Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse opposes Coinbase’s 'no politics' policy

Published at: Oct. 26, 2020

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of blockchain-based payments firm Ripple, disagrees with Coinbase’s new policy restricting its employees from engaging in political discussions at work.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong first announced the ‘apolitical’ policy in a blog post on Sep. 27. He encouraged Coinbase employees to not indulge in political discussion and keep their focus on the company’s mission of creating an open financial system for the world.

Garlinghouse disagrees, telling CNBC that technology companies have an obligation to contribute to solving societal issues.

Garlinghouse said that tech companies and platforms have made some societal problems worse, so they must also be willing to work on solutions for them.

As an example, he said, Ripple was taking YouTube to court for failing to flag scam giveaway videos that lured viewers into sending thousands of dollars in Ripple’s associated cryptocurrency XRP.

He added that Ripple didn’t need to indulge in the legalities of the matter as it wouldn’t help the company but stressed that tech companies must take responsibility and ownership of the problems to which they are contributing.

Coinbase has been bleeding employees ever since Armstrong instituted the controversial policy change, with some high-level execs leaving the firm. 

Tags
Business
Coinbase
Politics
Policies
Society
Related Posts
Coinbase launches new crypto think tank to help shape policies
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has created a “crypto native think tank” in an attempt to help shape the global conversation around policies for digital assets. The newly formed Coinbase Institute will also publish research on crypto and Web3. Coinbase tapped its director of policy Hermine Wong to head the institute. She previously served in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and before that worked at the Department of State. The related Coinbase Institute Advisory Board has also been formed and will feature academics across law and finance from top universities such …
Sec / May 19, 2022
Armstrong says 'silent majority' supports Coinbase apolitical stance in leaked audio
Coinbase leadership recently moved to curb sociopolitical discourse within their company, mandating that the team should focus on the company's mission rather than politics. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong later held an all-hands meeting, billed as an "ask me anything" session, to discuss changes in company culture with his employees. Audio of this staff-wide meeting from Oct. 1 was subsequently to media outlet Motherboard; the technology wing of Vice media. "An internal all-hands meeting obtained by Motherboard shows Coinbase management was accused of 'stunting internal discussion' and that it forced employees to delete political Slack messages," Motherboard wrote. Motherboard …
Business / Oct. 16, 2020
Coinbase adds hidden message with political undertones to BTC blockchain on day of IPO
The crypto exchange, whose CEO has previously dissuaded employees from expressing political views, started its initial public offering off with a message referencing U.S. President Joe Biden’s stimulus package. According to Coinbase, the crypto exchange had mining pool F2Pool embed the title of a New York Times article in the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain at 2:05 PM UTC today. The message in block 679,187 refers to the U.S. Congress passing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 on March 10 — a bill which set aside $1.9 trillion for measures aimed at curbing the economic impact of the pandemic. In posting …
Bitcoin / April 14, 2021
Sam Bankman-Fried could spend up to $1B in 2024 to thwart Trump comeback
The billionaire founder and CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, has revealed he intends to spend anywhere between $100 million and $1 billion to help influence the 2024 United States presidential election campaigns. In a podcast interview on Tuesday, Bankman-Fried was asked how much money he might donate during the next presidential election cycle, answering he’d give “north of $100 million” with a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion if he were to bankroll the person running against former president Donald Trump: “I would hate to say hard ceiling because who knows what’s going to happen between now and …
United States / May 25, 2022
Coinbase, whose CEO called most politics a 'distraction', launches voter registration tool
Coinbase, a crypto exchange whose chief executive officer previously said doesn’t “advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission,” has launched a voter registration portal as part of a crypto policy education initiative. In a Thursday blog post, Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad said the crypto exchange will offer users the opportunity to register to vote in the United States through a Capitol Canary website. According to the policy head, the voter registration tool was part of an initiative aimed at giving the crypto community “tools to participate in the critical policy discussions …
Business / Aug. 25, 2022