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

Kraken lays off 30% of staff

blog.kraken.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 238 posts

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#221

Post by jcfrei »

UncleMeat wrote: post #130
woodruffw wrote: post #18

> Since the start of this year, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have weighed on financial markets. This is an incredible couching of the last 9 months of cryptocurrency market behavior. Does anybody actually operate on their belief that "geopolitical factors," rather than astonishing amounts of fraud , are responsible for the current downturn?

For the life of me I cannot understand how every single layoff notice talks about "macroeconomic factors." Inflation and interest rates are up - okay. But real GDP growth (in the US at least) has been positive. Why is everybody acting like unemployment is at 8%, GDP growth is sharply negative, and consumer spending is way down? At least with crypto stuff it makes sense that these companies are losing shitloads of mon…

Most companies are to some extent financed with debt. When interest rates go up and loans need to be rolled over they will pay a higher interest rate. The result is a deleveraging (companies taking on less debt) but also reducing expenses (layoffs). The relationship between interest rates and inflation is also usually not linear - ie. inflation is 8% on average, you can charge 8% more for your products but your interest payments might very well double (going from 4% to 8% p.a.).

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#222

Post by Jetrel »

woodruffw wrote: post #18

> Since the start of this year, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have weighed on financial markets. This is an incredible couching of the last 9 months of cryptocurrency market behavior. Does anybody actually operate on their belief that "geopolitical factors," rather than astonishing amounts of fraud , are responsible for the current downturn?

It's almost like the fundamental basis of crypto is fraud. Like they're not actually selling anything, besides "british south sea company" ~~stock shares~~ coins.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#223

Post by hahaxdxd123 »

throw_pm23 wrote: post #199
concordDance wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me. The movement and ideas are good even if the most famous person connected to it is bad. You don't hear about the vast majority of EAs who just quietly try and improve girl's education in Indian or distribute malaria nets (to mention two I know personally).

This is like "communism is good, it was just badly implemented". For a movement that prides itself on being evidence-based, there is a lot of evidence EA is willing to ignore.

Isn't effective altruism just max_a E[benefit to society | a]?

I don't see how that can be discredited as a personal moral philosophy, even if you don't personally disagree with it.

SBF and FTX fraud doesn't discredit that it's more cost effective to educate people in certain areas than others.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#224

Post by SkyMarshal »

WeylandYutani wrote: post #210
SkyMarshal wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rising inflation and correspondant rising interest rates would have resulted in a major crypto market decline with or without the fraud. Bitcoin had already fallen from $60k+ to ~$20k before the waves of failures even began happening. All of cryptocurrency is a risk asset. When credit and money is cheap and flowing freely, it flows into risk assets like crypto, driving up their price and forming bubbles. When rates r…

It's been 15 years now I think? And still cryptocurrency mainly revolves around speculation. It's adoption as a currency has been... lacking.

Close, almost 14yrs. Launched Jan 2009. Bitcoin's economic design incentivizes saving rather than spending, so it's no big surprise that's what's happening. DeFi currently is all about using loans to make money speculating, so yeah, but it's still kinda new so jury's still out on whether it might develop into something more broadly useful.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#225

Post by awinder »

nullc wrote: post #204
awinder wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would one conman’s association with an ideology condemn the entire ideology? Because he said he was using it as a ruse? Why are you still selectively believing the conman?

Because his actions were consistent with the ideology, at least as some viewed it. The FTX failure was because they were extending leverage to customers to purchase and short extremely volitile cryptocurrencies, including obscure/illiquid/likely-worthless ones (which they marketed heavily). The fact that they also diverted or personally pocketed some hundreds of millions on the back of stimulant-mania induced exubera…

Caroline quote is hysterical — that is both a mathematically and philosophically flawed argument. Befitting of someone who would blow out an $8B+ hole in another companies budget by… making leveraged double or nothing coin flip bets.

The source is down on the Singer quote (actually he’s quoting Wilbin) but the context of it is a discussion of how donated dollars travel further in poorer nations. I can’t find any related text around the quote that suggests any nefarious insinuation.

Absent the last several months was there really a lot of people confused on EA forums about the moral weight of intentional fraud? These are pretty elementary issues in non-insane branches of utilitarian moral philosophy…

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#226

Post by [deleted] »

throw8383833jj wrote: post #5

At least they're handling it responsibly and generously: From their blog: Separation pay: We will pay 16 weeks of base pay for all departing Krakenites inclusive of the paid leave period. Performance bonus: For those eligible, we will pay each departing Krakenite their bonus as determined by their manager. Benefits: We will offer eligible Krakenites 4 months of healthcare continuation coverage inclusive of the paid l…

[deleted]

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#227

Post by Obscurity4340 »

setgree wrote: post #154
danenania wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swimming naked feels great and is plainly superior to swimming in a bathing suit. If you read between the lines, Buffet was clearly recommending that everyone swim naked and put their full net worth into crypto.

"I recant! I recant!" screams Warren Buffett as he runs ashore covered in jellyfish

> Covered in Kraken

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#228

Post by NickLamp »

dylan604 wrote: post #20
Veen wrote: post #11

I'm flabbergasted they had so many employees that 30% is over 1000. Still, terrible time of year for this to happen to their employees.

Why is it that approaching a Hallmark made up consumerism focused holiday supposed to be more terrible to be laid off than any other time ?

Because companies tend to interview less during the holiday season which means people laid off will have a harder time finding a job

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#229

Post by automatic6131 »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #224
WeylandYutani wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been 15 years now I think? And still cryptocurrency mainly revolves around speculation. It's adoption as a currency has been... lacking.

Close, almost 14yrs. Launched Jan 2009. Bitcoin's economic design incentivizes saving rather than spending, so it's no big surprise that's what's happening. DeFi currently is all about using loans to make money speculating, so yeah, but it's still kinda new so jury's still out on whether it might develop into something more broadly useful.

>but it's still kinda new so jury's still out on whether it might develop into something more broadly useful

Lol. Lmao, even.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#230

Post by Seb-C »

rib3ye wrote: post #119

FWIW, Kraken is the most reputable and longest-running CEX. They even precede Coinbase. Edit: more better words.

If this is the best that the crypto bros can produce, then I'm glad that I'm staying away from it because their API is a joke technically.
Post reply on HN