Whose young Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is the puppet? A beginning of response is on the side of the Center for Effective Altruism.
Altruist or tartufe?
The doctrine of “efficient altruism” can be summed up as follows: Earn as much money as possible and use it to do as much good as possible.
Its many followers, particularly in the world of technology, are encouraged to enrich themselves and then put their fortunes at the service of a good cause.
Or how to keep a good conscience while passing private data through the AI mill. As long as part of the loot is donated to “charitable” works, everything is fine…
This new current of thought looks furiously like a recycling of the myth of the invisible hand, this theory according to which the common good would naturally flow from the selfish search for personal interest.
For journalist David Z. Morris (Coindesk), efficient altruism mostly resembles “a get out of prison card”. There was a time when we bought indulgences. From now on, the powerful are distributing moral licenses suggesting implicitly that the end would justify the means.
While most moral systems argue that the best way to alleviate human suffering is to share, efficient altruism attempts a reversal of values. And one of the ideological sources of this hypocrisy is William MacAskill (35), a close adviser to SBF.
This Scot formulates his first ideas on efficient altruism while studying philosophy at Oxford. His theses led to the creation of several organizations such as the Center for Effective Altruism.
At first sight, business is going quite well. From Will MacAskill’s recent portrait in the New Yorkeraltruists around the world are believed to control approximately $30 billion in philanthropic funds.
MacAskill is a key figure in the FTX case. the NYmag tells us that it was he who suggested to Bankman-Fried that he do an internship at the Jane Street trading company, where the MIT student discovered his new passion: “premium kimchi”.
the premium kimchi refers to the bitcoin price gap between South Korean exchanges and other foreign exchanges. These price differences offer juicy arbitrage opportunities. The phrase premium kimchi refers to the dish of fermented cabbage, a staple in Korean cuisine.
It is thanks to the circle of efficient altruists that SBF was able to taste the premium kimchi. According to the Venture Fund Sequoia, SBF implemented this arbitration thanks to a Japanese “altruist” who had his connections in the Japanese banking sector.
It was through this scheme that SBF was able to grow a loan of 50 million dollars offered by another member of the network of Efficient Altruism, the billionaire and co-founder of Skype, Jaan Tallinn.
This information is revealed to us by Mary Bent and Mike Krieger at the microphone of Withney Webb, for the site Unlimited Hangout. We strongly recommend that you listen to their podcast entitled The Network Behind FTX.
This generous initial investment allows SBF to quickly launch the FTX exchange as well as its Alameda fund. The latter was moreover managed by its mistress Caroline Elisson whom he has known since this famous internship at Jane Street.
SBF’s alleged ex-girlfriend is also part of the community of efficient altruists. His role in this case is not to be minimized. The American media speaks of several billion dollars which would have evaporated while passing from FTX towards the Alameda fund.
Hopefully, light will be shed on the final destination of deposits from FTX customers, thousands of whom are French. We already know that tens of millions have gone to the Democratic Party for whom the exchange would also have facilitated money laundering via Ukraine.
But there is more. The website of the FTX Foundation is rich in lessons. And in particular the “FTXFutureFund”, where Will MacAskill served as an advisor. His role was basically to distribute the $160 million that FTX had planned to spend on good works…
We can read there that FTX would be “delighted to fund proposals that are likely to make progress in areas that are (we believe) particularly important for the future (of humanity)”.
Among the project ideas, we find the creation of shelters against biological attacks (viruses), the drafting of rules in the event of catastrophic biological risks on a global scale, or even a nuclear winter…
Re areas of specific interest, let us of course note efficient altruism, artificial intelligence (and especially its predictive capacities), the risks linked to biological weapons of mass destruction, governance in space or even the decline in population .
These last two subjects are reminiscent of the small fads of Elon Musk. Moreover, MacAskill had put Mr. Musk in contact with SBF for the latter to buy shares of Twitter.
Semafor editor Ben Smith says Mr Musk sent a message to Mr. Bankman-Fried on May 5 in “the inviting” to retain its $100 million stake in Twitter once the company is taken private. In other words, a seat at the big table.
The plot thickens a little more when we know that Elon Musk has tweeted about Will MacAskill’s latest book: “It’s very close to my own philosophy.”
Add to all this that SBF’s aunt is a World Economic Forum spawn. What FTX has finance organizations promoting Mrna vaccines, and you get a great script for the next James Bond.
Besides, does MacAskill, who is officially a researcher at the Global Priorities Institute of Oxford, would not actually be a British secret service agent in charge of chaperoning SBF?
In his biography The Big Breach: From Top Secret to Maximum Securityformer MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson reveals wanna be James bonds are recruited after leaving prestigious schools:
“Both Oxford and Cambridge universities have a ‘talent scout’ affiliated with MI6 […]. The majority of MI6 recruits come from these two most prestigious universities in Britain. »
Wasn’t FTX after squandering its customers’ money sacrificed in a grand finale to bring shame to bitcoin?
Either way, SBF will be allowed to strut their stuff at The New York Times conference this Wednesday. He will share the microphone with Ukrainian President Larry Fink (BlackRock) and Janet Yellen. The circle is complete.
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