EA - FTX FAQ by Hamish Doodles

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: FTX FAQ, published by Hamish Doodles on November 13, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.What is this?There's a lot of information flying around at the moment, and I'm going to try and organise it into an FAQ.I expect I have made a lot of mistakes, so please don't assume any specific claim here is true. This is definitely not legal or financial advice or anything like that.Please let me know if anything is wrong/unclear/misleading.Please suggest quesetions and/or answers in the comments.Update: actually, I would advise against wading into the comments.I'm erring on the side of brevity, so if you need more information follow the links.What is FTX?FTX is a Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange. It is now bankrupt.Who is Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)?The founder of FTX. He was recently a billionaire and the richest person under 30.How is FTX connected to effective altruism?In the last couple of years, effective altruism received millions of dollars of funding from SBF and FTX via the Future Fund.SBF was following a strategy of "make tons of money to give it to charity." This is called "earning to give", and it's an idea that was spread by EA in early-to-mid 2010s. SBF was definitely encouraged onto his current path by engaging with EA.SBF was something of a "golden boy" to EA. For example, this.How did FTX go bankrupt?FTX gambled with user deposits rather than keeping them in reserve.Binance, a competitor, triggered a run on the bank where depositors attempted to get their money out.It looked like Binance was going to acquire FTX at one point, but they pulled out after due diligence.Now FTX and SBF are bunkrupt, and SBF will likely be convicted of felony.SourceHow bad is this?"It is therefore very likely to lead to the loss of deposits which will hurt the lives of 10,000s of people eg here"SBF will likely be convicted of felony.SourceDid SBF definitely do something illegal and/or immoral?The vibe I'm reading is "very likely, but not yet certain."Does EA still have funding?Yes.Before FTX there was Open Philanthropy (OP), which is mostly funded by Dustin Muskovitz and Cari Tuna. None of this is connected to FTX, and OP's funding is unaffected.Is Open Philanthropy funding impacted?Global health and wellbeing funding will continue as normal.Because the total pool of funding to longtermism has shrunk, Open Philanthropy will have to raise the bar on longtermist grant making.Thus, Open Philanthropy is "pausing most new longtermist funding commitments" (longtermism includes AI, Biosecurity, and Community Growth) for a couple of months to recalibrate.SourceIf you got money from FTX, do you have to give it back?It's possible, but we don't know.What if you've already spent money from FTX?It's still possible that you may have to give it back. Again, we don't know.If you got money from FTX, should you give it back?You probably shouldn't, at least for the moment. If you gave the money back, there's the possibility that because it wasn't done through the proper legal channels you end up having to give the money back again.If you got money from FTX, should you spend it?Probably not. At least for the next few days. You may have to give it back.I feel terrible about having FTX money.Reading this may help.What if I'm still expecting FTX money?The board of the FTX future fund has all resigned, but "grantees may email [email protected]."How can I get support/help?"Here’s the best place to reach us if you’d like to talk. I know a form isn’t the warmest, but a real person will get back to you soon." (source)Some mental health advice here.How are people reacting?Will MacAskill: "If there was deception and misuse of funds, I am outraged, and I don’t know which emotion is stronger: my utter rage at Sam (and others?) for causing such ha...