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Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

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Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#181

Post by college_physics »

bfeynman wrote: post #149
college_physics wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there something in market-making technology (or otherwise) that sets them apart from any other modern exchange? Could they pivot into trading pork bellies (or tokens thereof)?

exchanges have been around for almost a century now, so coinbase actually has a huge disadvantage in that they have no institutional stickiness or users, exchanges are built on trust and I would not want my money being routed through them if I was a client.

old exchanges do have their own challenges [0]. I don't know if their dealing in crypto gave them any particular insights into how the broader set of technologies could enhance market-making. there is at least one major busted stock exchange blockchain project that suggests this is not trivial [1].

just scrapping the bottom of the barrel here :-), hoping that as this crypto-decade draws to a close, it was not a complete waste of time for all these people and a major distraction from more meaningful pursuits in digital technology. even if one does not participate, these pervasive hypes, whether crypto, AI don't leave anybody unaffected...

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/06/london-meta...

[1] https://www.ibtimes.com/australian-stock-exchanges-blockchai...

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#182

Post by PaulHoule »

nicky0 wrote: post #147
serioussecurity wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your surprise over a £3 fee strikes me as a perfect illustration of crypto: profoundly naive, inexperienced investors getting a hard lesson in how unregulated markets work. I hope, some years down the line, you take the broader life lesson that anyone promising you money for nothing does not have your best interests at heart.

You make it sound like a £3 transaction fee is evidence of some kind of scamminess or preying on naivety but most normal, regulated investment platforms, crypto or not, come with transaction fees, account fees, fund management fees and so on. Usually they are taking a lot more than £3 from you too. That's even before we get into the world of professional financial "advice" and the commissions they just happen to earn…

Fees are a more honorable way to keep the lights on than the FTX ‘take the money and run’ business plan.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#183

Post by robertlagrant »

danuker wrote: post #174
jacquesm wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely, it will just get weirder and more extreme until it explodes. These are all spasms of a dying organism. The addiction is so massive though that there will be some kind of backlash or a shift to something else. It's like when the authorities cracked down on money laundering through banks, for every one they killed four new ones sprang up.

But Bitcoin has "exploded" in the past, crashing 70%+ several times, yet each time it had a higher and higher floor. How do you explain this?

It could be that people are just holding on. The question is: why is it worth anything at all?

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#184

Post by TekMol »

It is strange, that so far Coinbase has not took any steps towards supporting the Lightning Network.

If the Coinbase app supported it, that would allow all of the Coinbase users to do real decentralized micropayments.

Any theories, why they don't do that?

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#185

Post by feyes »

danuker wrote: post #174
jacquesm wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely, it will just get weirder and more extreme until it explodes. These are all spasms of a dying organism. The addiction is so massive though that there will be some kind of backlash or a shift to something else. It's like when the authorities cracked down on money laundering through banks, for every one they killed four new ones sprang up.

But Bitcoin has "exploded" in the past, crashing 70%+ several times, yet each time it had a higher and higher floor. How do you explain this?

Yea this is what decriers don't explain. I may not view at as a strong currency for which it was intended but it's undeniable it has become a store for speculative value that isn't going away anytime soon.

There's a lot of trash in the crypto world but also some valid projects.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#186

Post by tom_walters »

I think any company exploring ways to improve the financial system should be given plenty of space to do so, but I think the fundamental issue facing Coinbase, and all other crypto-based firms is: when will we see mainstream adoption of crypto as something other than asset speculation?

Or, is speculation the only use-case for crypto? Sure we've had example use-cases for crypto as a value store and exchange medium, but outside the bleeding-edge of technology, and away from the VC fever dream (let alone con-artist central), where does crypto fit into society?

There are major incumbent forces all the way up to government that are keen to control the rise of this technology so it's clearly not an easy task, but for the likes of Coinbase to survive I think we need to see real value in using the things you actually trade on their exchange. Unfortunately right now it seems that Coinbase is a company predicated on the assumption that “crypto is going to become the main way to exchange value at some point in the future”.

Companies powered by hype and VC speculation invariably collapse as markets move on, so if I were investing in them I'd be really keen to have them allocate the majority of their resources at pushing crypto adoption into non-investment-based use-cases, which is to say, banks having large crypto teams is much less important than average people actively using crypto for goods and services (if that's to be the dominant use-case for crypto.)

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#188

Post by _fat_santa »

jesuscript wrote: post #105
SilverBirch wrote: post #87

Coinbase is a weird company, because it's got such an obvious comparable: CME Group. CME Group has about 3500 employees, did 1.2bn in revenue last quarter with 680m net income. Then you have coinbase now trimmming to about the same number 3500, 590m revenue and a net income loss of 550m. That's right, as far as I can see, Coinbase loses $1 for every $1 of revenue. Firstly, I don't see how Coinbase needs as many peopl…

My best guess is that raising funding helps raise the valuation, especially as they approach IPO. So raise money for the sake of raising the valuation. You don’t really need the money, but you got it. What are you going to do with it to appease the investors? Well you gotta act like you are doing something with it, especially something that shows growth. Hire more. Hire more because we imagine more. Keep imagining un…

I interviewed with them last year and while I didn't get the job, looking back now I'm kind of thankful it turned out how it did. From my limited perspective interviewing there, it seems like they started branching out into all things crypto.

One manager I interviewed with explained that they wanted to become the "Amazon of Crypto" where any service related to crypto such as wallets, NFT's, etc are all on Coinbase. It was clear back then to me that Coinbase wanted to dethrone both Metamask as the wallet of choice and OpenSea as the NFT marketplace of choice. You hire a ton of people for these projects but end up letting them all go when they realized those projects weren't going to pan out.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#189

Post by robertlagrant »

guelo wrote: post #106
988747 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we're past believing that our top .1% is bringing value that's worth billions of times more than the rest of the population. Fortunately, we do not have to rely on our beliefs here, we have an objective measure, which we call "money". If someone starts a company in their garage, and a decade later that company is worth few billions of dollars then that's the value this person brought to society - because pe…

Parasitic rents and many other market distortions/extortions exist.

Saying that something exists isn't a complete thought.
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