Thread by @molly0xFFF

Kraken, a U.S.-based crypto exchange, has announced they'll be continuing to hire, and have announced a culture overhaul that promotes "diversity of thought" over "stereotypical team diversity measurements" and prohibits describing another's words as "racist" or "x-phobic". 🧵

I'll tweet the highlights, but the announcement is here: blog.kraken.com/post/14372/kra…
And the full culture document is here: kraken-culture.notion.site

Kraken "believe[s] bear markets are fantastic at weeding out the applicants chasing hype from the true believers in our mission."

The announcement includes the headings "More Pirate than Professional" and "Differences of Opinion". They write, "If nobody is ever offended, we either don’t have enough diversity of thought or we don’t have enough transparency in communication."

They've also said that any current employees who disagree with the culture change can GTFO: "In commitment to these values, we also expanded our permanent benefits program to make moving on a bit easier for anyone who feels it’s time for the next chapter in their career."

So, let's dive into the culture stuff. A lot of it revolves around "The Mission": "to accelerate the worldwide adoption of cryptocurrency". Throughout the document it's presented in bold italics, always capitalized. "Belief in The Mission is a Must".

"Does every Krakenite need to believe in The Mission? We believe so. Why? We are fighting an extremely difficult, protracted battle, facing tremendous uncertainty and peril. For the true believers, the prize makes the pain worthwhile."

"For those with less conviction, the journey might be too much."

Kraken writes about their belief in rights including free speech and free markets, liberty, self-defense, and limited government. "This should be no surprise to Americans as these rights can all be derived from the US Constitution"

"We will engage in lobbying, as a single-issue donor, supporting controversial politicians and legislation that furthers The Mission, possibly to the detriment of other civil rights causes"

"We will advertise with and sponsor controversial television programs, podcasts, influencers and events, if it furthers The Mission"

"We may incorporate firearm and self-defense training in to corporate retreats
We will allow discussion and photographs of firearms in public (but optional) chat rooms"

Next section: "Someone Must be Offended, Some of the Time".

"If nobody is ever offended, we either don’t have enough diversity of thought or we don’t have enough transparency in communication."

"Diversity cannot exist if there is no 1) diversity of thought and 2) tolerance of diverse thoughts."

"We believe that expecting or encouraging Krakenites to strive to never ever offend their fellow teammates and/or to be compelled into conforming to the most vocal colleague’s societal or cultural norms, leads to a significant reduction in our ability to build"

"Krakenites are welcome to request (and deny) personal language and communication preferences of each other but there is no right, wrong or formal rule that would impose an obligation or make one preference subservient to another"

"- We give each other the benefit of the doubt
- Everyone is responsible for their own feelings
- Being offended doesn’t necessarily make you right
- Being offended doesn’t necessarily make you 'harmed'
- Words nor silence are ever 'violence'"

"We do not call someone’s words toxic, hateful, racist, x-phobic, unhelpful, etc."

At the bottom of the section: "Note: we abide by all labor laws and do not support illegal activities in the workplace."

lol

Next section: "No mission but The Mission"

"Should we aim to be exemplary in terms of stereotypical team diversity measurements? No."

"- Should we donate money to the *Current Thing*? *No.*
- Should we donate money to crypto research? *Yes.*
- Should we mandate the seasonal flu vaccine? *No.*"

"There is no room for tribalism, in-fighting or the pursuit of agendas that are not officially set by the company. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by petty disputes over first-world problems while the rest of the world suffers with a real humanitarian crisis"

Next section: "Global perspective drives true inclusivity"

"People are weird. Crypto people even weirder and if you join the company, you will be assimilated🤖."

"We reject the myopic view that 'diversity' can be captured by a short checklist of obvious physical features. Silicon Valley’s view of diversity in the world is dangerously limited, a commodification of individuals, and a disturbing reflection of profound ignorance."

"Many Krakenites benefit from and struggle with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For others, English is a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th language. Misunderstandings will occur and mistakes will be made. Fortunately, this is not an honor culture, nor is it one of victimhood."

"While we don’t overly focus on our differences, we encourage everyone to be their unique selves. Given the remote environment, many choose to reveal very little about themselves.... Some even choose to go by a pseudonym rather than their legal name, which is great OpSec."

"We discourage asking for and offering personal and demographic information which might be a burden to others or give the impression that we care about an individual’s identity more than we do their ability to raise the bar for the team."

Throughout the document are various notes to clarify that although some of what they're describing definitely sounds like they might be breaking the law, they're definitely not breaking the law.

e.g., "Note: We are committed to eliminating all forms of discrimination against legally protected groups in every jurisdiction in which we operate."
"Note: we abide by all labor laws and do not support illegal activities in the workplace."

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell also made a tweet thread calling out the current employees who disagree with the culture changes, writing that among other things they are upset about "whether someone can identify as a different race and be allowed to use the N-word"

He's also trying to frontrun that there will be a "hit piece" coming out soon and "don't believe the news"

My dude, you've just made whatever this "hit piece" will be pretty believable.

Full thread.

I wonder if this will go as well as Coinbase's "no discussion of political or social issues at work" policy

hard not to notice that the people loving the announcement seem to fit kraken's target demographic

I do feel a bit for the Kraken employees remaining. They're faced with deciding whether to leave a company at a rough time in crypto hiring (and a bit of a downturn in tech hiring more broadly, even if they're looking to leave the crypto industry)

And while I don't think Powell's stance comes as a huge surprise to anyone familiar with him before now, Kraken employees who stay after this very public announcement will have to consider whether their decision will be seen as endorsement of it to future employers.

(For context on "not a surprise", these are Powell's most recent tweets preceding the announcement and his tweet thread about it)

It also seems extremely likely that current employees who wish to leave Kraken will be forced to sign broad and aggressively-enforced NDAs in order to receive the benefits Kraken mentions when referring to their "transition program".

https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF/status/1537146979989463042