Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s blog post saying that Coinbase won’t “engage” with social issues unrelated to the company’s core mission as a crypto exchange has spotlighted a hugely contentious issue that divides people at tech companies big and small. Our subscribers, perhaps not surprisingly, are just as divided.
A survey we did today of The Information subscribers found that 51% disagreed with Armstrong, saying companies should engage with social activism outside their core mission. A slightly higher proportion—56%—also didn’t believe employees should leave a company if they disagreed with their chief executive’s on this issue. Armstrong had sent a follow-up memo offering a severance package to anyone who wanted to leave because they were uncomfortable with his policy. Our survey has a margin of error of 4%, however, which makes the results a little less clear-cut.