If we had incentivised whistle-blowers to come forward around shady things happening at FTX, would we have known about FTX fraud sooner and been less reliant on FTX funding? Very plausibly yes. She says “likely” which is obviously not particularly specific, but this would fit my definition of likely.
Why do you think so? Whistleblowers inside of FTX would have been protected under US law, and US institution like SEC offer them multi-million dollar bounties. Why would EA scheme create stronger incentive?
Also: even if the possible whistleblowers inside of FTX were EAs, whistleblowing about fraud at FTX not directed toward authorities like SEC, but toward some EA org scheme, would have been particularly bad idea. The EA scheme would not be equipped to deal with this and would need to basically immediately forward it to authorities, leading to immediate FTX collapse. Main difference would be putting EAs in the centre of the happenings?
If EA had diversified our portfolio to be less reliant on a few central donors, this would have also (quite obviously) mean the crash had less impact on EA overall, so this also seems true.
I think the ‘diversified our portfolio’ frame is subtly misleading, because it’s usually associated with investments or holdings, but here it is applied to ‘donors’. You can’t diversify donations the same way. Also: assume you recruit donors uniformly, no matter how wealthy they are. Most of the wealth will be with the wealthiest minority , basically because how the wealth distribution looks like. Attempt to diversify donation portfolio toward smaller donors … would look like GWWC?
Only real option how to have much less FTX money in EA was to not accept that much FTX funding. Which was a tough call at the time, in part because FTX FF seemed like the biggest step toward decentralized distribution of funding, and a big step toward diversifying from OP.
Only real option how to have much less FTX money in EA was to not accept that much FTX funding. Which was a tough call at the time, in part because FTX FF seemed like the biggest step toward decentralized distribution of funding, and a big step toward diversifying from OP.
And even then, decisions about accepting funding are made by individuals and individual organizations. Would there be someone to kick you out of EA if you accept “unapproved” funding? The existing system is, in a sense, fairly democratic in that everyone gets to decide whether they want to take the money or not. I don’t see how Cremer’s proposal could be effective without a blacklist to enforce community will against anyone who chose to take the money anyway, and that gives whoever maintains the blacklist great power (which is contrary to Cremer’s stated aims).
The reality, perhaps unfortunate, is that charities need donors more than donors need specific charities or movements.
Also: assume you recruit donors uniformly, no matter how wealthy they are. Most of the wealth will be with the wealthiest minority , basically because how the wealth distribution looks like. Attempt to diversify donation portfolio toward smaller donors … would look like GWWC?
It depends on how you define wealthiest minority, but if you mean billionaires, the majority of philanthropy is not from billionaires. EA has been unusually successful with billionaires. That means if EA mean reverts, perhaps by going mainstream, the majority of EA funding will not be from billionaires. CEA deprioritized GWWC for several years-I think if they had continued to prioritize it, funding would have gotten at least somewhat more diversified. Also, I find that talking with midcareer professionals it’s much easier to mention donations rather than switching their career. So I think that more emphasis on donations from people of modest means could help EA diversify with respect to age.
Why do you think so? Whistleblowers inside of FTX would have been protected under US law, and US institution like SEC offer them multi-million dollar bounties. Why would EA scheme create stronger incentive?
Also: even if the possible whistleblowers inside of FTX were EAs, whistleblowing about fraud at FTX not directed toward authorities like SEC, but toward some EA org scheme, would have been particularly bad idea. The EA scheme would not be equipped to deal with this and would need to basically immediately forward it to authorities, leading to immediate FTX collapse. Main difference would be putting EAs in the centre of the happenings?
I think the ‘diversified our portfolio’ frame is subtly misleading, because it’s usually associated with investments or holdings, but here it is applied to ‘donors’. You can’t diversify donations the same way. Also: assume you recruit donors uniformly, no matter how wealthy they are. Most of the wealth will be with the wealthiest minority , basically because how the wealth distribution looks like. Attempt to diversify donation portfolio toward smaller donors … would look like GWWC?
Only real option how to have much less FTX money in EA was to not accept that much FTX funding. Which was a tough call at the time, in part because FTX FF seemed like the biggest step toward decentralized distribution of funding, and a big step toward diversifying from OP.
And even then, decisions about accepting funding are made by individuals and individual organizations. Would there be someone to kick you out of EA if you accept “unapproved” funding? The existing system is, in a sense, fairly democratic in that everyone gets to decide whether they want to take the money or not. I don’t see how Cremer’s proposal could be effective without a blacklist to enforce community will against anyone who chose to take the money anyway, and that gives whoever maintains the blacklist great power (which is contrary to Cremer’s stated aims).
The reality, perhaps unfortunate, is that charities need donors more than donors need specific charities or movements.
It depends on how you define wealthiest minority, but if you mean billionaires, the majority of philanthropy is not from billionaires. EA has been unusually successful with billionaires. That means if EA mean reverts, perhaps by going mainstream, the majority of EA funding will not be from billionaires. CEA deprioritized GWWC for several years-I think if they had continued to prioritize it, funding would have gotten at least somewhat more diversified. Also, I find that talking with midcareer professionals it’s much easier to mention donations rather than switching their career. So I think that more emphasis on donations from people of modest means could help EA diversify with respect to age.