The Ethereum production studio ConsenSys, recently announced that 13% of their staff will be laid off, in the midst of bear market conditions.
On Thursday, ConsenSys told Coindesk:
“Excited as we are about ConsenSys 2.0, our first step in this direction has been a difficult one: we are streamlining several parts of the business including ConsenSys Solutions, spokes, and hub services, leading to a 13% reduction of mesh members. Projects will continue to be evaluated with rigor, as the cornerstone of ConsenSys 2.0 is technical excellence, coupled with innovative blockchain business models.”
ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin hinted that restructuring was coming in an earlier interview with Coindesk on Tuesday. Lubin said:
“We are looking at lots of different situations – some of them will shrink, some of them will grow. There’s nothing I want to say concretely about that at this point.”
In an email sent out to the company’s employees last week, Lubin said:
“We will more quickly declare projects a ‘learning success’ and disband them, enabling their elements – technology, technologists, and entrepreneurs – to diffuse back into the sea of potentiality and reconstitute into another project with the benefit of greater experience.”
Bear Market Downsizing
As this year’s cryptocurrency market has seen a downturn, many of the new start-ups that were banking on a steady revenue stream from investors are watching their business model fall apart as prices continue to fall. Last week, CryptoGlobe reported that blockchain-base social media network Steemit is laying off 70% of its staff in restructuring efforts directly related to the bear market.
Steemit’s CEO Ned Scott admitted that his team was “relying on projections of basically a higher bottom for the market,” which ultimately led to the decision to cut members.
Last month, CryptoGlobe reported that cryptocurrency exchange Huobi laid off 60% of its Brazil staff, although it is uncertain whether it was regulators or the bear market that was to blame for that downsizing.
In one of the Coindesk interviews following the news of restructuring at ConsenSys, Lubin expressed the need for these businesses be able to succeed regardless of market conditions. Lubin said:
“Certainly one goal is to enable ConsenSys and its projects to not be dependent on the price of these value tokens, that essentially they are all thriving businesses in their own right.”
