Coinbase Fires Neutrino employees – will this solve the growing PR crisis that Coinbase faces?
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced last night that Coinbase was firing key members of Neutrino, a high-profile security firm. Per Armstrong:
“We had a gap in our diligence process. While we looked hard at the technology and security of the Neutrino product, we did not properly evaluate everything from the perspective of our mission and values as a crypto company. We took some time to dig further into this over the past week, and together with the Neutrino team have come to an agreement: those who previously worked at Hacking Team (despite the fact that they have no current affiliation with Hacking Team), will transition out of Coinbase.”
This announcement follows intense criticism from the cryptocurrency community regarding the acquisition. As the controversy grew, Coinbase said in a statement that it is “aware that Neutrino’s co-founders previously worked at Hacking Team, which we reviewed as part of our security, technical, and hiring diligence.” Per that statement, “Coinbase does not condone nor will it defend the actions of Hacking Team,” but “it was important for Coinbase to bring this function in-house to fully control and protect our customers’ data and Neutrino’s technology was the best we encountered in the space to achieve this goal.”
Hacking Team members are no longer part of the organization of Coinbase – Coinbase is folding to the pressure and so far, it seems like the community has won.
What do you think? Was this a wise move on the part of Coinbase to eliminate members of Neutrino that also worked for Hacking Team? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!
