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My LinkedIn right now is full of professionals writing about how Coinbase is wrong and unsupportable. That is surprising to me. I would like to see more missio

My LinkedIn right now is full of professionals writing about how Coinbase is wrong and unsupportable. That is surprising to me. I would like to see more mission focused companies. They can help the societies they are in with some unilateral initiatives like Netflix did with helping capitalize banks in certain communities, without discussing it or changing the focus.

flyinglizard 6y ago
The guys who’d go on public platform to denounce Coinbase probably intersect with the type of people Coinbase wants to rid itself of. I fully support what Coinbase is doing. It seems very fair to all sides.
- vmception 6y ago
  It doesn't change my stance on what I would prefer companies do but it seems like a multilayered issue on the tides to pay attention to here and at the very least makes me not want to espouse my own thoughts about "Yeah! mission focused companies!" publicly. Here are quotes from my feed: "The path to an IPO is to purge Black and Brown people from Coinbase ... this is very unbecoming of a federal contractor" "Over a dozen diverse crypto industry leaders [are] calling it out as racist." "Sweden took 60 years to admit its neutrality policy was racist. How long will it take Coinbase to do the same? Being neutral is a position in support of the status quo - it always has been." "Coinbase's CEO's recent statement of neutrality is unacceptable and complicit." An out of context comment unfortunately adding to the gradient of the same context: "IBM's first computer sold to Hitler. Ford converted cars to tanks sold to Hitler. Why???" The people posting are all identifying as black, in San Francisco Bay Area, and using their platform in support of black communities. What's going on is that there is more context than Brian Armstrong's post, there is the context of what actually occurred within Coinbase amongst Coinbase's employees, something I have an incomplete picture of. And I think all of us miss that. I like Brian Armstrong's post - in isolation. People with more context don't like it, and are galvanizing support against this very quickly. That's too bad. I hope Coinbase gets their IPO.
  - s1artibartfast 6y ago
    Do the people making the statements you quoted have more context/information, or are they just more vocal. In my experience, there has never been a shortage of people with practically no information communicating very strong opinions online?
    - vmception 6y ago
      It is a mixture of more context, more vocal, as well as people joining the fray with less context, assimilating to the same perspectives.
  - itsoktocry 6y ago
    >"The path to an IPO is to purge Black and Brown people from Coinbase ... this is very unbecoming of a federal contractor" Do normal people actually believe stuff like this???
    - curryst 6y ago
      Normal as in average? No, that leans pretty far left. It's not particularly unusual to see though. My theory is that there is a very loud minority of people online that believe things like that (or are willing to exaggerate to that degree). Extremists abound on the internet.
      - SecretRepub2 6y ago
        Pretty far left seems common in the Bay Area.
    - flyinglizard 6y ago
      Depends on where you're from. US appears to be quite a bit more embracing of that viewpoint than people from other countries who aren't so well tuned to US societal sensitivities (which can be very difficult to navigate).
    - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
justAnotherNET 6y ago
> My LinkedIn right now is full of professionals Is it though? I’m lucky to know a lot of brilliant people across many disciplines, and none of the engage in LinkedIn “activism”.

flyinglizard 6y ago

The guys who’d go on public platform to denounce Coinbase probably intersect with the type of people Coinbase wants to rid itself of. I fully support what Coinbase is doing. It seems very fair to all sides.

vmception 6y ago
It doesn't change my stance on what I would prefer companies do but it seems like a multilayered issue on the tides to pay attention to here and at the very least makes me not want to espouse my own thoughts about "Yeah! mission focused companies!" publicly. Here are quotes from my feed: "The path to an IPO is to purge Black and Brown people from Coinbase ... this is very unbecoming of a federal contractor" "Over a dozen diverse crypto industry leaders [are] calling it out as racist." "Sweden took 60 years to admit its neutrality policy was racist. How long will it take Coinbase to do the same? Being neutral is a position in support of the status quo - it always has been." "Coinbase's CEO's recent statement of neutrality is unacceptable and complicit." An out of context comment unfortunately adding to the gradient of the same context: "IBM's first computer sold to Hitler. Ford converted cars to tanks sold to Hitler. Why???" The people posting are all identifying as black, in San Francisco Bay Area, and using their platform in support of black communities. What's going on is that there is more context than Brian Armstrong's post, there is the context of what actually occurred within Coinbase amongst Coinbase's employees, something I have an incomplete picture of. And I think all of us miss that. I like Brian Armstrong's post - in isolation. People with more context don't like it, and are galvanizing support against this very quickly. That's too bad. I hope Coinbase gets their IPO.
- s1artibartfast 6y ago
  Do the people making the statements you quoted have more context/information, or are they just more vocal. In my experience, there has never been a shortage of people with practically no information communicating very strong opinions online?
  - vmception 6y ago
    It is a mixture of more context, more vocal, as well as people joining the fray with less context, assimilating to the same perspectives.
- itsoktocry 6y ago
  >"The path to an IPO is to purge Black and Brown people from Coinbase ... this is very unbecoming of a federal contractor" Do normal people actually believe stuff like this???
  - curryst 6y ago
    Normal as in average? No, that leans pretty far left. It's not particularly unusual to see though. My theory is that there is a very loud minority of people online that believe things like that (or are willing to exaggerate to that degree). Extremists abound on the internet.
    - SecretRepub2 6y ago
      Pretty far left seems common in the Bay Area.
  - flyinglizard 6y ago
    Depends on where you're from. US appears to be quite a bit more embracing of that viewpoint than people from other countries who aren't so well tuned to US societal sensitivities (which can be very difficult to navigate).
  - notsureaboutpg 6y ago

justAnotherNET 6y ago

> My LinkedIn right now is full of professionals Is it though? I’m lucky to know a lot of brilliant people across many disciplines, and none of the engage in LinkedIn “activism”.