Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin says the future of the crypto industry is so bright he has to wear shades, and called a bottom to the current bear market.
“Peeking into 2019, if you could see the landscape through my eyes, you’d have to wear shades,” Lubin gushed in a lengthy tweetstorm (see below).
Lubin — the CEO of blockchain startup ConsenSys — recently laid off 60% of his workforce to cut costs, but insists that 2019 looks very promising.
“I am calling the cryptobottom of 2018,” he tweeted. “This bottom is marked by an epic amount of fear, uncertainty, and doubt from our friends in the 4th and crypto-5th estates.”
Joseph Lubin: I’m ‘Very Excited’ About 2019
As CCN reported, ConsenSy underwent a dramatic restructuring to streamline its business after doubling its workforce to almost 1,200 employees.
Under the reorganization, the sprawling Brooklyn-based startup eliminated underperforming projects and placed a renewed emphasis on creating “tangible value” (i.e., profitable ventures).
Lubin — whose crypto net worth tops $1 billion — personally financed the expansion, but was forced to cut back amid the unexpected market crash.
Lubin said he has seen a lot of FUD due to the prolonged downturn, but warned that people on the outside looking in shouldn’t draw conclusions about ConsenSys based on its current woes.
Lubin also chided detractors who are gleefully wallowing in schadenfreude over the current dismal state of the industry, and said ConsenSys continues to prepare for a watershed 2019.
“We have been on the receiving end of an epic amount of conjecture and preemptive paranoia — filled with damning rhetoric about situations journalists and bloggers don’t have real data for,” he tweeted.
The sky is not falling. From my perspective, the future looks very bright. I remain excited about scalability solutions that are available now.
‘Yours In Ethereal Serenity’
As he looks ahead to 2019, Lubin said exciting things are lurking around the corner as the token economy continues to mature and gain mainstream acceptance.
“We will see many exciting consumer utility tokens and tokenized security launches in the new year,” he vowed.
Lubin then sent warm holiday greetings to both supporters and haters alike and signed off with the salutation, “Yours in Ethereal Serenity.”
Best of the season to all of our supporters and detractors out there. Good time to acknowledge that ultimately we are all in this together.
What I’ve witnessed among the chattering class the past few weeks in response to @ConsenSys 2.0 is a rather typical tune: the alarmed, the eulogistic, and the gleeful.
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 21, 2018
ConsenSys remains healthy and is engaging in a rebalancing of priorities and activities which started about nine months ago.
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 21, 2018
We continue to invest in external projects, and continue to hire for internal projects that remain core to our forward looking business. We actually hired around fifteen people in the last week or so, and have job descriptions that we are currently hiring for.
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 21, 2018
The sky is not falling. From my perspective the future looks very bright. I remain excited about scalability solutions that are available now…
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 21, 2018
Best of the season to all of our supporters and detractors out there. Good time to acknowledge that ultimately we are all in this together. Wishing you all a great 2019.
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 21, 2018
Lubin’s tweet was met with skepticism by blockchain developer Jimmy Song, who warned, “Don’t believe a word this guy says.”
Song claimed Lubin had not followed through on a bet the two were supposed to make several months earlier.
Don’t believe a word this guy says. Remember, he predicted dApps would take over the world by 2023 and offered a bet to me on stage and 7 months later, has *still* not finalized the bet. Words are cheap @ethereumJoseph, why don’t you put some money behind that mouth of yours? https://t.co/p5r6EyD6So
— Jimmy Song (송재준) (@jimmysong) December 22, 2018
Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin chimed in with his support for Lubin by sarcastically dismissing all the critics who proclaimed that “ConsenSys is dead” even though it employs 600 people.
Expand up to 1100 people, shrink to 600, keeping the 6/11ths that are most productive: OMG consensys is dead!
Expand up to 600 with no shrinking, announce every step of the expansion: wow, the company is prospering!
Lulz.
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) December 21, 2018
Buterin mocked the “smugness” of naysayers who enthusiastically dismiss industry pioneers as naive and unrealistic. “The problem is that smugness just feels good,” he noted.
Oh yeah? So does proving your haters wrong — so buckle up your seat belts everyone.
In many cases I don’t think it’s even because they’re bitcoin maximalists or anti-crypto in general or whatever; the problem is that smugness just feels good.
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) December 21, 2018
In this particular case, I was talking about the media more than bitcoiners. The types of people who just love writing thinkpieces about the “naiveté of [insert name here]’s unrealistic idealism”.
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) December 21, 2018
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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