Google, Amazon workers leaving Silicon Valley for crypto, Web 3.0 startups: Report

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In December 2020, Brian Roberts, the CFO of Lyft, the popular taxi service, left to join OpenSea, a popular Ethereum-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. Shortly after, Sherice Torres, former chief marketing officer (CMO) at Novi, Meta’s digital wallet project, moved over to Circle, a blockchain-focused payments firm. Ryan Wyatt, Head of Gaming at YouTube, jumped ship for Polygon Studios, a startup that dabbles in the NFT and Web 3.0 spaces. Former general manager of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Pravjit Tiwana, is now the chief technology officer (CTO) at cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. And the list goes on.

Perhaps the biggest eyebrow-raiser was the exit of Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, who left the thriving social media platform to become the head of Block, a company exploring cryptocurrency and Web 3.0 technology.

But it is not just high-positioned executives that are leaving. The departure of the big guns could trigger a domino effect on the rest of the workforce and tech giants, wary of this trend, are working on it. Reports suggest Google has been offering its employees additional stock options to reduce poaching by Web 3.0 companies.

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Many workers are also reportedly lured by the fact that Web 3.0 startups provide stock options with high ‘liquidity’ or the ability to cash out their shares more easily and without longer lock-ins.

Even though the prospects of Web 3.0 and blockchain are hypothetical as of now, those in the tech industry are feeling a seismic shift that is reminiscent of the time when the internet started gaining popularity. Initially ridiculed, the internet now has invaded all aspects of our lives and has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Web 3.0 and blockchain technology are at a similar stage right now.

This shift is also backed by investors pouring billions and billions of dollars into NFTs and cryptocurrency. NFTs, which only recently became popular, have already seen investments worth $42 billion in 2021. “There is a giant sucking sound coming from crypto,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, former Google executive and current CEO of search engine start-up Neeva. “It feels a bit like the 1990s and the birth of the internet all over again. It’s that early, that chaotic and that much full of opportunity,” he went on to say in his email to The New York Times.