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Despite crypto layoffs, Kraken continues to hire
- mlcrypto 4y agoWhen I applied to Kraken I told the recruiter to send me the coding assessment on a Friday but I received it over a week later on a Sunday evening
- rvz 4y agoSo where are the screaming comments from yesterday then? Where is the outrage? Many thought all the crypto exchanges were dying or getting hit by the crash. So why not this one? Or is it because not all crypto exchanges operate or hire the same as others and neither are all cryptocurrencies are the same. This is the repeated problem of using sweeping generalisations on anything you don't like. It really doesn't help.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- strikeling1010 4y agoThis. Every crypto exchange didn't completely waste their money on super bowl ads and sponsorships as well.
- anaxag0ras 4y agoBinance CEO, CZ literally tweeted this: https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1537013824666095617 https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1537013824666095617
- duxup 4y agoI kinda wonder what is not easy about saying no to such things? "Oh man I really want to blow a lot of money on a tv ad but I'll just not." That sounds pretty easy / more of a personal motivation than anything else.
- phillipcarter 4y agoIt's not easy because as a company grows and gets people from different backgrounds, you hear different signals. In this case, they likely have some marketing professionals with experience in different markets where a superbowl commercial would actually make a bunch of sense. That doesn't make the idea of a superbowl commercial bad, just perhaps not the right kind of expense for a company whose userbase is extremely online.
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- thawaya3113 4y agoWell, even Coinbase was hiring until they were rescinding job offers. A PR puff piece doesn’t tell anyone anything.
- thawaya3113 4y agoAlso, the PR puff piece basically amounts to: We have 500 roles open for the rest of the year and we will continue to keep those 500 roles open. And also, we have a great transition plan if you want to quit the company, because your values don’t align with us. See, they are pirates and not professionals, so it’s a “transition plan” and not a buyout package.
- prewett 4y agoThem be right pansy pirates! In my day, when the crew's "values no longer aligned" we called it "mutiny" and hove 'em adrift in a lifeboat in the middle of the sea with nought but a couple of loaves of bread, a couple of bottles of water, a bottle of rum, and a few disingenuous wishes of "safe travels".
- rvz 4y ago> See, they are pirates and not professionals, so it’s a “transition plan” and not a buyout package. Right. 'professionals' like 'Netflix' being questionably part of FAANG doing the exact same thing as Coinbase, leaking memos, freezing hiring and laying off their employees as soon as their stock crashed. Even in the leaked memo, the now want to focus on the focus and not the politics which is reasonable to simply just make money. I see none of that so far by Kraken. What you have just highlighted is that there is no guarantee attached to those 500 roles. This applies to any company and it's good to be skeptical. If you don't like these companies, you are free to start your own and run it the way you want to.
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- aresant 4y agoIncidentally this "Hiring 500 roles" PR appears to be an effort to get ahead of news related to an impending "hit piece" the CEO alludes to in his twitter feed today -> https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1536978821345292288 https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1536978821345292288
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- myth_drannon 4y agoAnother internal politics fight a-la Basecamp
- caust1c 4y agoIt's really funny to me to hear founder-owners be telling people not to talk about politics at work while the employees usually have 1/10th to 1/100th of the shares in the company, if any at all. Considering most wealth in tech is tied up in equity, and that founders are overwhelmingly white men, it feels oppressive.
- dubswithus 4y agoWhy should the absence of equity give the employee special privileges? It seems backwards and counterproductive.
- zen_1 4y ago>Why should the absence of equity give the employee special privileges? Slave morality is my best guess.
- thiscatis 4y agoHave yet to read the hit piece but some of the symptoms of a minority that just wants to be outraged for the sake of it dragging sentiment down whilst the rest just wants to work is quite telling and not the first time it gets brought up. Also he’s on point about the loudest people talking about being inclusive usually being the most oblivious.
- leroman 4y agoMining & exchanges are the base of Crypto business (as long as they don't lose their pants due to hacks or emblazonment.. as they sometimes do). So they will probably be the last ones to fall.. (if it comes to it..)
- pavlov 4y agoBitcoin miners seem to be in trouble, at least the publicly listed companies whose financials are available. Since last year they've been hoarding most of the coins they mined. Rather than sell their product, they've held onto the coins and instead used financing to pay for the ongoing expense of the mining operations. This was done either because the miners saw cash was cheap and hoped to sell the coins at a better price later, or because they were worried about crashing BTC price by selling. (Since I'm extremely suspicious of everything crypto and tend to think the whole market is 99% fake, I'm assuming it was mostly the latter.) Now their choices are dwindling and a firesale of BTC from miners may be at hand.
- bombcar 4y agoThere's not been much research into the depth of the market, but it's pretty clear that you can't sell into much of anything except BTC without greatly affecting the price (if you can even find buyers).
- Jorge1o1 4y agoWhich is why there was a ballooning of crypto-market makers. Thin markets and dozens of fragmented exchanges is paradise for a quant market maker. You setup a few dozen websockets and you get to charge some bitcoin miner 10bps per transaction for your “all-in-one API”.
- moneywoes 4y agoWould this not be accounted for already by citadel etc where can I learn more
- cehrlich 4y agoIf you look at the current crash on a Log chart it's not as bad as the 2018 crash was (yet?). I personally don't hold any crypto and don't care much for it either way, but it seems reasonable that companies that fundamentally believe in it (as opposed to riding the wave and buying football stadiums) would be in it for a long run and hopefully have what it takes to survive a serious crash.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoIt hasn't found its bottom yet. Bitcoin tends to have these cycles every ~5 years where it goes up by 5x and then drops to below its previous high.
- buitreVirtual 4y agoBitcoin was created in 2009. There are not enough data points to make a reliable prediction that it will go up again. This time a lot more people have had time to think if bitcoin and crypto are going to work at all. Also, there might not be enough new people after this cycle to join in the frenzy and bring the price back up. We might very well be at the end of the pyramid.
- avrionov 4y agoThe interest rates were low during the entire existence of bitcoin + QE for the same period. We don't know bitcoin and the rest of the crypto currencies will react to higher interest rates.
- ansible 4y agoIf this is the end of the pyramid scheme, then thank goodness. There is some legit usage for blockchain technology. Like Internet based distributed & encrypted storage (erasure coding FTW). Beyond that, I don't know.
- eric_cc 4y agoThe complete bullish thesis is still in tact. In fact, the thesis is as strong as it ever has been. Nothing has changed but the price.
- cmcconomy 4y agowhat's kraken
- Finnucane 4y agogiant squid that drags your boat to the bottom of the ocean.
- lbhdc 4y agoThis is from their about page (https://blog.kraken.com/about/ https://blog.kraken.com/about/) > Kraken is one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges and the leader in euro volume and liquidity. Globally, Kraken’s client base trades more than 90 digital assets and 7 different fiat currencies, including GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, JPY, CHF and AUD.
- mywittyname 4y ago"digital assets" "fiat currencies"
- cowtools 4y agoPretty sure "digital assets" is the wording used in legal contexts, especially because many "cryptocurrencies" are not really cryptocurrencies but instead tokens on someone else's cryptocurrency, or systems that are centrally-backed and controlled by some company like a stock or something. I think "fiat currencies" is just wording meant to differentiate conventional currencies from cryptocurrencies
- skeeter2020 4y agoMore importantly, what's a "Crypto-First Culture"?
- codeduck 4y agoinscrutability über alles
- datalopers 4y agoDuring times of stress many companies will create job postings for roles they're not actually going to fill, just as a way to present an image of success.
- banannaise 4y agoYeah, it sounds like a Goodhart's Law exploit: if public confidence is based on hiring/layoffs, make it look like you're hiring. Especially when your business is based on an intangible "asset" whose only value is public confidence.
- strongpigeon 4y agoThat's a fair take, especially for a market in which the general sentiment impacts them so much. I guess we'd have to see if they fill those positions to prove they ever intended to.
- boringg 4y agoReal question - how many mining operations are still going full steam ahead?
- reset-password 4y agoLooking at ethereum difficulty as an indicator it looks like current global mining is down around 11% from its peak, to where it was in mid-April.
- ivraatiems 4y ago"The ideal Krakenite is thick-skinned and well-intentioned." I think that means "if someone is mean to you, or says something offensive, you will be expected to suck it up and not complain. They meant well, after all." Also, edited because I just noticed: "It’s time to think about taking more of your paycheck in bitcoin because the fundamentals have only improved." That's insane. Sorry. "Take your money in a form that is rapidly losing value to prove your devotion to our cause" is the language of a cult. This is horrifying.
- Traster 4y agoYeah the thing that struck me about his Twitter thread was the absurd scare quotes around the terms he clearly disagreed with. It doesn’t come across as well intentioned at all. It’s like a get out of jail free card for literally any behaviour.
- Vanclief 4y agoThey also are looking "diversity of thought" over "stereotypical team diversity measurements". It looks like to me that they are looking for people with common sense that don't get offended by everything and don't make everything a political issue. I hope we get more companies to do that.
- ivraatiems 4y agoIt reads to me like they looked at what progressive-leaning companies put in their diversity statements and decided "we'll just do the opposite of that!" Their diversity/culture documentation is essentially a right-wing screed against "woke" companies. They're right about one thing: It's not particularly professional.
- babypuncher 4y agoWhy is it so hard for people not to be dicks? I manage to go to work every day and avoid harassing my co-workers just fine. Avoiding offensive language is not difficult unless you are an inherently offensive person...
- jonpurdy 4y agoI mean, it certainly makes it easier to try and hire if you're paying 40% less than Coinbase (at least as of mid-2020)※. ※ - Kraken offer was 120K USD with no room to negotiate, Coinbase pre-offer was ~170K base + ~30K options/year + bonus. Edit: forgot to mention the weird interview process where they had the interviewee video on, but the interviewers were audio only. Hopefully that has changed since then.
- benjaminwootton 4y agoCoinbase then had to lay off 18% of the workforce, so it doesn’t sound like the higher salaries were sustainable.
- phillipcarter 4y agoCoinbase-level salaries are perfectly sustainable in this market. But over-hiring for massive product investments, none of which pan out over a whole year, is not sustainable.
- rpmisms 4y agoIf Kraken is making a serious effort to avoid laying people off, the former is significantly more appealing.
- jonpurdy 4y agoI wouldn't take either offer today for different reasons, but this was during the hiring ramp up right after the March 2020 COVID shutdowns. No reason to take an offer that was significantly lower at that time.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y agoStability is worth something, but is it worth 2x? Unless you're extremely unlucky (and many engineers are far from living paycheck to paycheck and can afford to take some risks) you're better off with the "unstable" company - even if you get the sack after 2 years and then take a year off until you find something you really like, you're better off than if you worked 3 years at the company with the lower offer.
- faangiq 4y ago
- renewiltord 4y agoYou also trade there? Haha, that websocket.
- lfkdev 4y agoKraken is acutally the most solid and stable exchange, compared to Coinbase and all the others.
- dsco 4y agoCEO is on point about the counter productive SJW culture. It fascinating to see it also have a foothold on HN https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1536978821345292288?s=21&t=E6CQQkioi6VQNMIaIWHTAQ https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1536978821345292288?s=21&t...
- mistersquid 4y ago> CEO is on point about the counter productive SJW culture. Let’s see what happens when, per the CEO, the other shoe drops “in the next few days”. > Someone's likely been sharing internal chat (in breach of their NDA) devoid of context, with a journalist who we expect to publish a hit piece in the next few days. I just want to say we welcome all, and don't believe the news.
- cowtools 4y agoI agree. I think everyone in this thread needs to take a step back and stop being so prejudiced about some situation when no one in the public has the full story yet.
- rdl 4y agoThe article was https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/technology/kraken-crypto-culture.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/technology/kraken-crypto-... -- it was pretty milquetoast.
- afavour 4y agoFar from the worst I’ve seen. But there’s a certain irony in regarding “SJW”s as being counter productive while authoring a 31 page manifesto on company culture and gun ownership(?!). It sounds like an exhausting workplace and frankly like the CEO does not have his eye on the ball.
- KrakenEng 4y agoThis is exactly how I feel. I was heads down getting my work done, when suddenly the CEO plunges the entire company headlong into the culture war. It is counterproductive and bad leadership.
- afavour 4y agoLet’s see how many people they actually hire. To me this smells of PR: push a load of employees out the door under the guise of their views not being “diverse” enough and cover it up by insisting you’re bringing on 500 people. Just after your competitor announced huge layoffs, during a huge downturn in your industry.
- LatteLazy 4y agoHiring when others are firing seems like a smart move if you can afford it
- avrionov 4y agoHere is the Vice article about Kraken. https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zwb7/crypto-exchange-ceo-calls-employees-triggered-bans-calling-things-racist-at-work https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zwb7/crypto-exchange-ceo-c...
- ISL 4y agoThat article appears to link to an NYT article, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/technology/kraken-crypto-culture.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/technology/kraken-crypto-...
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- xkbarkar 4y ago
- rdl 4y agoThe NYT hit piece referenced in the article was fairly milquetoast: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/technology/kraken-crypto-culture.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/technology/kraken-crypto-... If it's accurate (big IF for NYT), there is plenty I'd personally disagree with (keeping non-work related conversations out of work IM servers seems great; being inclusive when it doesn't cost anything is a good idea), but in principle I support their mission-first idea.
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- SassyGrapefruit 4y agoI don't believe you. If you wanted to hire me you wouldn't insist that I provide both my linkedin and resume despite being the same thing.
- lfkdev 4y agoKraken always was and still is the most solid exchange. And the ONLY one that didn't got hacked but is there since the beginning.
- MrMan 4y agoI don't like people who posture as being dangerous.
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- Ava433 4y ago