Salesforce wants a piece of the NFT action and "hundreds" of its employees are reportedly not happy about it.
More than 400 employees signed an open letter that's being passed around internally, according to Thomson Reuters Foundation News, and is addressed to Salesforce's co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor.
"The amount of scams and fraud in the NFT space is overwhelming" and "we implore you to reconsider," the letter reportedly says. It also warns further of attrition and at least one employee told Thomson Reuters they were prepared to quit if the company goes through with its plans.
The company is reportedly planning an internal listening session next week.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have exploded into popular culture over the past year and can be a very lucrative investment, but are largely unregulated and also come with risks like theft, scams and depreciation. They also rely on blockchain protocols which require high energy usage and tend not to be built with renewable energy sources.
Last week, CNBC reported that the company was developing an NFT cloud storage service, and possibly a marketplace, for enterprise clients.
Salesforce had 36,000 employees in 2018, according to its website, and in its most recent quarterly report said it had increased headcount by 37 percent since October 2020.
"Our core values guide everything we do, including the development of our products," the company said in a statement sent via email. "We welcome our employees’ feedback and are proud to foster a culture of trust that empowers them to raise diverse points of view. We are hosting a listening session with employees next week and will use their input to strengthen our path forward."
Salesforce employees are not the only community pushing back on NFTs. Gamers reacted with hostility online when Ubisoft and other large video game developers tried to incorporate NFTs into their products, seeing it as another way that the companies would nickel-and-dime customers.
