This looks a lot more promising than the original post, so I’m very impressed at the continued evolution of this idea!
So, if I understand correctly, the current setup (or, the setup in a month or two) is roughly equivalent to the idea of—I give you money, you invest that money in a very low-risk investment, that profit goes to GiveDirectly, and if I need the money back, you give it to me. The reason it’s a cryptocurrency is that there are plans to eventually allow GLO to be used as cash for various things. This is important because GLO is designed to be held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and emergency funds, not long-term investments—it doesn’t compete in yield with the stock market, but that’s not the intention.
Have I got that right?
Some additional questions:
How quickly, and at what cost, will I be able to exchange a currency (whether USD or non-USD) for GLO, and back again?
Is there a long-term plan to extract some amount of the T-bond interest for operational expenses? Do you see yourself being donor-funded indefinitely?
Your summary is correct and pithy to boot! Perhaps we’ll link people to it if they ask what our deal is 😃
For individual buyers, Glo will be available at crypto exchanges. Selling Glo for USD on an exchange should be essentially instantaneous (depending on the exchange). How long it takes to get to your bank account will vary from place to place. In Europe, it takes like a day but, for reference, Coinbase estimates 3-5 days for US customers. Hope that helps!
We don’t currently plan to use yield to fund our operations. But standard caveat about the future being unwritten, we’ll have to evaluate based on our donor base, etc.
On the T-bond for operational expenses...I really hope not. It really messes with the purity of message, and if the impact is there, they should get support and not be forced to muddy the message for the general public. Just 100% of yield goes to Givedirectly. Then let the people who know the great work that GLO is doing support it.
Just like Givewell… If people thought their donation was supporting Givewell’s overhead, they would be less likely to support the Impact Fund.
Smart EAs should support effective institutions and enable those institutions to offer clearer propositions to the public.
On https://secure.givewell.org/, you first check a box for what fund you want to donate to, and then there’s a a checkbox asking you to “Add 10% for GiveWell’s unrestricted use (likely to support GiveWell’s operating expenses)”
This looks a lot more promising than the original post, so I’m very impressed at the continued evolution of this idea!
So, if I understand correctly, the current setup (or, the setup in a month or two) is roughly equivalent to the idea of—I give you money, you invest that money in a very low-risk investment, that profit goes to GiveDirectly, and if I need the money back, you give it to me. The reason it’s a cryptocurrency is that there are plans to eventually allow GLO to be used as cash for various things. This is important because GLO is designed to be held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and emergency funds, not long-term investments—it doesn’t compete in yield with the stock market, but that’s not the intention.
Have I got that right?
Some additional questions:
How quickly, and at what cost, will I be able to exchange a currency (whether USD or non-USD) for GLO, and back again?
Is there a long-term plan to extract some amount of the T-bond interest for operational expenses? Do you see yourself being donor-funded indefinitely?
Hi Jay, thanks for the kind words!
Your summary is correct and pithy to boot! Perhaps we’ll link people to it if they ask what our deal is 😃
For individual buyers, Glo will be available at crypto exchanges. Selling Glo for USD on an exchange should be essentially instantaneous (depending on the exchange). How long it takes to get to your bank account will vary from place to place. In Europe, it takes like a day but, for reference, Coinbase estimates 3-5 days for US customers. Hope that helps!
We don’t currently plan to use yield to fund our operations. But standard caveat about the future being unwritten, we’ll have to evaluate based on our donor base, etc.
On the T-bond for operational expenses...I really hope not. It really messes with the purity of message, and if the impact is there, they should get support and not be forced to muddy the message for the general public. Just 100% of yield goes to Givedirectly. Then let the people who know the great work that GLO is doing support it.
Just like Givewell… If people thought their donation was supporting Givewell’s overhead, they would be less likely to support the Impact Fund.
Smart EAs should support effective institutions and enable those institutions to offer clearer propositions to the public.
Does the Impact Fund not take a small percentage to support GiveWell’s overhead? I just always assumed they did.
On https://secure.givewell.org/, you first check a box for what fund you want to donate to, and then there’s a a checkbox asking you to “Add 10% for GiveWell’s unrestricted use (likely to support GiveWell’s operating expenses)”
👏 Thank you for your kind words Brad!