Coinbase To Close San Francisco Offices For Good, Will Have No Headquarters (sfgate.com) 32
The biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has announced it will close its San Francisco offices for good. SFGate reports: The company -- founded in June 2012 by former Airbnb engineer Brian Armstrong -- has had a speedy rise to the top in the nascent crypto industry, though its practices have also sometimes stoked controversy. [...] Coinbase's 1,200 employees are now decentralizing, and the company will no longer have a physical headquarters at all. The announcement on Twitter on Wednesday that the company's Market Street offices would shutter next year wasn't a total shock. A year ago, Armstrong announced the company would be "remote first" and not have a specific headquarters. Coinbase say they will instead offer some smaller offices elsewhere, but didn't give details. "Closing our SF office is an important step in ensuring no office becomes an unofficial HQ and will mean career outcomes are based on capability and output rather than location," the company said in a statement. "Instead, we will offer a network of smaller offices for our employees to work from if they choose to."
CloudCoin (Score:1)
FluffCoin?
Re: CloudCoin (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
This is just the next logical step in the scam. Eliminating offices makes it harder for you to figure out who stole your money.
Re: CloudCoin (Score:5, Insightful)
It harder for the SEC/FBI to raid offices too if you don't have any.
Tougher to coordinate raids on every officers individual homes etc, with lots more opportunity to pop off that snap chat or whatsapp message to the tune of "feds coming up my drive, start shredding your stuff"
Re: CloudCoin (Score:5, Informative)
What is the point of having your coins in an exchange? Seems to me that would eliminate one of the reasons to have them in the first place. With all the theft that seems to always happen at these places, why would you trust one now?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
What is the point of having your coins in an exchange? Seems to me that would eliminate one of the reasons to have them in the first place. With all the theft that seems to always happen at these places, why would you trust one now?
Transaction fees are becoming considerable. Bitcoin average transaction fees are around $20 on average now, but on April 21 were $60. I believe if you are transferring within an exchange, the fees are generally much more reasonable or even "0" if the institution does exchanges based on a spread.
Coinbase is no Mt. Gox. They weren't amateurs when they started, they have been around a while, and they hold massive assets. It can be certain that some very smart people have tried to breach their security. W
Somewhere ... (Score:3)
Good luck serving those subpoenas.
Re: Somewhere ... (Score:2)
Yeah, good luck keeping customers. The entire value proposition for CoinBase is "it's a licensed American exchange".
Re: (Score:2)
"it's a licensed American exchange"
You say that like it's a good thing. I want my bank, brokerage and Bitcoin exchange to be nothing more than a locked file cabinet in the basement of a Cayman Island law office. In a disused restroom with a sign on the door reading "Beware of the Leopard".
Anything as far from the reach of FATCA [wikipedia.org] as possible.
Re: Somewhere ... (Score:2)
Most of us aren't criminals though, so offshore accounts just add risk.
Re: (Score:2)
Most of us aren't criminals
Neither am I. I just don't want congressional reps front running my investment plans.
Re: (Score:2)
It says right in the summary that they will have some smaller offices, and unless their employees physically relocate overseas they will still be subject to US laws.
This is a good move. For once they aren't full of it when they say that it will allow them to reward talent and ability, rather than location.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
cognitive dissonance (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as "number go up", nobody in the crypto community cares about anything else.
Coinbase can shut down all offices and not take care of any customers.
Tether and Bitfinex can print stablecoins out of thin air with no backing.
NFTs can be generated on anything and everything and it's cool.
Re: (Score:1)
This tells me the hammer's about to drop (Score:3)
ie. FU San Fran CEO tax (Score:2, Insightful)
..
Re: (Score:3)
You gotta be kidding. If you think these wealthy people pay much at all then you're delusional. They have very, very good accountants that make sure they do not. And if the CEO or those who really make the large do not LIVE in SF (only tourists call it 'San Fran') then how can they pay a "CEO" tax. SMFH. heh.
Their representative agent becomes the HQ (Score:2)
Boy, I would not want to be their representative agent with a physical presence in whatever place they (re-)incorporate. Not having your own token headquarters is a pretty bad move if you want to be publicly traded.
Re: Their representative agent becomes the HQ (Score:2)
They don't really care about the expectations of traditional investors, that's not who they are marketing to. They need to meet regulatory requirements and that's it. The registered representative will do what they have to for their pay cheque.
where to go when you need help ? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
There will have to be some presence... (Score:1)
Babysteps (Score:1)
next up : "the state vs. no one"
its the hardest thing if you're cro-magnons, this loose-collective thing
the no doors policy (Score:2)
And it will make it harder for the Feds to pound-in our door once this anti-social crap becomes illegal.