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Polkadot layoffs: executives received more than $1 million in cash; the Asian team was not fired

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Employees said the company, which was cutting jobs as it ran out of cash, went on a hiring spree over the past year and ended up in financial trouble.

Original Title: "Polkadot workers endured 'Hunger Games' retreat after getting news of mass layoffs, employees say"

Original Authors: Tim Craig, Inbar Preiss, DLNews

Original Translation: ChainCatcher

One week before Parity Technologies, the Polkadot ecosystem development organization, headed to Mallorca for their annual vacation, its 385 employees received some shocking news: the company will be laying off most of its staff.

However, several employees told DL News that despite their impending departure, they will still attend the five-day retreat from October 9th to 13th at the Ibirapuera Star Caladomigos Beach Resort, as flights have already been booked. A representative from Parity told DL News that the company chose to proceed with the event even after announcing the layoffs.

The original plan was for an interesting week, including speeches, seminars, and gatherings, but it turned into a discussion about the dissolution of Parity, who will survive the elimination, and what will happen next.

"This feels like a surreal, nauseating joke," said a Parity employee who participated in this meditation retreat in a short message, "It's a bit like The Hunger Games."

Internal Conflict

Parity Technologies is a blockchain infrastructure company responsible for developing the Polkadot blockchain.

According to several current and former employees, Polkadot and Parity are now embroiled in internal conflict as funding decreases and staff criticize senior management for paying themselves generous salaries.

Parity's former strategic growth project manager, Eric Wang, left the company in January. He told DL News: "The executives were paid high salaries, but didn't bring much actual results." "The parity has been broken."

For one of the most hyped projects in the DeFi space, the situation has undergone a dramatic change.

In 2020, Polkadot was launched with a promising future and a strong background. Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, created Polkadot to address the limitations of the blockchain he helped create, such as scalability issues.

In the next three years, talented developers and DeFi enthusiasts are flocking to Polkadot, while at the same time Polkadot reached its peak market value (about $54 billion) in November 2021, becoming one of the top 10 companies in the cryptocurrency field.

"A Challenging Step"

When responding to DL News' request for comment, Parity did not deny or confirm layoffs, nor did they mention management salary issues.

Parity indicates that it expects "continuous emergence" of participants in its network and further adoption of the Polkadot blockchain. A spokesperson stated that the company is committed to decentralizing the development of Polkadot and described this situation as a "challenging step" for the company.

Parity spokesperson stated in an email statement to DL News: "We thank our team members for playing an important role in achieving our success today. Although this is a challenging step for Parity, it is a necessary step for Polkadot."

Given that Parity is committed to expanding the user base of Polkadot, employees are caught off guard by the layoffs and have requested anonymity to protect themselves during this sensitive time.

Employees said that only the company's core engineering, developer relations, ecosystem operations, and Asian team have not been laid off.

Spanish Retreat

These questions should have been answered at the retreat in Spain. However, team members found it difficult to ignore the pressure of the impending layoffs.

A staff member who attended the meeting said, "It seems that they have the right to speak in the power delegation plan." "Some people even cried when they gave speeches on stage. Many people left early."

According to several employees who attended the meditation retreat, Wood did not participate, which has angered and confused many people. According to the employees, the founder of Polkadot and Parity also missed the all-staff meeting where employees were informed about the upcoming layoffs.

The employee interviewed by DL News stated that they believe this decision was made by Wood.

A staff member said: "Many employees feel that he has not clearly defined his priorities and has not helped promote Polkadot."

Wood did not respond to DL News' request for comment.

落后于竞争对手

translates to

Falling behind competitors

The employees also stated that Fahmi Syed, the Chief Financial Officer of Parity, left the company the day before the announcement of layoffs. Syed's LinkedIn profile indicates that he still holds the position of Chief Financial Officer at the company.

Fahmi Syed declined to comment on DL News' request for comment.

Wood established Parity Technologies to help commercialize the Polkadot network. It plays a similar role to IOHK, a commercial enterprise that develops the Cardano blockchain.

However, Polkadot has fallen behind its competitors. Compared to Ethereum's 32% increase, Polkadot's DOT cryptocurrency has fallen by about 18% this year.