Blockchain development firm Consensys has begun a major restructuring of its operations, reducing its workforce by more than 20%.
Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph, Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO Joe Lubin confirmed that 162 employees have been impacted by the move. The company is looking to streamline operations and expedite efforts to decentralize various parts of its core business offerings.
“It’s motivated by a variety of factors, and to me, it feels like they’re pretty equal. The first obvious one, which is not necessarily more important than the others, is just the long-term financial sustainability aspects in the face of potential economic volatility,” Lubin explained.
Lubin stated that Consensys is looking to become a “smaller, much more agile organization” that would be better equipped to capitalize on “broad and deep capabilities” the organization has built over time.
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Consensys is best known for developing the browser-based Ethereum wallet MetaMask, the layer-2 protocol Linea and a host of other Ethereum-focused software products and services. The company currently employs 828 people.
Lubin emphasized that Consensys is committed to supporting its outgoing team members with generous severance packages, outplacement services and extended healthcare benefits. Displaced staff will also have an extension of stock option exercise windows from 12 months to 36 months.
SEC legal battle had no bearing on restructuring
Consensys has been actively engaged in a legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024 as the agency continues to target various companies and projects within the Ethereum ecosystem.
In a previous interview with Cointelegraph, Lubin indicated that the costs incurred by Consensys were necessary to combat what the industry views as a gross overreach by SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s administration.
Related: Exclusive: Joe Lubin unpacks SEC battle, Ethereum roadmap and Vitalik Buterin
Lubin played down any suggestion that Consensys may have overextended its resources on legal costs when Cointelegraph asked whether its restructuring plans had been influenced by its efforts to take on the SEC:
“We didn’t overextend our resources at all. We didn’t pick this fight. The SEC has been carpet bombing the ecosystem for years with investigations, Wells notices and lawsuits.”
Lubin added that Consensys had taken a “thoughtful approach to going on the offensive” against the SEC.
Vitalik’s call for Ethereum L2 decentralization
Fellow Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged layer-2 projects to actively decentralize their operations and protocols in an effort to combat centralization concerns in 2024.
Lubin said that Consensys has been working to decentralize itself independently of any external pressure:
“Anything that that Vitalik says in that vein gets a cheer from me and from the company, but there’s no extra pressure on us from Vitalik or from anybody outside of Consensys.”
Lubin added that Consensys has been preparing for a rapid shift to decentralized models with several of its projects.
Prioritizing MetaMask, Linea, Infura
The restructuring at Consensys is comprehensive, with Lubin admitting that no specific departments are facing more layoffs than others.
“We are focusing more intensely on activities in MetaMask and activities in Linea. Infura has already been under transformation through DIN, the decentralized infrastructure network,” Lubin said.
He added that Infura remains critical to the functioning of MetaMask. A long-term goal for MetaMask is to be able to expand to and address lots of different blockchains:
“This is both EVM [Ethereum Virtual Machine] blockchains, which we can handle pretty easily, but also non-EVM blockchains, which we’ve been able to rely on through third parties on the DIN network.”
Lubin emphasized that Consensys is looking to transform its suite of Ethereum products into protocols over the long term, including offerings like MetaMask, Infura, Truffle, Diligence, Besu, Teku, GNARK, DIN and Linea.
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