> 1) The anonymous/pseudo anonymous nature of the space is bizarre. I would have multiple voice-only meetings with people using aliases and avatars for all communications. To this day I only know some people as "Mango Man" or whatever. Meeting people who could just burn down an entire identity and start fresh when things go sideways is an indicator of the nature of the space.
Most employees at Kraken don't know what the CTO looks like. He never turns the camera on during meetings and as far as I'm aware hasn't showed up to the in person events. He wrote most of the legacy backend.
This was mostly a curiosity though. None of the other points apply to him. He was professional.
> 6) VC in the space is even more wild than what has been reported in the media. I'll just leave this one at that.
I know a guy who went to a crypto hackathon (which is a chance for devs and start ups to show off for VCs.). He said a disturbing number of VCs, mostly creepy old guys who got rich off crypto, showed up with obvious asian/eastern European prostitutes or sugar babies.
> Most employees at Kraken don't know what the CTO looks like. He never turns the camera on during meetings and as far as I'm aware hasn't showed up to the in person events. He wrote most of the legacy backend.
> This was mostly a curiosity though. None of the other points apply to him. He was professional.
Call me "old school" but the CTO of a company valued at > $10B that manages who-knows-how-much in terms of customer assets shouldn't be able to do this. Frankly, it's ridiculous - can you imagine the CTO of Bank of America being an avatar/unknown? Seriously. Where is an adult to say "turn your camera on, show up to stuff, use your real name, or you're out"?!?!
Regarding the "sugar babies" and what-not - yes. Just another data point that demonstrates how ridiculously shady and so far beyond acceptable behavior, practice, and standards the space is.
Most employees at Kraken don't know what the CTO looks like. He never turns the camera on during meetings and as far as I'm aware hasn't showed up to the in person events. He wrote most of the legacy backend.
This was mostly a curiosity though. None of the other points apply to him. He was professional.
> 6) VC in the space is even more wild than what has been reported in the media. I'll just leave this one at that.
I know a guy who went to a crypto hackathon (which is a chance for devs and start ups to show off for VCs.). He said a disturbing number of VCs, mostly creepy old guys who got rich off crypto, showed up with obvious asian/eastern European prostitutes or sugar babies.