In a recent tweet the Bitmain cofounder Micree Zhan, who also happened to accuse the management board of wrongfully dismissing him, expressed strong disapproval over the mining firm’s decision to shed as much as fifty percent (50%) of its workforce.
For this cryptocurrency mining giant, the latter half of 2019 turned out to be a period when things begin to go downhill. Come 2020, and there seems to be no respite to this state of deterioration. In October 2019, Bitmain cofounder Micree Zhan was ousted from the company following a severe power struggle. Since then, Zhan has been in the mood to shake it off and let it go.
In November, he claimed that the board members unjustly targeted him over differences of opinion and decided to uproot him from his position and power to save their face. In his open letter, he blamed his company for dismissing him without consent and that he is preparing to wage a legal war against those involved. Moreover, earlier this month, he filed legal proceedings against the Bitmain’s shareholders in an attempt to regain his voting control, as even though he is ousted, he still continues to be the largest stakeholder of this Beijing-based company.
Bitmain Cofounder Micree Zhan finds workforce redundancy unacceptable
Now, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency products manufacturer struggling to reorganize itself and planning on carrying out mass layoffs as per the new optimization plan, Zhan calls this nothing but a grave mistake. He further went on to ridicule this plan and explained how layoffs could prove to be suicidal for the company.
In an open letter, dated 6th January 2019, Zhan makes it very clear that implementing large-scale layoffs is a big mistake. According to him, the decision only takes into consideration the firm’s short-term benefit and completely disregards its reputation as being a sure-footed and viable employer.
Just in: Micree Zhan, the co-founder of #Bitmain, just posted a public letter through his wechat moment, saying that "He disagreed strongly with current layoffs in Bitmain."
He said most of layoffs are from R&D, it is rediculous, as the revenue of miners can afford the cost. pic.twitter.com/cR5n12nZgQ
— BlockBeats｜We're hiring! (@BlockBeatsAsia) January 6, 2020
I have done the math, and it just doesn’t make any sense in dismissing these employees as the overall cost of retaining them isn’t that high, Zhan claims. Instead, Zhan continues, the firm could contemplate integrating advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning.
Zhan adds that Bitmain would only remain profitable in the long run if it expands its reach to other sectors and explores more technologies. Instead, it has decided to double down its investments in the already-competitive mining industry, and that is not a wise idea. For Bitmain to remain well-positioned in the industry, it needs to focus on ideas and concepts that yield higher returns, concludes Zhan.
Featured Image by Flickr
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