ConsenSys ‘Refocusing’ After Crypto Downturn, May Lay Off Staff

ConsenSys is one of the biggest ventures developing projects and products on the Ethereum blockchain. Founded by Joseph Lubin, who is also a co-creator of Ethereum, ConsenSys is involved in a lot of projects the goal of expanding the ethereum ecosystem with useful real-life applications.

But following the latest downturn in crypto markets and the consequent paucity of funds, the blockchain giant has decided to rethink its approach and streamline its activities. In an interview with crypto news outlet Coindesk, Lubin explained that the company is assessing its priorities and strategizing for the next phase of the Company dubbed “ConsenSys 2.0.”

This changes, Lubin explained, may involve dropping some projects, budget adjustments and even retrenching some of its staff which currently numbers above 1,200.

“I would call it a refocusing of priorities…On more rigor, more structure, more sustainability, more accountability,” he was reported as saying.

He continued:

“…it was good enough to do cool projects, [ConsenSys 2.0 will be different], we are going to focus much more rigorously across the different business lines on accountability that includes financial sustainability.”

Nothing is Off the Table at the moment

When probed about any plans to lay off workers, Lubin replied:

“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.”

Ether [ETH] Decline

Trouble started brewing the moment ethereum’s native token ETH plunged amidst rumors of sell-off by ethereum-based ICOs. These ICOs—projects that raised fund using the ether [ETH]—reported liquidated their ether holdings to fund their respective projects leading to a consistent decline in ETH price and its market share. Ethereum subsequently lost its place to Ripple’s XRP as the second most valuable token based on total market cap.

From an all-time high of about $1,400 in January, ETH currently trades just above the $100 mark leaving a sour taste in the mouths of ethereum-based projects. ConsenSys, which have been around for four years and has over 50 projects under its umbrella will consider business and financial adjustments to stay afloat.

The Entire Crypto Market Is Affected

As Smartereum reported, a team of developers working on Ethereum went down this week after the cash crunch that followed the latest crypto market downturn. The team stated in its announcement that it had struggled to get funds to keep it afloat hence a decision to suspend operations. Recently blockchain firms including Steemit and Spankchain have reportedly laid off a considerable number of its workforce.

Developers and crypto startups are not the only ones to take a financial hit due to the bad crypto market situation. As Smartereum reported, bitcoin miners are suffering major declines in revenue which have reportedly led many to quit the mining operations. As much as 600 to 800 BTC miners had quit towards the end of November 2018 as bitcoin entered the under $4,000 territory for the first time this year, according to Mao Shixing, founder of the third-largest mining pool F2pool.

A New Regime at Consensys

According to Lubin, “blockchain is getting very, very real,” hence the focus in ConsenSys will shift to the maturity of the Company. This maturity includes walking away from unyielding projects sooner rather than later.

He wrote:

“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…We’ve definitely been more focused on doing cool things in the past, and now we’re just focused on being a set of viable and successful businesses in a real business ecosystem.”

While promising to continue to push for funds from external investments, Lubin noted that he wants to ensure ConsenSys projects in the future are all thriving businesses in their own right. “Certainly one goal is to enable ConsenSys and its projects to not be dependent on the price of these value tokens,” he added.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.

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