Lubin Won't Rule Out Layoffs Amid 'Refocusing' at ConsenSys

A strategic shift is in the works at ConsenSys, the sprawling venture studio dedicated to building ethereum-based businesses and products.

"I would call it a refocusing of priorities," ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin told CoinDesk in an interview Tuesday.

"On more rigor, more structure, more sustainability, more accountability."

In an emailed letter sent to the venture studio's roughly 1,200 employees on Friday night, Lubin laid out the vision for what he called "ConsenSys 2.0.".

In its four years of existence, the internally-funded ConsenSys has grown rapidly, with a major hub in Brooklyn and outposts spanning the globe.

More than 50 ventures currently exist under the ConsenSys umbrella, and the firm's recent investments include a stake in the crypto trading platform ErisX alongside big-name companies like Fidelity and Nasdaq.

Whereas previously "It was good enough to do cool projects," Lubin said, ConsenSys 2.0 will be different: "We are going to focus much more rigorously across the different business lines on accountability, that includes financial sustainability," he told CoinDesk.

Lubin says the company has been interacting much more with external investors over the last year in a bid to "Open up" funding opportunities for ConsenSys-supported ventures.

"Certainly one goal is to enable ConsenSys and its projects to not be dependent on the price of these value tokens, that essentially they are all thriving businesses in their own right," Lubin said.

The big-picture goals remain the same, Lubin says, but the strategy for getting there must evolve in order for ConsenSys to succeed in the long-term.