Thanks for this thoughtful, constructive, and informative post, and for the very reasonable proposed changes.
I agree that it’s very important for EA and EA-adjacent organizations not to become politically partisan, or to be perceived as partisan. This is much more difficult than ever before, given that almost every issue becomes polarized on social media—even if the issue has no intrinsic political or moral connection to either party.
IMHO, if the ultimate goal of PoF is to get candidates elected who support constructive, rational, well-informed crypto regulation that helps the crypto industry grow and flourish, it’s OK to be open and transparent about that, and to support candidates of any party who are aligned with that mission.
I think crypto should get more attention in EA, and should maybe be considered a moderately cause areas for EAs, given its potential to increase access to financial services, secure digital identities, property rights, etc—especially among the billions of people with minimal access to banking or secure digital records. If we’re serious about reducing global poverty and improving global public health, then crypto replacements for the current banking system and the current medical records system could be useful. Unfortunately, many folks, including many EAs, seem to think crypto is nothing more than Bitcoin as a ‘digital store of value’, plus a bunch of shady crypto scams and cute NFTs.
So, I would love to see more money spent on public education and legislator education about crypto (or pandemic preparedness, or AI X-risks, or whatever PoF or FTX or Future Fund wants to prioritize).
Thanks for this thoughtful, constructive, and informative post, and for the very reasonable proposed changes.
I agree that it’s very important for EA and EA-adjacent organizations not to become politically partisan, or to be perceived as partisan. This is much more difficult than ever before, given that almost every issue becomes polarized on social media—even if the issue has no intrinsic political or moral connection to either party.
IMHO, if the ultimate goal of PoF is to get candidates elected who support constructive, rational, well-informed crypto regulation that helps the crypto industry grow and flourish, it’s OK to be open and transparent about that, and to support candidates of any party who are aligned with that mission.
I think crypto should get more attention in EA, and should maybe be considered a moderately cause areas for EAs, given its potential to increase access to financial services, secure digital identities, property rights, etc—especially among the billions of people with minimal access to banking or secure digital records. If we’re serious about reducing global poverty and improving global public health, then crypto replacements for the current banking system and the current medical records system could be useful. Unfortunately, many folks, including many EAs, seem to think crypto is nothing more than Bitcoin as a ‘digital store of value’, plus a bunch of shady crypto scams and cute NFTs.
So, I would love to see more money spent on public education and legislator education about crypto (or pandemic preparedness, or AI X-risks, or whatever PoF or FTX or Future Fund wants to prioritize).