sooo about this coinbase blog post. you know, when you publish something like this, you might piss off some of your team. and then they might talk.

(p.s. to coinbase GSOC: it's nobody you expect and thankfully many cb employees know the importance of encryption and opsec. ) https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1310301482101563392

so let's start back in june.

in the wake of the horrendous murder of george floyd, companies were doing their white text on black background "standing with the Black community" statements.

even google, who had been mum on racism for their entire existence, said something.

some examples:

https://twitter.com/Google/status/1268218558263078912

https://twitter.com/salesforce/status/1266066647275757568

https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1266829242353893376

you know what's coming next.

coinbase did _not_ release one of these statements.

the only hint at support of Black lives, or even the Black community, was the coinbase twitter account retweeting the following tweet from brian: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1268622377182621696?lang=en

nothing else.

now you may read that tweet and the following thread and think how did the person who wrote *that* thread also write *this* blog post: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804

i'll tell you how: he had no choice but to post* that thread.

*i'll get into the use of "post" here later

why do i think he had no choice? well, something happened at coinbase that likely forced his hand:

a large portion of the coinbase engineering team walked off the job just before that thread went up because brian *wouldn't* say "black lives matter."

now i said "post" because i don't think he wrote that thread. i'd bet my paycheck on it.

i strongly believe he posted the thread that a (crisis?) comms person wrote for him so his engineering team would get back to work. the blog post is more reflective of his *true* feelings.

i believe having his hand forced by that walkoff pissed him off and he's retaliating: with the blog post, with the policy changes, and the other internal coinbase changes (slack channels for asking execs questions have been deleted, all hands questions must now be pre-vetted).

so tl;dr

coinbase engineers walked off because brian wouldn't say "Black Lives Matter," he posted it so they'd get back to work, now he's having an executive "YOU AREN'T THE BOSS OF ME!" meltdown* about it.

*executive meltdowns come in many flavors

anyway coinbase people looking to get out? get in touch. i know some places that would love to hire you.

but remember not to do it from your corporate controlled devices!

k bye!