Coinbase will not take part in political issues, let alone in the US elections. A philosophy that does not appeal to Jack Dorsey, who in a tweet challenged the CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong:
#Bitcoin (aka “crypto”) is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system which negatively affects so much of our society. Important to at *least* acknowledge and connect the related societal issues your customers face daily. This leaves people behind: https://t.co/0LMlF1qcmG
— jack (@jack) September 30, 2020
“Bitcoin (aka “crypto”) is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system which negatively affects so much of our society. Important to at least acknowledge and connect the related societal issues your customers face daily”.
The tweet ends with a “This leaves people behind” referring to the Coinbase blog post in which Brian Armstrong expressed the mission of his exchange.
The Coinbase post that Jack Dorsey did not like
The article by Brian Armstrong is entitled: “Coinbase is a mission focused company”.
In it, the CEO explains what Coinbase will do to take part in the challenges of these difficult times:
“I want Coinbase to be laser focused on achieving its mission, because I believe that this is the way that we can have the biggest impact on the world. We will do this by playing as a championship team, focus on building, and being transparent about what our mission is and isn’t”.
Coinbase and its employees must focus on building great products, recruiting talent, promoting good practices and creating an inclusive environment. Whereas they should focus less on:
- Political decisions, particularly if they are outside the crypto sphere,
- No-profit work, because “we are a profit-business”, and Armstrong adds: “We shouldn’t ever shy away from making profit”,
- Wider social issues,
- Political causes.
In this regard, Armstrong says:
“We don’t advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission, because it is a distraction from our mission. Even if we all agree something is a problem, we may not all agree on the solution”.
Conversely, for the CEO of Twitter, cryptocurrencies arise to change the financial system and with it also involve and disrupt political issues. This is why one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency service providers cannot remain on the sidelines.
As Jack Dorsey explains in a later comment,
“There are real issues that real people who use these services every day experience. Why would we not acknowledge and connect with our mission? Not asking for solutions, but as we connect the issues the solutions become clearer”.
And he adds:
“I imagine a lot of employees are customers too. The post states that debate over issues will not be allowed. Seems chilling and against relevancy for the largest audience”.
Brian Armstrong does not seem to have responded at the moment.
Jack Dorsey owns only Bitcoin
The discussion then turned to another theme, this time less social: which cryptocurrencies does Jack Dorsey hold?
To Udi Wertheimer, who provocatively wrote that maximalists should realize that Jack Dorsey also has ETH, Dorsey replied:
I didn’t. And I don’t. Only Bitcoin.
— jack (@jack) October 1, 2020
“I didn’t. And I don’t. Only Bitcoin”.
