Sources: Coinbase is testing an app from Ray Dalio's company Principles that lets staff rate each other on how well they exemplify Coinbase's 10 cultural tenets
often a terrible idea, but occasionally game-changing! We should all thank Coinbase for their service 😅 https://twitter.com/... Emma Jacobs / @emmavj : Coinbase lets employees evaluate co-workers, including their managers, on how well they exemplify the crypto firm's 10 cultural tenets—which include clear communication, efficient execution and positive energy https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Matt Pearce / @mattdpearce : Companies should experiment with allowing workers to vote out the CEO. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Josh / @joshuaogundu : Coinbase having some of their employees rate each other in real time on how well they exemplify the companies values, I feel like can get messy really quickly https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : It's giving Severance https://twitter.com/... @carnage4life : The idea of being able to rate coworkers who run a meeting poorly is both exhilarating and terrifying. Coinbase is becoming a ground zero for rebooting tech culture - no discussions of politics, stock grants in 1 year chunks and now this. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Workshopped a variety of takes for this one but have settled on “LOL” https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin : I have no idea how this will play out but I do admire that @brian_armstrong does exactly what he thinks is best, perception be damned. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
The Information
Context & Ripple Effects
The peer-rating pilot lands four days after Coinbase's hiring freeze and project pause, when the exchange is cutting costs after its stock fell more than 75% in six months. It also extends a culture project Brian Armstrong has run since 2020, when his push to keep Coinbase apolitical made cultural tenets the company's official operating system.
That system now faces a credibility test: twenty-three current and former employees alleged mistreatment and ignored discrimination complaints in late 2020, so codifying 'positive energy' and 'clear communication' into peer scores will read to some staff as measurement and to others as enforcement.
First-order effects
Coinbase employees — including managers being rated by reports — are now subject to quantified peer evaluation against the ten tenets, making culture a scored input rather than a stated value.
Ray Dalio's Principles gets its highest-profile live deployment in crypto, converting the firm's dot-connector methodology into a product Coinbase is actively testing internally.
Second-order effects
With headcount frozen and projects paused, rating data gives Coinbase leadership a ready-made justification layer for who stays and what gets cut — pricing loyalty to the tenets at exactly the moment jobs are scarce.
Other crypto firms watching their own burn rates get a template for replacing management judgment with software-scored conformity, and Dalio's company gains a reference sale into an industry already primed by Armstrong's mission-driven framing.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, culture becomes an auditable dataset: companies under pressure increasingly buy third-party tools that turn values into metrics, shifting power over careers from managers to whoever designs the scoring rubric.
For a workforce that already alleged complaints went ignored, instrumentation without independent recourse risks hardening the gap between stated tenets and lived treatment — pushing regulators and employee activists toward demanding process, not posters.
The trend: Companies under financial stress are turning workplace culture into software-measured compliance, with Coinbase's tenets pilot as the sharpest crypto-era example.
Have you ever wanted to grade your colleagues during meetings, giving them a thumbs up or down in real time? Brian Armstrong at Coinbase seems into it. @matousekmark https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@ericjduran
Eric on x
I read about this in his book and it sounded sus, I'm always suspicious when I see the term “Radical Transparency”. https://twitter.com/...
@silvermanjacob
Jacob Silverman on x
This only makes sense if you can tokenize the grades and then sell derivatives of them on some loosely regulated exchange. https://twitter.com/...
@jessgartner
Jess Gartner on x
Didn't I see this on an episode of Black Mirror? https://twitter.com/...
@jesseltaylor
@jesseltaylor on x
What if we could bring the joy of retail receipt employee evaluations to everything https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@pardesoteric
Arielle Pardes on x
@CaseyNewton Seems more relevant than an annual paragraph of platitudes from a manager. If workplaces think reviews are important, then I don't see the issue with doing it this way.
@yoda
@yoda on x
puttin' the cult in culture https://twitter.com/...
@chainyoda
@chainyoda on x
Coinbase to use social credit score to reduce excess headcount and boost stock price https://twitter.com/...
@caseynewton
Casey Newton on x
It's giving Severance https://twitter.com/...
@loudmouthjulia
Julia Alexander on x
The Redditification of work culture is certainly a choice. https://twitter.com/...
@yoda
@yoda on x
sounds like a phenomenally terrible idea. https://twitter.com/...
@theinformation
@theinformation on x
Coinbase is testing a real-time employee rating system for “radical transparency” invented by hedge fund founder Ray Dalio. https://thein.fo/J0ocHLW
@counternotions
@counternotions on x
Amway but for crypto? ↓ https://twitter.com/...
@aidanfitzryan
Aidan Ryan on x
Coinbase is testing an app invented by hedge fund Bridgewater Associates that lets employees evaluate each other on the company's “cultural tenets” in real-time. Story from @matousekmark @amir https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@caseynewton
Casey Newton on x
@pardesoteric I'm worried about what effects it will have on women and POC in particular, since they're already forbidden from discussing “politics” here. seems likely to chill speech and force employees to waste brain cycles gaming the system
@thevunderkind
@thevunderkind on x
this will end well, for sure. https://twitter.com/...
@dataandpolitics
@dataandpolitics on x
Fuck no. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@rmac18
Ryan Mac on x
where does lying about a super bowl ad rank among cultural tenets https://twitter.com/...
@matousekmark
Mark Matousek on x
Coinbase is testing real-time employee feedback software invented by Ray Dalio's hedge fund, Bridgewater. Meanwhile, Coinbase is projecting 10%-20% of its workforce will depart this year for performance-related reasons. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... via @theinformation
@carnage4life
@carnage4life on x
The idea of being able to rate coworkers who run a meeting poorly is both exhilarating and terrifying. Coinbase is becoming a ground zero for rebooting tech culture - no discussions of politics, stock grants in 1 year chunks and now this. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@nbashaw
Nathan Baschez on x
Honestly I like that companies are trying stuff like this! It's the managerial equivalent of being the first person to try escargot or kombucha — often a terrible idea, but occasionally game-changing! We should all thank Coinbase for their service 😅 https://twitter.com/...
@emmavj
Emma Jacobs on x
Coinbase lets employees evaluate co-workers, including their managers, on how well they exemplify the crypto firm's 10 cultural tenets—which include clear communication, efficient execution and positive energy https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@mattdpearce
Matt Pearce on x
Companies should experiment with allowing workers to vote out the CEO. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@joshuaogundu
Josh on x
Coinbase having some of their employees rate each other in real time on how well they exemplify the companies values, I feel like can get messy really quickly https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@caseynewton
Casey Newton on x
Workshopped a variety of takes for this one but have settled on “LOL” https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@jessicalessin
Jessica Lessin on x
I have no idea how this will play out but I do admire that @brian_armstrong does exactly what he thinks is best, perception be damned. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...