
Coinbase will be a remote-first company - sachitgupta
https://blog.coinbase.com/post-covid-19-coinbase-will-be-a-remote-first-company-cdac6e621df7?gi=97cf312cab0b
======
Cookingboy
I'm really curious, how many people actually prefer WFH permanently vs. just
having the flexibility to WFH when wanted.

If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a
long time ago, but I enjoy going to office and there is a lot of benefits that
you don't get from being remote 100%. I've also made very good friends at work
and I see my coworkers as much more than just another GitHub account that
reviews my Pull Requests.

But again, maybe I'm the exception to the rule and most engineers just want to
stay focused on their immediate work and not leave the house and minimize
human interaction. But knowing my own personality, if I know a company is
mostly remote work culture I'll likely cross it out from my list of places to
work.

Also I saw this from the blog post:

>There are no explicit or implicit disadvantages to working from any location:
all employees have the same experience regardless of where they are.

Unless Coinbase somehow figured out a way to discard factors caused by human
psychology from millions of years of evolution, I just don't see how that's
possible for anything other than low to mid-tier ICs with minimal no career
ambition.

From my personal experiences most high level decisions are made, or at least
started from countless hallway/micro-kitchen conversations or informal coffee
walks, and meetings are just a way to present to people of decisions that's
already made.

The cynical part of me thinks all this "WFH Permanently" initiative is just a
disguise for companies to start lowering cost for entry to mid-level IC
positions by hiring from areas with much cheaper CoL. Which makes sense, there
is nothing special about an entry level JS frontend dev in SF that warrants
you paying them $150k/yr when you can hire the same talent from another state
for half that much or from a different country for a quarter that much.

~~~
LB232323
I have been working remote by choice for years. You don't have to stay at
home, you just need internet access. This means you have the freedom to work
from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web.

This is a pretty straightforward advantage of the internet. Some jobs have
always been "remote". For example, writers still type their manuscripts from
anywhere and mail them to editors. However, only some jobs work like this.
When I did service or blue collar work I always had to be on the site to
physically work the capital.

As for "career ambition", you can make plenty of money or a modest income from
remote jobs. Beyond jobs, you can easily own an online business or some other
digital capital through the same infrastructure. There is more to life and to
work than a high salary. Greed is not a virtue.

You don't have to sell your soul and most of the waking hours of your life to
commute to an office, deal with the attached bullshit, and integrate yourself
into the corporate machine.

Instead, you have the freedom to actually live your life. Be with you family,
friends, pursue your passions, even something as simple as being able access
nature or travel freely. Whatever living means to you beyond working.

From the outside looking in, the mirage of SV corporate culture seems really
fake and hollow. I do not want a hip fancy office full of zany perks and a
weird cult. I understand the power balance as a worker. In any job, I want to
put in my time and hard work, earn an honest living, and then be free to live
as a real human being.

~~~
sverhagen
> I do not want a hip fancy office full of zany perks and a weird cult.

Notice taken. Good for you (not sarcastic). This is why you "have been working
remote by choice for years". But as the OP said:

> If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job
> a long time ago

...and he didn't. Neither did I. In the past I have worked remotely for about
a year, it wasn't great (admitted that company wasn't set up for it). I am
doing it now, and I'm miserable about it.

So, OP's point seems not that something is inherently wrong or bad with either
mode of working, rather that people who used to be going to the office may not
necessarily be happy, or interested, to become remote workers. (Not even
because it works well for you.)

I did a nothing little survey during our past team retrospective, and from a
dozen of folks 1) most of them want more days working from home than pre-
pandemic, 2) most of them would then want more work time in the office than
from home, and 3) all of them are desperately looking forward to going into
the office again for any sort of time.

~~~
lstodd
> 3) all of them are desperately looking forward to going into the office
> again for any sort of time.

This basically means that they did not modify their lifestyle for remote work.

Purging office bullshit from your life requires some changes in lifestyle, no
question about it. The workplace has to be established, distractions (much
less than what is in the office, but still) have to be managed. Social needs
have to be satisfied sy some other means.

Still, work from anywhere (not home, mind you, and please do not confuse the
two) is much better.

~~~
Cookingboy
>This basically means that they did not modify their lifestyle for remote
work.

I really can't understand how one can be this shallow minded. Maybe the life
style required to make remote work effective is not the desirable lifestyle
for everyone? Maybe people value different things in life? Or maybe some
people actually enjoy the place of their work and the physical presence of
their coworkers?

>Purging office bullshit

For a lot of people offices offers a lot more benefits other than bullshit.
Maybe your experience with office work came from a place with super toxic work
culture? It sure sounds like it from how bitter you sound and I can understand
how that contributed to your bias.

>Still, work from anywhere (not home, mind you, and please do not confuse the
two) is much better.

For you, and for the type of work you do, maybe. But blanket statements like
that is just silly.

~~~
lstodd
What I say is that _if_ they would have changed their lifestyle _then_ they
would not have craved the office experience.

There is nothing shallow about this observation.

If they chose not to it's fine. They just missed a different and, in my
opinion, a better experience. Their choice.

I cannot in good faith come up with a type of work that genuinely requires
being in an office. Not on a workfloor, not in a lab, not in a conference room
- an office.

Please enlighten me.

Social aspects of offices are overrated. Less formal association is better if
only because no one is forced into them.

~~~
Cookingboy
>What I say is that _if_ they would have changed their lifestyle _then_ they
would not have craved the office experience.

I can say the same thing about WFH. If you have made the lifestyle adjustment
then you wouldn't crave to be working remotely either.

Btw I don't know what kind of lifestyle adjust you were thinking about that
can magically change someone's personality or family situation.

>If they chose not to it's fine. They just missed a different and, in my
opinion, a better experience. Their choice.

Exactly, it is _your_ opinion, but not a universal fact.

>I cannot in good faith come up with a type of work that genuinely requires
being in an office.

Just like how you prefer WFH even when your job doesn't _require_ you to work
from home, a lot of people can prefer to work at an office even though it's
not _required_.

>Social aspects of offices are overrated. Less formal association is better if
only because no one is forced into them.

For you, maybe. I find my social interaction at office to be neither overrated
nor forced.

~~~
partyboat1586
Your work buddys today will be gone tomorrow. Most work relationships are
shallow and transitory. If that's your thing because you're extroverted then
great but a lot of people in tech are more ambiverted or introverted, they
value deeper more meaningful relationships.

What I see a lot is introverted or ambiverted people tricked into believing
their work buddies will call after they leave the company. Tricked into
spending time on this shallowness outside of work hours + commute time over
spending time with the people in their lives that really matter and will be
there for them in darker times.

Sure there are a minority of extroverted people who want to be in the office
because they want social time all the time, shallow or not. There are also
parents who want some time away from home. On the other hand there are
introverted people who want to be in the office because that's the only place
they know how to get their social need filled anymore even though it's not
truly fulfilling.

~~~
filmgirlcw
> What I see a lot is introverted or ambiverted people tricked into believing
> their work buddies will call after they leave the company. Tricked into
> spending time on this shallowness outside of work hours + commute time over
> spending time with the people in their lives that really matter and will be
> there for them in darker times.

I’m sorry you’ve apparently had bad experiences (and I’m trying really hard to
be charitable here and not make some sort of dig about how you clearly
struggle to make friends and choose to cover it up by asserting that “most”
work relationships are shallow and transitory and that people without social
skills really just seek out “deeper” and “more meaningful relationship” —
whoops, I failed), but this is absolute bullshit.

 _Most_ relationships are based, at least in part, by proximity. With co-
workers, the initial bond is usually the work itself and the fact that you see
each other frequently. The same is true for the people you get to know in
primary/secondary school or in college/university. Even online, relationships
are often based on being active on the same platforms — proximity.

Obviously there are plenty of people you can get to know and have good
interactions with when you’re around each other that will disappear when you
aren’t anymore — but how do those “deeper, more meaningful” relationships
form? It takes effort from both parties.

Adults spend a significant portion of their lives working. To claim that the
relationships people form at work are somehow less real or less important —
just because someone you used to work with didn’t respond to your texts or
agree to join your MLM, is beyond insipid.

This is anecdotal but by no means unique: the people I talk to most on a daily
basis — the people I trust and rely on the most — are largely current or
former co-workers. I have built long-lasting friendships and relationships
with my co-workers, past and present.

Yes, it’s absolutely possible to build relationships with co-workers without
being in the office (the team I’ve worked on for 3 years has been distributed,
with most people not having any office to report to), but it’s also a very
valid advantage of having an actual office to work from. As remote-first as my
team is, the people I’m closest with are people I’ve spent at least some time
with in person — people I’ve traveled with or bonded with at off-sites.

For me, being able to physically spend time with my co-workers is hugely
important. It doesn’t need to be every day. But a few times a year makes a
huge difference in building trust and a rapport that can be more effective at
actually getting work done — whether we’re coworkers, work-friends, or form a
long-lasting relationship that transcends who signs our paycheck.

~~~
partyboat1586
I'm not taking about myself. I don't have any trouble making friends and I'm
not introverted. Also using that as a jab is... well we will get to that.

I'm talking for people I've known who were in this situation because they
won't talk about it themselves... Because they are introverted they are only
going to talk about it with people they are close to. I've been close with a
lot of introverted people because I love getting to know people and I care
about them.

You seem to think that introverted people are not as good as everyone else
because they struggle to make friends. That is fucked up. That is the kind of
shit they deal with all the time and you wonder why so many introverts have
social anxiety.

I never said all work relationships are shallow and I'm not devaluing shallow
relationships either. I'm saying shallow relationships have less value for
introverted people and it takes social energy for them to participate in these
relationships that could be better spent elsewhere.

I personally love being in an office where I can spend time with my co
workers. I go to the social events, I spend time with them outside of work.
Because I have more social energy than introverted people and I don't care
that I won't see most of these people in a few years.

I personally think the ideal situation for an introvert is a long term job
working at a small company with the same people. Unfortunately that's hard to
come by. Most introverted people would be better off with remote work because
they can then live in the same city as their close friends and don't have to
expend so much social energy just to get a paycheck.

~~~
filmgirlcw
> You seem to think that introverted people are not as good as everyone else
> because they struggle to make friends. That is fucked up. That is the kind
> of shit they deal with all the time and you wonder why so many introverts
> have social anxiety.

No, that’s absolutely not what I said or even insinuated. To be very clear,
there is absolutely no value judgment on being an introvert or an extrovert.
Instead, I think people who undermine and write-off people who appreciate
being around others as superficial and “surface” (like you have repeatedly),
are assholes trying to overcompensate for something. You don’t know me and I
don’t know you. I’m not a classic extrovert. I’m definitely comfortable around
people and probably come across as a typical extrovert, but I’m perfectly
happy being alone and had to work extremely hard as a child to be be more
comfortable around others. And I’ve had diagnosed anxiety (sometimes so
crippling I couldn’t pick up the phone and call to order pizza and at times
couldn’t even leave my house), since I was 6 years old — so you can fuck right
off with the insinuation that only introverts have social anxiety or that they
are even remotely linked. They aren’t. So stop with the straw man arguments.

Remote or in-person, if you want to build an actual friendship with someone —
whether they are a coworker or not — it takes work on both sides. Most of the
people we call “friends” at various times in our lives will not be around for
prolonged periods of time — just as most of us won’t be on beck and call to a
person they went to school with 20 years ago and only interact with as much as
liking the occasional Facebook post. That has absolutely nothing to do with
remote work.

Those “close friends” you speak of for introverts — a not insignificant
portion of those friendships were absolutely built at work.

You’re the one putting negative value judgments on those who dare opine that
they enjoy having an office because they like to engage with others by
undermining and dismissing their relationships — not me.

~~~
partyboat1586
>You’re the one putting negative value judgments on those who dare opine that
they enjoy having an office because they like to engage with others by
undermining and dismissing their relationships — not me.

I specifically said I'm in the camp of wanting to work in an office and
enjoying those connections and relationships. Did you miss that part? What am
I missing here?

I don't want to devalue extroverted people! I'm not trying to attack you or
anyone else for liking to make more connections with people.

I think I must have triggered you with the word 'shallow' lots of extroverted
people (including me in the past) get triggered by that word because they know
they are not shallow on the inside. I'm not calling you or other extroverted
people shallow or superficial because you like to spend time around people. I
should know because people have accused me of the same. What I am saying is
that on average extroverted people have more friends and acquaintances than
introverted people and spend more time with people they don't know that well.
And most importantly that extroverted people have the energy to do that and
derive energy from that.

Introverted people loose energy by spending time around people they are not
close to. Building relationships requires more energy for them. This is why
remote working because work does consist of many shallow (can't think of
another way to put it) relationships and that is draining on an introverted
person if those relationships don't have a long term trajectory.

I'm also not saying that extroverted people can't have social anxiety. They
can. 100% and it can be even worse.

What I am saying is the reason that introverts have more social anxiety on
average is because people judge them for being introverted. Because they have
less of themselves to give. It sounded very much like that was what you were
doing in your previous post by first assuming I was introverted and then
directly attacking me for 'strugling to make friends'. A trait of many
introverted people. I fail to see how that is not a value judgement against
introverts. It came across as very cruel and mocking.

------
kjakm
I've noticed a lot of comments from people who don't like WFH or want a mix of
home and office life. I've done both so I understand this.

I'm curious though how this attitude will change if a lot more companies (and
eventually a majority) move to remote work. Currently (pre-pandemic) when I
WFH my friends are all at their offices. So is my partner. I'm alone.
Therefore I like going into the office a few days a week for the social
aspect, even if it's just a chat at lunch. If more people are WFH though I
might be able to meet my local friends at lunch. Or meet specific people at
cafés or other locations to work together for a couple of hours. I would be
able to invest in a better home office setup too.

People see quite divided on this issue (I love WFH/I hate WFH) so maybe it's
important to keep in mind that the WFH you are currently experiencing is
nothing like a normal WFH (due to the pandemic) and if lots more people start
WFH then WFH in general has the possibility to change drastically and be much
less solitary.

------
aprao
Official statement here: [https://blog.coinbase.com/post-covid-19-coinbase-
will-be-a-r...](https://blog.coinbase.com/post-covid-19-coinbase-will-be-a-
remote-first-company-cdac6e621df7) (Although it's annoying that I need to
signup for an account to read the statement of a company's CEO)

Wonder how they are going to handle the complexities around crypto custody
(esp. cold storage), given it's hard to sign transactions with multiple
signatures when your workforce is distributed.

~~~
sneak
> _Wonder how they are going to handle the complexities around crypto custody
> (esp. cold storage), given it 's hard to sign transactions with multiple
> signatures when your workforce is distributed._

Multisig works great across distances. I’ve built coordination apps for
multiple distributed parties to propose and approve and sign Bitcoin
transactions before. It’s pretty straightforward.

------
baxtr
I really like WFH. And I’m fortunate to work for a tech company that has been
allowing this for years now.

But recently in discussions about this topic it feels like WFH fans want to
“convert” Office fans to their preferred model. I don’t think that’s the right
approach. Let’s just accept that the world is complex and people are
different. I don’t think it’s necessary to convince the other side everyone
should work from home from now on.

~~~
Cookingboy
>But recently in discussions about this topic it feels like WFH fans want to
“convert” Office fans to their preferred model. I don’t think that’s the right
approach.

Thank you for that nuanced view. Many comments here want to drive home the
point about how all office offers is "bullshit" and "distraction and toxic
culture", and anyone who enjoys working at an office with coworkers don't care
about actual productivity and only want to do it because they want have
someone to gossip with during the day...

There was literally a top comment here that implies someone isn't even living
the life of a "real human being" if he's not WFH. That is such a ridiculous
stance to take.

People have different personalties and value different things in life and are
in different situations in life, there is no one solution that would make
everyone happy.

~~~
rglullis
I think yours and the parent's issue is in misunderstanding the difference
between WFH and "remote work".

Remote work is not WFH. It is not a discussion about the home vs office
environments. This is largely irrelevant.

The fundamental shift that Remote Work will bring is that it will allow people
to separate physically where people live from their work activity. This means
that people will no longer have to live close to their jobs - for whatever
definition of "close" you have. It's one degree of freedom that everyone can
get when choosing where to live.

And it is a _very important degree of freedom_. When choosing a place to live,
one has many things to consider: is this a good environment for my growing
family, will I be surrounded by like-minded people, can I find good schools,
is the weather good for the kind of activities I enjoy doing the most, etc,
etc... but none of that will matter in a location if the jobs are not there.
In the current situation, people flock to where the jobs are because they
can't afford to choose a nicer place with no jobs.

If you prefer the office environment, you can and will be able to have that
even when Remote Work becomes the norm. The key point is in understanding that
your office can now be in SV, Texas, Croatia, some city in South America,
South East Asia or the Ukraine and you will (should) not be missing out in any
professional opportunity.

------
realbarack
I'm keeping an index of company remote-work announcements here:
[https://airtable.com/shrC1mvKjwntaqocO/tbl73UY1jDmReLge7](https://airtable.com/shrC1mvKjwntaqocO/tbl73UY1jDmReLge7)

If you know of companies that have made changes like Coinbase, please help me
build the list by sharing anonymously here:
[https://airtable.com/shriP4XRx0ewbBWM0](https://airtable.com/shriP4XRx0ewbBWM0)

------
sneak
Non-signupwall: [https://archive.is/GfOUF](https://archive.is/GfOUF)

Aside: Companies, please stop using Medium for your corporate blogs. It’s
super unprofessional.

------
OneGuy123
I have been working from home for the past 2 years.

Pros: I save an insane amount of time due to not having to waste my time
commuting. Even a 10 min bike ride takes much longer in reality since you have
to properly dress, come in, out, settle down, prepare etc... So I have much
more free time. Also no distrations is 10/10\. We have an open office and the
distractions cause a severe drop in my productivity. All talks can easily be
had through Slack. In fact I much prefer Slack since there is not BS time
wasting: you have a talk with a VERY SPECIFIC agenda, nothing else.

Cons: connections, and I'm not talking about "nice to see a human face" or
that kind of mundane-waste-of-my-time-BS-water-cooler-conversionation. I'm
talking practical things: new business connections by meeting random people
for example can be easily done face-to-face without sending any cold emails,
there is no denying that "many businesses/connections get done during the
smoking break"

------
x775
Why do I need to sign up for a Medium account to read a Coinbase company
statement..?

~~~
ikeyany
Owning up channels of communication and then making them monetized walled
gardens has been proven to work, unfortunately.

------
tjbiddle
Why does Coinbase have their publicly facing blog on Medium, which has a free
article viewing limit?

~~~
disgruntledphd2
It's crazy, right? Maybe it gets them more viewers from within that ecosystem
but I find it hard to believe that it's a net positive.

------
goblin89
Additional remote positions do not make a company remote-first any more than
additional @media queries make a desktop website mobile-first.

To understand what real “remote first” might mean, let’s define the status
quo: “in-person first”.

To me, in-person-first companies are those in which being a remote employee
means hampered career potential, and mingling with the right people at the
headquarters is sooner or later required to advance.

By that logic, remote-first companies either flip that on its head, or at
least make personal presence not a factor while encouraging remote
participation.

Becoming _X-first_ implies a fundamental shift. Improving _X_ does make you
_more X_ , though.

~~~
jakecraige
Brian calls this out and describes how Coinbase plans to do this in the “This
will require a huge shift in how we do things. How will we get there?“
section.

> To address all of these, we will form a cross-functional team to oversee
> this transition. This group will identify the changes we must make to become
> a remote-first company (e.g., around people management, recruiting/talent,
> culture and connection, and documentation and async work…), host open design
> sessions with all of you to surface ideas, considerations, dependencies, and
> concerns, and partner with internal experts to redesign how all of this
> works for a remote-first Coinbase.

~~~
goblin89
This would work for a different definition of “remote-first”.

In the definition I believe makes sense there is just one defining trait, and
the author manages to tiptoe around it.

It’s unclear whether the changes promised are cosmetic (to convince remote
workers they aren’t disadvantaged) or fundamental (actually making remote
staff equivalent or even prioritized first before on-location staff).

------
staysaasy
Working from home makes great economic sense for companies that can remain
productive in that environment. It decreases burn due to real estate, and
reduces commute times which can help with employee retention (especially for
certain geos or demographics, such as parents). Worries about pandemic
liability will also be a blocker for reopening many offices.

Covid has forced many companies to run the previously-risky experiment of
whether they can thrive while remote, and it's unsurprising that those that
can remain productive will use it to evolve + reduce costs.

------
throw03172019
“remote-first” sounds different than “WFH permanent”. They will still have
Offices in their hub cities. WFH is optionally available for “most” roles.

------
JSavageOne
First Twitter, now Coinbase. Looks like Christmas is coming early this year!

~~~
pb7
Square as well, which is a much bigger deal than Coinbase.

------
xoxoy
I have trouble scheduling meetings between colleagues on the west coast and
east coast as is. With a “remote first” company where some choose to move
abroad potentially (though suspect most would stay in the US) scheduling
meetings sounds like a complete nightmare. There’s no advantage to that at
all.

~~~
KingMachiavelli
Actually I think WFH would improve this. If both the west and east coast
colleagues have to commute to their respective offices, there is a lot of
wasted time during the beginning & end of the day. A person may arrive at the
office on the east coast just as the west coast is waking up. If both
locations were simply WFH, there would be more useful overlapping daylight
hours to use because neither side has to commute. Additionally, one office
could have modified hours such that they more overlapped with the other office
either as a standard or simply as needed.

~~~
xoxoy
Main problem is a blurring between work life. With one office no one would
dare schedule meetings too early or too late in the day. With different time
zones you might have to have a 7am meeting on the west coast or 7pm on east
coast. There needs to be strict calendar blocking to maintain sanity.

------
buboard
SV companies coming out as remote-friendly is odd in one way. Outside SV there
are tons of companies that are remote, and they make no big fuss about it.
With corona, so many more people started working remotely, even in companies
that you 'd never expect they would. And they made no big deal of it. Seems
like SV has been particularly reluctant to go remote (despite making the tools
for it!) , for reasons that are not really well undestood. Perhaps they don't
want capital to be decentralized or they somehow think there's something
magical about the place.

------
joelbluminator
Any Coinbase employees here? Was wondering what the tech stack is, saw a job
description mentioning breaking a Rails monolith into micro services - does
that mean Coinbase switches to a different stack?

~~~
jakecraige
The main app powering coinbase.com, the “monorail”, is a Rails app backed by
MongoDB. It’s typically what’s being referred to when breaking out
microservices.

Historically most other services were Rails/Sinatra with Postgres. These days
there’s a lot more Golang being used for new services.

There’s also some services that are serverless, using Lambda and DynamoDB but
these are a minority.

~~~
joelbluminator
Thanks. But is Ruby considered something deprecated? I'm mainly a Ruby guy and
want to keep it that way is why I'm asking.

------
LatteLazy
I always feel that Automattic don't get enough credit in these articles. Over
1000 employees in 70 countries and no central office...

------
yalogin
This is inevitable. There are too many advantages for companies to encourage
WFH. Reduce the entry level salaries for employees, save on building leases,
no need to offer free food and more. The productivity will probably even
increase too. I am sure they are all going over numbers to see how
productivity changes.

For the employee though it’s going to be tough in the long run. Building
relationships at work is one great way to get things done not just in the team
but also across teams. So code might get written but the overarching dynamics
about how things happen in a workplace are changing big time. We don’t see the
effects of them until sometime.

------
mrfusion
If I did a start up I feel like being remote first almost isn’t even a choice
especially if I’m not in a tech hub.

Hire anyone in the world at reasonable salaries.

------
booleandilemma
Don't forget - if you can do your job from your home, someone else can do your
job from their home.

------
btcinfo
This is good since no one at Coinbase does anything important anyway. Just
wait until the next price drop when the "technical difficulties" begin again.

------
tummybug
Off topic but why would a corporate company use a website for their blog which
puts articles behind a paywall? It seems completely at odds with the purpose
of a corporate blog.

~~~
pxtail
Probably they are unable to afford infrastructure required for hosting blog
site and/or don't have experienced employees needed for building and
maintaining such software - thus they are forced to use blogger alternative.

