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Polygon Labs Cuts 20% Workforce, Almost 100 Jobs

60 points by latchkey 4y ago

wincy 4y ago
Not to be confused with Polygon the gaming website. I was amazed for a second that a gaming website Polygon had 500 employees. The fact that an Ethereum startup has 500 employees also seems ridiculous, but I also missed the boat on Bitcoin when it was a few dollars a coin, so what do I know.
- CobrastanJorji 4y ago
  I'm a fellow boat misser! Me and some friends were joking about buying something or other with Bitcoin in the very early days (I think somebody had made a vending machine, or maybe we were talking about splitting the cost of a pizza, and I think it would've involved several thousand bitcoins?), and we got about 30 minutes into figuring it out and then got bored and stopped. I'm pretty sure I could have bought a house with the change that would've been leftover from that if we'd finished. Regardless, I've been telling people not to use Bitcoin for years and years, and until recently, I was wrong every year. But I'm finally right!
  - jcliff 4y ago
    sorry, you're still wrong. currency debasement and bitcoin aren't going anywhere.
    - CobrastanJorji 4y ago
      Currerncy debasement? My dude, $60,000 in Bitcoin in late 2021 is worth only $25,000 today. If debasement is the problem, Bitcoin is not the solution.
  - hinkley 4y ago
    If I'd kept every AAPL share I ever purchased I'd be retired now. But no friends or financial advisers would ever let me keep 100% of my investments in a single security. As an adult you have to stop playing what if all the time with your past or you'll get paralyzed about every decision you're making now. Or sink into a depression that shortens your life expectancy. But thoughts about perfect trade execution aren't just childish, they're pure fiction. If you did things over you still wouldn't be a billionaire. Stop picking at that scab and go do something life affirming.
- pcthrowaway 4y ago
  Polygon is behind a lot of the ZK-SNARK and ZK-STARK research, and I believe they have several Layer 2s in development based on that technology (as well as the separate PoS network, Polygon, which is checkpointed to the mainnet). I'm surprised they only have 500 employees to be honest, but there's a good chance a lot of the work in the space is done in collaboration with other companies and open source contributors
  - photon12 4y ago
    Here's an open ZK benchmark project that Polygon Miden (their primary STARK product) is a part of: https://github.com/delendum-xyz/zk-benchmarking https://github.com/delendum-xyz/zk-benchmarking They are going big on scaling Ethereum with zero-knowledge (or more accurately, succinct but not necessarily zero-knowledge) proofs. I used to work for one of their competitors also in that project, but all the Polygon people I've talked to on the ZK side are very sharp.
  - cactusplant7374 4y ago
    The goal is faster and cheaper transactions but still secure? This is becoming an arduous march for Ethereum.
- deleted 4y ago
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oofta-boofta 4y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 4y ago
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wonderwonder 4y ago
"In Jan. 2022, Nailwal announced he would be returning $100 million USDC that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin had previously sent to Nailwal's initiative for Indian COVID-19 relief efforts." You were given a 100 million to help a country with massive poverty during the height of COVID and didn't spend it? Why open yourself up as a charity if you don't have the proper certifications? I'm sure he meant well but come on man. Also Vitalik is high on my list of people I'd like to sit and have a coffee with. Dude seems like a good person overall with an Einstein level IQ
- ldehaan 4y ago
  How long did they hold it and where, I imagine they made payroll with the returns.
- captn3m0 4y ago
  It still holds $312M or so, most of it (270M) in crypto holdings. Last few disbursals were just towards some research programs. Total disbursals were $58M https://cryptorelief.in/transparency https://cryptorelief.in/transparency

60 points by latchkey 4y ago

Not to be confused with Polygon the gaming website. I was amazed for a second that a gaming website Polygon had 500 employees. The fact that an Ethereum startup has 500 employees also seems ridiculous, but I also missed the boat on Bitcoin when it was a few dollars a coin, so what do I know.

CobrastanJorji 4y ago
I'm a fellow boat misser! Me and some friends were joking about buying something or other with Bitcoin in the very early days (I think somebody had made a vending machine, or maybe we were talking about splitting the cost of a pizza, and I think it would've involved several thousand bitcoins?), and we got about 30 minutes into figuring it out and then got bored and stopped. I'm pretty sure I could have bought a house with the change that would've been leftover from that if we'd finished. Regardless, I've been telling people not to use Bitcoin for years and years, and until recently, I was wrong every year. But I'm finally right!
- jcliff 4y ago
  sorry, you're still wrong. currency debasement and bitcoin aren't going anywhere.
  - CobrastanJorji 4y ago
    Currerncy debasement? My dude, $60,000 in Bitcoin in late 2021 is worth only $25,000 today. If debasement is the problem, Bitcoin is not the solution.
- hinkley 4y ago
  If I'd kept every AAPL share I ever purchased I'd be retired now. But no friends or financial advisers would ever let me keep 100% of my investments in a single security. As an adult you have to stop playing what if all the time with your past or you'll get paralyzed about every decision you're making now. Or sink into a depression that shortens your life expectancy. But thoughts about perfect trade execution aren't just childish, they're pure fiction. If you did things over you still wouldn't be a billionaire. Stop picking at that scab and go do something life affirming.
pcthrowaway 4y ago
Polygon is behind a lot of the ZK-SNARK and ZK-STARK research, and I believe they have several Layer 2s in development based on that technology (as well as the separate PoS network, Polygon, which is checkpointed to the mainnet). I'm surprised they only have 500 employees to be honest, but there's a good chance a lot of the work in the space is done in collaboration with other companies and open source contributors
- photon12 4y ago
  Here's an open ZK benchmark project that Polygon Miden (their primary STARK product) is a part of: https://github.com/delendum-xyz/zk-benchmarking https://github.com/delendum-xyz/zk-benchmarking They are going big on scaling Ethereum with zero-knowledge (or more accurately, succinct but not necessarily zero-knowledge) proofs. I used to work for one of their competitors also in that project, but all the Polygon people I've talked to on the ZK side are very sharp.
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  The goal is faster and cheaper transactions but still secure? This is becoming an arduous march for Ethereum.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

oofta-boofta 4y ago

[flagged]

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

wonderwonder 4y ago

"In Jan. 2022, Nailwal announced he would be returning $100 million USDC that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin had previously sent to Nailwal's initiative for Indian COVID-19 relief efforts." You were given a 100 million to help a country with massive poverty during the height of COVID and didn't spend it? Why open yourself up as a charity if you don't have the proper certifications? I'm sure he meant well but come on man. Also Vitalik is high on my list of people I'd like to sit and have a coffee with. Dude seems like a good person overall with an Einstein level IQ

ldehaan 4y ago
How long did they hold it and where, I imagine they made payroll with the returns.
captn3m0 4y ago
It still holds $312M or so, most of it (270M) in crypto holdings. Last few disbursals were just towards some research programs. Total disbursals were $58M https://cryptorelief.in/transparency https://cryptorelief.in/transparency