{"id":166477,"date":"2023-10-02T11:08:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T05:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/?p=166477"},"modified":"2023-10-02T11:08:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T05:38:56","slug":"effective-altruism-fueled-sbfs-ridiculous-actions-at-ftx-ex-alameda-engineer-crypto-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/effective-altruism-fueled-sbfs-ridiculous-actions-at-ftx-ex-alameda-engineer-crypto-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective altruism fueled SBF\u2019s \u2018ridiculous\u2019 actions at FTX: Ex-Alameda engineer – Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Effective altruism was used to justify \u201cincreasingly risky and ridiculous\u201d actions at crypto exchange FTX prior to its ultimate collapse in November 2022, says a former software engineer at Alameda Research.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Cointelegraph just days before FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s Oct. 3 trial, Aditya Baradwaj shared how the ideology played a role in the company\u2019s collapse while explaining what it was like to work under the former billionaire.<\/p>\n

Baradwaj claimed that effective altruism \u2014 which advocates that people make as much money as possible to give it away later \u2014 tipped the scales from reason and moved many of the decision-making processes at the company toward insanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ideology was used to justify increasingly risky and ridiculous actions that honestly, should have been looked at with a saner mind.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Prevalent throughout the tech circles of Silicon Valley and quantitative finance firms in New York, Baradwaj said effective altruism was an alluring and integral part of the cultural DNA at FTX and Alameda Research. <\/p>\n

\n

As an engineer at Alameda Research, I had my entire life savings stolen from me by my former boss: Sam Bankman-Fried.<\/p>\n

Now, after months of recuperation from the craziness of the FTX collapse, I\u2019m ready to tell my story.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start at the beginning:<\/p>\n

(1\/25) #SBF<\/a> #FTX<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/x5wKvT0Dy2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Adi (e\/acc) (@aditya_baradwaj) August 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAll of us at the company had this vision of \u2018I think altruism is good and I think doing things effectively is good.\u2019 So you put these things together and it\u2019s like, \u2018obviously this thing is good,\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the problem is when it veers into an ends-justify-the-means style of thinking, especially when the ends you\u2019re talking about are just so bizarre and ridiculous that no sane person would make those decisions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Under the guise of effective altruism, Bankman-Fried donated millions of dollars to prevent future pandemics and cure malaria in developing countries. Additionally, Bankman-Fried was one of the top donors to the Democratic party<\/a> in the United States, however, he later admitted to donating to Republicans as well<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Big Short author Michael Lewis told 60 minutes in a recent interview<\/a>, one of the ideas being floated by Bankman-Fried during the final days of FTX was paying Donald Trump $5 billion not to re-run as president in 2024, because the 31-year-old wished to \u201cprotect democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in Baradwaj\u2019s eyes, Bankman-Fried and the altruistic philosophy wasn\u2019t an act \u2014 he seemed to fundamentally believe what he was espousing. <\/p>\n

Baradwaj explained that despite the many allegations which accused Bankman-Fried of hiding behind a fabricated, altruistic persona<\/a>, in person, he came across exactly as he portrayed himself in the media. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe struck everyone as highly motivated, someone who had a mission, who believed in the mission and who wanted to make that happen,\u201d Baradwaj said. \u201cHe seemed like someone who knew what he was doing and there was certainly a lot of respect and trust that we had for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat trust ended up being significantly misused.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Baradwaj said Bankman-Fried\u2019s belief in his supposedly altruistic motives may be why the former FTX founder has staunchly maintained his innocence, having pled \u201cnot guilty\u201d to all of the charges<\/a> pressed against him despite a mounting pile of evidence to the contrary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>How long could Sam Bankman-Fried go to jail for? Crypto lawyers weigh in<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sure there’s all kinds of crazy, psychological stuff going on in his head that are probably trying to cope with the facts,\u201d Baradwaj said. \u201cMaybe he does genuinely believe that what he did was fine or he actually believes that he did nothing wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is important and I think the trial is hopefully going to clear up a lot of questions about everything that went down.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Big Questions: <\/em><\/strong>What\u2019s with all the crypto deaths? <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Effective altruism was used to justify \u201cincreasingly risky and ridiculous\u201d actions at crypto exchange FTX prior to its ultimate collapse in November 2022, says a former software engineer at Alameda Research. Speaking to Cointelegraph just days before FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s Oct. 3 trial, Aditya Baradwaj shared how the ideology played a role in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[235,203,210,234,231,232,237,238,236,233],"class_list":["post-166477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain","tag-bitcoin","tag-crypto-currency","tag-elon-musk","tag-ethereum","tag-hyperledger","tag-ibm","tag-mining","tag-nodes","tag-spacex","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166479,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166477\/revisions\/166479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}