that to be the case (an easy solution for inequality that doesn't shrink our economy overall).

A lot of wealth is parked in shares of companies. I'm not sure to what extent that is actually productive...?

I'm confused by this statement. If I buy shares from a company, that company has more money to spend on growth/bonuses/whatever. If I buy shares from another person, that person has money to do things with. I don't see how there is even a thing such as "parked in shares of a company"; it doesn't park there, it is immediately available for investing in other things.

Now, the money could sit in the bank, sure. But even then, the vast majority of the money "in the bank" is actually being lent out to other people, who spend it.

So unless the money is literally sitting in a vault, it's not "parked" anywhere.

I'm very open to being corrected here, so feel free to do so. My understanding of economics is decidedly limited.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#537

Post by Apocryphon »

seventhtiger wrote: post #498
Apocryphon wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an incredibly contrived, fantastical scenario that is too grating to even consider.

It's a realistic scenario for illiquid assets like art and land. Antique roadshow has real examples filmed on camera.

Right, and there would be exceptions made for edge cases like "someone uncovers a hidden treasure trove" or "oil is discovered"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31745780

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#538

Post by int_19h »

tomcam wrote: post #62
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

There are plenty of people in the world who would think that anything over $500/month is way more than enough for one person. Should your compensation be reduced to that amount? Does someone earning more than you hurt you? Also… do billionaires employ people? Do you want their employees to have their jobs seized from them when the johny555 tax goes into effect?

Someone earning more doesn't hurt me.

Someone taking the wealth that other people have produced with their labor is not earning, though. And a lot of us do think that earning 300x what the average worker does is a physical impossibility.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#539

Post by moneywoes »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #74
sillysaurusx wrote: post #15

I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. Coinbase was also extremely generous with severance. 12 weeks plus two for every one year at the company, I think. I've had the experience of being let go without notice and without severance. Devs seem a little more griz…

> The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. Probably the best advice you can give someone in the tech industry. Even when I'm happy and content in a position, I'm still constantly looking and interviewing. I got burned pretty bad at two startups in a row where the founders were pitching rainbows and unicorns and one company just went bust and I showed up one day and they s…

I’ll shoot my shot here, know of mid level remote backend opportunities?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#540

Post by anotherfounder »

jerry1979 wrote: post #278
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

I'm not settled on this yet. I'm from the USA, and one thing that concerns me is the geopolitics of billionaires. What happens when USA taxes billionaires out of existence? Russia and China still have billionaires. Does that do something to the power relationships in the world? Is there such a thing as "our" billionaires? The other question I have has to do with feudalism. If we let "our" billionaires exist, does tha…

If there was fair taxation on billionaires, and there was a wage growth where all the productivity gains didn't only stay at the top, then I think folks would be less incensed at billionaires.
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