ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin has been named in a new lawsuit filed in New York by over two dozen former ConsenSys employees.

Over two dozen former employees of Ethereum infrastructure firm ConsenSys have filed a fresh lawsuit against the firm’s founder and CEO, Joseph Lubin, over claims he diluted employee equity shares against earlier promises.

The former staff allege that Lubin — who is also a co-founder of Ethereum — breached this “no-dilution promise” made in 2015, according to the plaintiff’s Oct. 19 filing in a New York Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs allege Lubin lured in “smart and motivated” colleagues to work for ConsenSys in late 2014, claiming the firm would become the “future of cryptocurrency” and the “crypto Google.”

Around that time, Lubins allegedly stated in a document that he wouldn’t dilute employee equity shares; the plaintiffs allege he later broke that promise.

“It is my intention that the percentage ConsenSys members receive will not be diluted by additional issuance,” the document reportedly wrote.

The plaintiffs argued Lubin didn’t just break the promise but also “got rich” off it while they “got nothing.”

“He broke his word [and] he violated his legal commitments and duties. While Lubin got rich, Plaintiffs got nothing.”

The plaintiffs, who held shares in Swiss-based holding company ConsenSys AG — formerly ConsenSys Mesh — claim the shares were rendered “worthless” when Lubin transferred cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask and other assets to its new United States-based entity in 2020.

The plaintiffs also named investment bank JPMorgan — as one of the seven defendants — alleging it ”played a pivotal role” in negotiating the asset transfer and became a new equity holder in the new U.S. entity:

“Lubin, his inner circle, and JPMorgan kept the details of the negotiations secret—Plaintiffs were left in the dark.

“Lubin did not bring over many of his early employees—the Plaintiffs here—as equity holders in the new company. Instead, they continued to hold shares in the far less valuable entity that had been stripped of its assets,” the plaintiffs added.

ConsenSys says plaintiffs claims are ‘meritless’

Speaking to Cointelegraph, a ConsenSys spokesperson called the claims "frivolous," saying the plaintiffs are now trying their luck in the U.S. legal arena after “two years of getting nowhere with their frivolous claims” in a Swiss court.

Related: ConsenSys founder ‘bullish’ on Ethereum following crypto winter performance

“[The] plaintiffs now believe their meritless claims stand a better chance of yielding a pay day if they game U.S. courts and entangle ConsenSys Software and other unrelated parties in litigation.” The ConsenSys representative added:

“We fully expect that the plaintiffs, who were never employees of Consensys Software, will soon find this gambit is another fruitless attempt to enrich themselves from the success of others.”

Despite claims that the plaintiff’s legal challenge went “nowhere” in Switzerland, the country’s High Court of Zug issued a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs say the ruling supports their position that Lubin breached his duties.

ConsenSys was founded in October 2014, about nine months before the Ethereum blockchain launched in mid-2015.

The firm develops and hosts infrastructure projects that underpins much of the Ethereum network.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages across six separate causes of action, in an amount to be determined at trial.

Magazine: Joe Lubin: The truth about ETH founders split and ‘Crypto Google’

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Layer-2 network Base has announced the open sourcing of its code repositories and smart contracts as part of its quest to build "in the open.”

Coinbase layer-2 network Base has announced it has open-sourced its code repositories and smart contracts to increase transparency and accountability while simultaneously allowing public contributions to the project. 

In an Oct. 19 blog post, Base announced that as of today, developers would be granted full access to the network’s codebase.

One of Base’s core values is building in the open

We believe this is foundational to building an onchain ecosystem, creating accountability, and enabling collaboration

In this spirit, we’ve open sourced our smart contract and GitHub reposhttps://t.co/UOgGpNXyFL

— Base ️ (@BuildOnBase) October 19, 2023

“By sharing our work openly, we enable the community to track our progress and ensure that we're living up to our commitments.”

“Open source is a win-win for our onchain future. Builders get access to a trove of knowledge, improve on what’s already been done, and in turn inspire others in the space,” Base added.

A core part of the decision to open-source its code is the goal of providing developers with increased transparency into the project’s development. Base said all of its smart contracts and scripts are now publicly available on GitHub.

This means that developers are now able to assess and experiment with the code responsible for deposits and withdrawals on Base, allowing access to increased tools for developers looking to spin up similar functions.

Open-source development is an integral part of the crypto ethos. By making code public, anyone in the community is able to audit the code, which hypothetically, allows for vulnerabilities and potential exploits to be noticed and patched more quickly than if it were kept in-house.

It’s also worth noting that open-source code also means that nefarious actors could spot vulnerabilities and exploit them before another more noble developer has the opportunity to flag the issue.

In light of this concern, Coinbase has encouraged “security-minded” developers to sieve through the layer-2’s code and keep a close eye out for any vulnerabilities, offering a bounty of up to $1 million for the discovery of bugs.

Related: Coinbase selects Ireland as its European crypto hub

As well as open-sourcing its repositories and smart contracts, Base also open-sourced its web properties, including base.org, docs.base.org, and bridge.base.org.

Base has been one of the most active layer-2 networks in the crypto ecosystem, with a large wave of activity being driven by the rise of Friend.tech, a decentralized social finance application built on top of the network.

On Sept. 21, Coinbase legal counsel Paul Grewal raised eyebrows when he told Decrypt that Coinbase had not “ruled out entirely” the idea of issuing a native token for the layer-2 network.

Magazine: Are DAOs overhyped and unworkable? Lessons from the front lines

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Recruiting and retaining talent is challenging in the competitive “buyer’s market” post-COVID-19 landscape, especially taking into account the ongoing economic uncertainty.

In a panel at NAIOP’s CRE.Converge this week, experts examined the impacts of this new normal and shared strategies around organizational design, compensation, and workplace expectations that real estate companies are using to meet the demands of their employees. Eric Willett, managing director, RCLCO Real Estate Consulting, moderated the panel, with panelists Nathaalie Carey, senior vice president, HR, Prologis; Jackie Chapman, director of people, Trammell Crow Company; and Ryan Neale, managing director, SelectLeaders.

“There’s been a sea-change in the way we think about talent,” Willett began, mentioning the “Great Resignation” during and post-COVID-19, significant compensation growth, and the explosion of remote/hybrid work as major recent events and trends impacting the workforce.

The demands of the workforce are changing, too. “Candidates are asking about our DEI strategy, how diverse is our board, what is the investment in employee training?” said Carey.

“The changes I’m seeing are beyond compensation – from a career development standpoint, sustainability, diversity initiatives, how the company represents themselves in the market – the whole package,” Chapman agreed.

“That’s what I’m hearing from principals, executives: ‘We want this next generation thinking like an owner – they have a stake in this.’” Neale added.

But compensation is still part of the conversation. “We’re constantly doing that analysis and making corrections internally,” Carey said. She pointed out that if your organization has a job posting with salary range listed, your current employees will be looking closely to see if their own pay aligns. “Pay transparency is upon us. It’s happening!” she said.

But the compensation spike has leveled off over the last nine months, according to SelectLeaders’ data. “In the midst of intensifying market headwinds, some companies are tightening their belts even as the labor market remains tight,” Neale said.

Whatever the market, the panelists agreed it’s important to build entry-level talent, to invest in young professionals because it takes time to develop their skill set. But there’s a branding problem: not many young people are familiar with commercial real estate or what a career in the industry could look like.

“You go on LinkedIn to create your profile and select your industry – commercial real estate isn’t even listed!” Carey pointed out. “We have to make sure young talent is aware of our industry because they’re not even thinking about us.”

“At Prologis, we want to make sure there’s a talent pool that we’re cultivating now so it’s available down the line. We’re invested in building out the brand of our industry,” she added.

Trammel Crow Company has more than tripled their presence on campuses, Chapman said, pointing out that there’s not a lot of expense in organizing something like casual coffee meetups. “Just getting in that room and educating them is something we should all take on as a responsibility,” she said.

“It’s certainly a collaborative project and I think the organizations like NAIOP play such a critical role in bringing us together,” Willett added.

Also top-of-mind for the panelists are the efforts to diversify and increase their organizations’ talent pool.

“Almost every executive search starts with the organization saying, ‘How can you get us in front of a new pool of talent?’” Neale said. When he asks them what they’ve done in the past, the typical response is a general referral within their network. “If you’re working within the same referral network, you’re going to have the same result, the same type of talent,” he pointed out.

“When we talk about DEI, I want to stress the inclusion part of that. You can’t have that conversation about inclusion and exclude people,” Carey said. “Our intent is to increase our application pool – not hire a certain type of person. It’s about getting people to apply. The right people will rise to the top.”

This post is brought to you by JLL, the social media and conference blog sponsor of NAIOP’s CRE.Converge 2023. Learn more about JLL at www.us.jll.com or www.jll.ca.

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