Coinbase’s No-Politics Stance Rankles Silicon Valley Executives
- Twitter’s Dorsey said the new policy ‘leaves behind people’
- Coinbase offers severance packages to workers who don’t agree
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Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey joined a chorus of criticism for Coinbase Inc.’s newly announced policy of not debating politics at work, saying it runs counter to the core principles of cryptocurrency.
The outcry came in response to a blog post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said that the company should be mission-focused and not “advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission, because it is a distraction.” Dorsey said Armstrong’s stance runs counter to the purpose of currencies like Bitcoin, which is traded on Coinbase and is itself a form of social activism.