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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#541

Post by QuadrupleA »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #528
QuadrupleA wrote: post #516

Did this get buried by moderators? 610 points / 504 comments in 3 hours yet already down to #38.

Probably yes, and it’s also the right call. There have been many recent articles about the economy, especially with regards to tech (and doubly so for crypto). Coinbase being a YC co doesn’t mean that layoffs are automatically worth a front page slot for more than a couple hours. It’s boring news, too. It gratifies no curiosity.

I personally find the whole thing fascinating and a relevant intersection of tech and society, perfectly fitting here.

A type of distributed database software quickly gains mass frenzy, people bidding up the price of the database entries, leading to a cambrian explosion of scams, fraud, hype, environmental destruction, ransomware and terrorism, and now undergoing what seems to be a catastrophic (and well-deserved IMHO) collapse.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#542

Post by puranjay »

CydeWeys wrote: post #333
timmg wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those charts look way less dire than I would have expected. June isn't halfway through yet. So I'm not sure what to think of that. But prior to June, they had been doing ~$200M in "fees" monthly -- fairly consistently, for almost a year. That's more of a "business" (and more stable) than I would have guessed.

Most of those $200M in fees are Ethereum gas fees that are being burnt on-chain. Those aren't income for OpenSea, they're costs incurred by all parties as part of doing business.

OpenSea's fees is 2.5% of each transaction. There's a creator fee on top of that which the creator can decide. It usually ranges between 2.5-7.5%.

On average, you should assume that OpenSea takes around 30-40% from this 200M fees.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#543

Post by puranjay »

giantrobot wrote: post #437
CydeWeys wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of those $200M in fees are Ethereum gas fees that are being burnt on-chain. Those aren't income for OpenSea, they're costs incurred by all parties as part of doing business.

Even then the dollar value is only the magic fantasy price you'd get if you could turn those coins into dollars but not affect the price by the fact of that sale.

ETH has enough liquidity to easily absorb that volume tbh.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#544

Post by ohgodplsno »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #339
ohgodplsno wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paid leave is entirely different. Paid leave is, well, leave. You do not have to show up to the office, unable to do anything. L1234-5 (which is a very nice number) merely says that you have to pay the employee a compensation if the préavis is not respected, equal to the amount of days the employee would have worked, in addition to everything else (severance package, etc). It gets more complicated in the case of mass…

How is it different? If you are on paid leave, you are not supposed to do any work. For security reasons your access can and should be restricted for this period.

The only context in which you can be technically still employed but be refused access to your work tools is if you are suspended for a grave mistake. Abuse this at your own risk, as the employee isn't paid in the mean time and will very likely get tribunal-happy. Any other concept (paid leave, maternity leave, vacation leave, * leave) means you are still an employee of the company and the company is legally obligated to give you access to your work tools.

On leave, you are trusted as an employee to not do any work. Anything you do will be your own responsibility, or eventually the employer's responsibility to refuse any work you hand over. You are also not covered by the company's insurance on your leave. Your company cutting off access is a clear breach of contract.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#545

Post by hhmc »

q1w2 wrote: post #369
davewritescode wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I usually terminate access immediately. It's just solid IT security practice. I've seen WAY too many cases of employees email forwarding documents to their personal email the moment they are told they're being let go. Before we started terminating access immediately, I'd estimate that roughly 25% of employees would email themselves at least something.

What were they emailing themselves, IP?

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#546

Post by ohgodplsno »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #248
ohgodplsno wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. In France, this is a breach of contract as you are not providing your employees with the means to work, and you can be sued for it if it is not done as a disciplinary measure (which you can also be sued for if not done in good faith) EDIT: my dudes stop trying to link legifrance articles to me, I have literally been…

>not providing your employees with the means to work Logic would dictate that providing the exact same pay/benefits as one would get for the work ought to be sufficient. But, ...

Logic would also dictate that the employer-employee power relationship is inherently biased towards the employer, and that said employer can hurt you much more than you can hurt him. You not doing your job for a month might be impractical, but it's relatively easy to get over. You suddenly being out of a job with no warning and your severance is much more damaging.

Also consider that software developer is an incredibly privileged position and that, while you may not give a shit because you get 100k and can find another job in two weeks, many people have a salary that barely covers their living expenses and take much longer to find a new job. In effect, that would be subsidizing employers through unemployment benefits and therefore, cost society as a whole.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#547

Post by cdiddy2 »

lokar wrote: post #410
cdiddy2 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of people using it for its apolitical and censorship resistant nature. Afghanistan/Ukraine/Lebanon/Argentina/Venezuela/Nigeria/Turkey/Belarus/Mexico to name a few countries where it is very relevant and useful https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60715707 https://www.financialinclusion.tech/

What percentage range (total value, transactions, etc) would you say counts as "tons"?

Its really hard to get a good gauge on that. There is a lot of data but its all very piecemeal and hard to aggregate. Could spend a week trying to get an idea of it and still not be sure. Here is my couple minute version though.

For 2020 in Mexico alone from Bitso: "Frida Vargas, head of business sevelopment at Bitso, told CoinDesk the company processed about $1.2 billion in remittances between the U.S. to Mexico in 2020. “Our main users are remittance companies, who use crypto technology to improve and make the remittance sending and collecting process easier,” she said."[1]

In Argentina: "Cryptocurrency penetration was at 12% in Argentina, vs. 29% credit card penetration, indicating impressive crypto uptake in that country"[2]

"There is high interest in receiving crypto remittances in various LatAm markets, such as Peru (33%), Argentina (19%), Mexico (15%), and Brazil (8%)"[2]

There is also chainalysis[3] data for small transfers in LatAm showing 1.5M monthly transfers at a total value of 300M monthly volume. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPCfq-LWUAEctzT?format=jpg&name=...

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/video/mexican-remittances-continent-la... [2] https://americasmi.com/pdfs_landings/220211_The_cryptocurren... [3] Page 42: https://go.chainalysis.com/rs/503-FAP-074/images/Geography-o...

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#549

Post by myroon5 »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #496
q1w2 wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His accountability comes in the form of the drop in price of the shares of the company. That is the ultimate accountability for any CEO or other shareholder.

His net worth was about $2.4 billion. Coinbase is currently down ~3.5% on the day. So his net worth is now about £2.3 billion†. I don't see that inconveniencing him much. † Or maybe a bit more if he was foolish enough to hold some of it in crypto.

Zoom out, down 85% since November

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#550

Post by shmoogy »

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…

> For me, I think I'd just quit if I was told to lay off people on my team. Maybe that's hard to do in the moment, since I'd also not want to lose my job in a major crisis, but it sounds awful.

Typically layoffs happen for a reason - if its the company failing and trying to survive, it's not a bad idea to jump ship. If its economic (like all of the layoffs right now) - it's a bad idea to jump to a new job if you can avoid it -- you may very well get hired, and laid off as a new hire.

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