After the restrictions of quarantine are over, the leading U.S. based crypto exchange, Coinbase, will embrace a ‘remote-first’ culture. The remote-first shift has been accelerated with the duty to comply with the six feet apart social distancing measures currently in place due to Coronavirus.
Coinbase estimates that between 20 – 60% of the company employees will work remotely despite the restrictions of COVID-19 are lifted.
Once the proper procedures have been put in place, the Company expects its remote culture to grow organically. Over time, the Company expects to have a more decentralized geographical setup of one floor of office space in ten cities, rather than ten floors of office space located in San Francisco.
To address the change, Coinbase has formed a cross-functional team to oversee the transition. The dedicated group will tackle challenges across performance management, recruiting, talent, culture, and how to enforce a more strict culture around documentation and asynchronous work.
The company will host open design sessions to make sure that employees’ voices are heard and will proactively seek to create the “remote-first” workforce within Coinbase. The company has already created a Slack channel for that matter.
Most crypto companies seem to be following suit. Kraken has listed a slew of remote jobs, which are also distributed across different geographies. What is unclear is whether more crypto-based companies will follow Coinbase, and also what this means for the broader crypto community.
Many of the top crypto companies have had major hubs in San Francisco, creating a vibrant crypto meetup culture. On any given night, enthusiasts have the choice of attending 2-3 crypto meetups in downtown San Francisco, for example. However, with the effects of Coronavirus, crypto conferences and meetups have been mostly shifted to virtual formats.
