One person who would be a great asset to the executive team is Balaji Srinivasan. Balaji was the CTO at Coinbase from 2018 to 2019, where he was in charge of major initiatives such as the scaling up of infrastructure and the rollout of USDC. We can either see Balaji returning as a CTO again or as a replacement for Emilie/Surojit, where he could help guide us through the looming downturn as well as the loss of morale and trust in the company. Balaji is a great fit for several reasons:

1. He has a technical background. Besides having multiple degrees in EE from Stanford, he has taught classes in Computer Science and Statistics and has used this knowledge to start tech companies in crypto and biotech. Coinbase, at its heart, is a technology company, and in order to revamp our infrastructure and streamline our product vision, we will need someone who can actually understand the atoms and bits that allow the company to run in the first place. 

2. He has domain knowledge and industry background. Having co-founded Earn.com, which was later acquired by Coinbase, he knows what it takes to start a crypto company from scratch, scale it up, and endure the setbacks. These are skill sets that should be ingrained in the executive leadership at a crypto company; however, both our CPO and COO lack these skills and experience. 

3. He has skin in the game. Having investments in a wide variety of crypto-focused startups like Coinbase, Ava Labs, and Opensea, Balaji is taking on personal risk, which would give him greater motivation to ensure the long-term success of the company and the industry as a whole. 

4. He is worldly and well educated, having extensive knowledge of technology, society, and politics. While this does not necessarily affect Coinbase day-to-day, it does reflect his outlook on the future. These attributes have helped him develop ideas that are ahead of the times, such as the failure of central institutions and the rise of new startup cities. This can be especially useful when coming up with novel projects and finding ways to integrate the crypto economy with the rest of the world economy.

These are just a few of the reasons why we believe Balaji Srinivasan would make a great fit for a return to the executive leadership. If he is unable or unwilling to rejoin the company as a CTO (or CPO/COO), then we shall at least hold executives up to the standard of Balaji and find replacements who are up to his level. 

Let’s Revive COIN. Bring Back Balaji. If not Balaji himself, then Bring Back the Spirit of Balaji.

There is a wide range of emotions you may be feeling currently, and rightfully so: Grief, anger, fear, and resentment just to name a few. Our hearts go out to you all, and we really wish this was not the outcome. We hope you find constructive ways to process your tenure at Coinbase, find a balance between the negative and the positive, and channel these emotions into action. 

We have full confidence in you. Some of you may stay in crypto, while others may try their stakes in a different industry. Many of you will go on to work on more ambitious projects and have the adventure of your lifetimes. We encourage you all to keep your head up and preserve your winning mentality. These times, too, shall pass. 

If any of you are in need of assistance, whether it be career or personal, or you just need someone to talk to, our doors are always open. We are Coinbaes, and we look out for one another. Remember, what makes the company great is not the top-down actions of a few at the top, but rather the multitude of interactions and exchange of ideas we have from the bottom-up. For engineers, tabulation is better than memoization 😁. 

So to that, here’s a toast to all of you 🥂. Thank you for working with us, and please keep in touch. We are looking forward to hearing about your next steps in your career and life.

The original petition is on Arweave transaction HpcUE9Jigd0pvyYmNF6DjTljUSqn6Vecuf1hs50pdxk with Content Digest ZIO--5ywx1z-aKs0KCQ2PeTNutVKune7zhA1D09R0q0. You can view it on ViewBlock here.

Petition to Remove COO Emilie Choi, Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee, and Chief People Officer LJ Brock in a Vote of No Confidence

Summary: We the employees at Coinbase believe that the executive team has recently been making decisions that are not in the best interests of the Company, its employees, and its shareholders. COO Emilie Choi, CPO Surojit Chatterjee, and Chief People Officer LJ Brock have been the most prominent executives who have been executing plans and ideas that have led to questionable results and negative value. Some of these include the following:

1. The failure of the Coinbase NFT platform

2. The over-prioritization of certain products, which has led to a lack of focus on other important issues like infrastructure

3. Initiatives like the Dot Collector and the Performance review system that has led to a toxic workplace culture

4. Aggressively hiring for thousands of roles, despite the fact that it is an unsustainable plan and is contrary to the wisdom of the crypto industry

5. Not being able to output any higher or better quality products and services despite aggressively hiring more employees

6. Rescinding offers to new employees despite promising them that their offers would not be rescinded two weeks earlier, leading to a massive negative reception from the public and the industry at-large

7. The failure to communicate important ideas and plans to the rest of the company, such as the possibility of lay-offs and the plan to fix many technical debts

8. A generally apathetic and sometimes condescending attitude from the CPO, COO, and Chief People Officer

** **

Their actions have hurt multiple parties:

1. The employees, who have to deal with the unrealistic demands from said executives and the damage they have caused on a day-to-day basis

2. The shareholders, who have seen their stock price continually fall, especially from the high of $420 at the beginning of the IPO and the middle range of $250 throughout the summer of 2021

3. The company itself, whose plummeting stock value and bad workplace management led to low morale and the threats of losing top talent

4. The company’s reputation to the public, where people are less likely to view Coinbase as a trustworthy and reliable crypto exchange to do business with

Because of these factors, we believe that Coinbase should immediately find replacements for LJ Brock, Surojit Chatterjee, and Emilie Choi. We hope to find people who have had experience in the crypto space and can run such a company more responsibly.

Signed,

[Signatures will be done in a way that is fair and transparent, as well as respecting the anonymity and privacy of each individual employee. Doxxing will not be tolerated, and revealing one’s own identity is discouraged]

Errata:

• In point 2, under “Their actions have hurt multiple parties”, the stock high at the beginning of the IPO was $420. This is incorrect. Around April 2021, when Coinbase IPO’d, the high was at $340.