Executive summary: The post examines the extent to which the effective altruism (EA) community may have indirectly contributed to the financial crimes committed by the FTX leadership, and proposes steps the EA community can take to prevent such contributions in the future.
Key points:
The post argues that the key issue was fraud/financial crime, not just bankruptcy, risky bets, or bad management.
The post suggests that the EA community should conduct a thorough review to assess how and to what extent it may have indirectly contributed to the FTX crimes, and provide recommendations to prevent similar contributions in the future.
The post identifies several potential ways the EA community may have contributed, including:
Encouraging Bankman-Fried’s career path in finance and crypto trading
Supporting the founding of Alameda and FTX
Lending credibility and reputation to Bankman-Fried and FTX through the FTX Foundation and Future Fund
Failing to conduct sufficient due diligence on Bankman-Fried, FTX, and the crypto industry
The post recommends more explicit warnings against committing crimes, better vetting of potential large-scale donors, more extensive discussion of such donors within the community, and considering an EA whistleblowing function.
The post notes that while the EA community may have indirectly contributed, the main contributing factor was the unregulated nature of the crypto industry, which provided the “means and opportunity” for the crimes.
The post calls for the EA community to hold itself to high standards of accountability and integrity in assessing its potential indirect contribution to the FTX crimes.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The post examines the extent to which the effective altruism (EA) community may have indirectly contributed to the financial crimes committed by the FTX leadership, and proposes steps the EA community can take to prevent such contributions in the future.
Key points:
The post argues that the key issue was fraud/financial crime, not just bankruptcy, risky bets, or bad management.
The post suggests that the EA community should conduct a thorough review to assess how and to what extent it may have indirectly contributed to the FTX crimes, and provide recommendations to prevent similar contributions in the future.
The post identifies several potential ways the EA community may have contributed, including:
Encouraging Bankman-Fried’s career path in finance and crypto trading
Supporting the founding of Alameda and FTX
Lending credibility and reputation to Bankman-Fried and FTX through the FTX Foundation and Future Fund
Failing to conduct sufficient due diligence on Bankman-Fried, FTX, and the crypto industry
The post recommends more explicit warnings against committing crimes, better vetting of potential large-scale donors, more extensive discussion of such donors within the community, and considering an EA whistleblowing function.
The post notes that while the EA community may have indirectly contributed, the main contributing factor was the unregulated nature of the crypto industry, which provided the “means and opportunity” for the crimes.
The post calls for the EA community to hold itself to high standards of accountability and integrity in assessing its potential indirect contribution to the FTX crimes.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.