Coinbase Lays Off Nearly 700 Workers In 'AI-Native' Restructuring 28
Coinbase is laying off about 700 workers, or 14% of its workforce, as CEO Brian Armstrong says the company is restructuring to become "lean, fast, and AI-native." Engadget reports: Armstrong claimed he'd seen engineers "use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks" and that non-technical teams in the company are "shipping production code," while Coinbase is automating many of its workflows. "All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company," Armstrong wrote. "The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core."
An AI-driven restructuring is only one half of the equation for Coinbase, though. Armstrong wrote that while the company "is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams and is well-positioned to weather any storm," the crypto market is down. As such, Coinbase is attempting to become leaner and faster ahead of the next crypto cycle. The company is eliminating some management layers and organizing the business around "AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact," Armstrong wrote. "We'll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including 'one person teams' with engineers, designers and product managers all in one role." That sure sounds like an attempt to get workers to take on more responsibilities.
An AI-driven restructuring is only one half of the equation for Coinbase, though. Armstrong wrote that while the company "is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams and is well-positioned to weather any storm," the crypto market is down. As such, Coinbase is attempting to become leaner and faster ahead of the next crypto cycle. The company is eliminating some management layers and organizing the business around "AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact," Armstrong wrote. "We'll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including 'one person teams' with engineers, designers and product managers all in one role." That sure sounds like an attempt to get workers to take on more responsibilities.
First Post (Score:1)
I'm surprised we don't have AI beating me to this!
Re: (Score:2)
I would have preferred a frosty piss explaining WTF "coinbase" is and what actual useful economic function it actually has, since this is information sadly missing from TFS and TFH, alas...
But then it is apparently a "shitcoin exchange", that is, a betting site, so whatever.
Really? Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Really? Wow! (Score:4, Insightful)
Also I am so fucking sick of how AI makes it so that we can pretend Trump didn't put us into a recession. It is stupidly obvious we are in recession right now but because of the AI bubble and AI washing of layoffs we can all just pretend we aren't.
Re: (Score:1)
With a dodgy asset ...
No. Coinbase also handles real "fiat" currencies, real stock, real ETFs, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Non-technical teams shipping production code will make all assets dodgy, methinks.
Re: (Score:3)
Have you ever tried to use Coinbase when the site was busy? It's a disaster. You're not going to be able to convince me that unstable crap was ever properly QA tested or load tested.
Re: Really? Wow! (Score:3)
I remember attempting to buy $100 worth of bitcoins when they were around $0.10 or maybe around d $1. I could well afford the loss, just in case, but all the sites had massively suspicious credit card handling and I just gave up. I would be very wealthy now, but this did convince me that the whole crypto environment was just shooting everything from the hip.
Coinbase is just confirming that nothing has changed. Having folks with zero security mindset shipping production code, is already bad when they are tra
And they want to handle our "money" ? (Score:2)
"non-technical teams in the company are "shipping production code,""
And they expect us to trust them enough to handle our "money"? Sorry, "move fast and break things" is for irrelevant stuff like social media, not financial software.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes they expect you to trust them. After all, coin buyers are already a self-selected group of known gullible individuals.
Go fishing in the lake that gets restocked.
Re: (Score:2)
Hahahah, indeed. That one is called "delusion". The fireworks will be impressive.
Can't wait (Score:3)
Can't wait until AI makes a security hole and a billion dollars' worth of cryptocurrency disappears overnight.
Everything you hate in one company (Score:5, Insightful)
Crypto grift, AI bubble and psychopathic billionaire CEO.
Re: (Score:1)
Crypto grift, AI bubble and psychopathic billionaire CEO.
Don't forget holding your retirement portfolios of stocks, bonds, ETFs, etc too :-)
Re: (Score:3)
AI is hitting crypto like a truck (Score:2, Flamebait)
Also the orange one keeps slamming the markets through sheer incompetence and because of that the crypto markets take a hit because they are more or less tied to the state of the real markets. Despite what they will tell you.
Bitcoin isn't quite at the bottom it was at before but i
Re: (Score:2)
It makes a lot more sense to use off-cycle power for AI inference (or training) than it does for mining tokens, too.
Re: (Score:2)
If you knew anything about proof of work, you'd know the bitcoin protocol self-adjusts difficulty in 2,016 block intervals. Every 2,016 blocks the bitcoin network adjusts difficulty up or down depending on how many blocks were mined in the previous 20,160 minutes. If more than 2,016 blocks were mined, difficulty is raised. If less, difficulty is lowered.
This difficulty adjustment, which occurs every 2 weeks (give or take) keeps the bitcoin mining reward in balance the the electrical cost of mining.
Therefore
Let's call it what it is (Score:3)
We hired too many devs, we are laying them off, we are blaming AI.
Re: (Score:3)
Either that or "we are firing devs we really need and creating a massive problem".
Re: (Score:2)
The article didn't mention "devs", just something vague about management layers.
I think the approaching macroeconomic downturn is an equal motivator to any overhiring they did. Luxuries are the hardest-hit segment during a depression. People won't have money to gamble on Coinbase anymore. Or invest, I guess - God help the poor souls who think that's what they're doing.
Coinbase was a train wreck already (Score:3, Interesting)
AI-Native? (Score:3)
AI-Native you say? ... you mean hype-compliant.
Oh, I see
Mobile first (Score:2)
AI-native?
Is that like mobile first?
Cool. I’m so impressed.
Translation: (Score:1)
"Our current BS isn't working, NEW BS now!"