Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20% • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#281

Post by arbol » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:11 PM UTC

mikelovenotwar wrote: post #263

arbol wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what do you do that's so noble?

I write software used to operate power stations, so that people can power their homes etc. You seem to confuse nobility with utility. Crypto is a solution looking for a problem. The ponzi seems to struggle to maintain the volume required for 'growth'. Thanks for the 'whataboutism' though.

You'll be familiar with generators then. A technology that also had next to no utility in the 1830s when it was invented, reaching commercial success in the 1870s. During this 40 year period, millions of dollars were spent promoting the field of commercial electricity at a time when the steam engine ruled.

> Crypto is a solution looking for a problem

I think this is short sighted and time will prove you wrong.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#282

Post by wallawe » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:12 PM UTC

jmacd wrote: post #246

Coinbase may or may not be a good company. I have no idea. What I do know is that they have a lot of things working against them: - Money is not cheap anymoore - Their market is collapsing. I don't see how a company makes it through. Even if they navigate the present environment and manage to finance the company through the new few years, they may do so in to an ultimately collapsing market. There is no reason to ass…

> Money is not cheap anymoore

This is actually working for them. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/coinbases-inter...

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#283

Post by marcinzm » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

totetsu wrote: post #156

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…

If any startups want to put me on payroll just to increase their headcount for the purpose of raising more funding I'll happily take the money.

You mean you'll take the risk of having 50% of your comp be near worthless versus getting more liquid comp from an existing public company?

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#284

Post by John23832 » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

finolex1 wrote: post #173

acdha wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That little experience makes it hard to judge applicant quality well and means they probably aren’t answering questions accurately. It’s a dead tell of a company which has a shortage of experienced staff and is growing too quickly — very strongly reminiscent of the dotcom bubble where people had the same “number go up!” mentality & some would openly say they were just looking busy until the IPO.

Plenty of wildly successful companies (Google, FB, etc.) have all had junior engineers interviewing people.

In the emerging points of their business. Or “juniors” with some kind of valuable expertise to the interview.

Not, “just graduated web dev boot camp and have a fleeting interest in web3” junior.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#285

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

jmacd wrote: post #246

Coinbase may or may not be a good company. I have no idea. What I do know is that they have a lot of things working against them: - Money is not cheap anymoore - Their market is collapsing. I don't see how a company makes it through. Even if they navigate the present environment and manage to finance the company through the new few years, they may do so in to an ultimately collapsing market. There is no reason to ass…

I'm a huge crypto bear, and even if crypto collapses 99% - it's still a >$10B market, so there will still be people trading it.

The sports trading card market is ~$7B - and plenty of people's entire life and income revolves around trading sports cards.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#286

Post by irl_chad » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

danjac wrote: post #207

irl_chad wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only speak for my own company. I recently (6 months ago) hired a junior web developer. He’s now a senior, and the highest paid engineer in the company. If you’re a junior developer, and you want to make good money at it, you no longer have hobbies or a life (don’t worry, you get them back when you get good). Instead, all your free time is now dedicated to hobby projects & studying. Of course, only a small % of…

"irl_chad" is a very apt username here... You could do us all a service by telling us the name of your company so we (especially junior developers) could give it a very wide berth.

Sounds like you put crypto on your resume, so don’t worry about getting accidentally hired :)

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#287

Post by subradios » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:17 PM UTC

serioussecurity wrote: post #130

SunlightEdge wrote: post #46

I lost a little bit of money investing in crypto on Coinbase (I put about £500 in which shrank to £200 - over the course of past 2 years and for past year I mostly have just had money in sterling - the market looked terrible) I finally decided yesterday to cash out of coinbase yesterday - they charged me £3 to withdraw my money!! In the scheme of things I didn't lose that much money - not really. But personally I can…

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.

The surprise over the $3 fee indicates just how many tricks of the light are used to hide exactly how bad finance is, then make dishonest comparisons to crypto markets.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#288

Post by meragrin_ » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:17 PM UTC

danrocks wrote: post #235

“ All Coinbase personnel will be given proper notice and terminated. But make no mistake. Though they're the ones leaving, it is I who must remain and bear the heavy burden of their failure.”

> their failure.”

So he's heaping all of the blame on the terminated employees?

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#289

Post by hardwaresofton » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

_hcuq wrote: post #274

The one thing that surprises me in all this is that the BTC price has stayed at a stable 16k since mid October.

I don't see this discussed in enough HN threads. Everyone is quick to talk about FTX, Tether being a scam, etc but I rarely hear people discuss how the heck BTC is pegged at $16k this whole time, through it all.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#290

Post by irl_chad » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

Karsteski wrote: post #53

housingisaright wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is this a serious comment? Of the tech companies I or acquaintances have worked at, I've personally 'believed in the viability' of maybe 25%. If the tech / pay is good enough I could see myself work at them for sure since its a job. not all jobs require personal investment. I now see that the username is IRL_CHAD. I feel stupid for falling for a obvious troll

Yea, on scrolling through some of this person's post history, I realized they were a complete waste of time to even respond to. Oh well

Which specific comments do you take issue with?