ConsenSys, an incubator of Ethereum-based projects, announced today that it was restructuring the company, and laying off 14% of its workforce.
The news was delivered by ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin at an all-hands meeting this morning at the company's Brooklyn headquarters, and was attended by more than 500 others who work remotely around the world via Zoom. As Lubin addressed the staff, at times emotionally, dozens of employees spontaneously sent ASCII hearts via Zoom's chat feature.
Lubin said the intent of the restructuring was to streamline the company into a leaner software company, and an investment arm. The software company's component parts, including Infura, PegaSys, MetaMask, and Codefi—will create, among other things a so-called "TrustOS." Lubin said this would be unlike a typical computer OS, and instead was aimed at helping decentralized businesses and collectives organize and operate.
ConsenSys, which funds Decrypt, grew to over 1200 employees at the height of the crypto bubble. It laid off 13% of the staff at the end of 2018. It was founded in 2014 and seeded more than 100 companies with more than $100 million in investment.