EA - Protect Our Future's Crypto Politics by Mohammad Ismam Huda

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: Protect Our Future's Crypto Politics, published by Mohammad Ismam Huda on January 29, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.TLDR; The Effective Altruism-linked political fund, Protect Our Future, has come under scrutiny for perceived cryptocurrency lobbying. Skip to section Irregularities to see the findings of my investigation into the group.BackgroundThe effective altruism movement has become increasingly interested and involved in politics. A major vehicle for this involvement has been Protect Our Future PAC (POF), a political fund active in the recent 2022 US midterm elections. The fund ostensibly sought to lobby for effective altruist cause areas, with a particular emphasis on longtermism and pandemic prevention.POF entered the electoral scene with a bang funding the campaign of Effective Altruist Carrick Flynn to the tune of $10 million. The fund proceeded to donate to 27 candidates in total, exclusively in the Democratic Primaries.In total POF raised and spent $28 million, nearly all of this coming from Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) the cryptocurrency tycoon. Despite SBF's financial support, POF has repeatedly denied the fund served SBF's financial interests in cryptocurrency.IrregularitiesAs a result of my interest in POF, I proceeded to research and investigate the group and have discovered what to me are irregularities.I reached out to the President (Michael Sadowksy) and Press Spokesman (Mike Levine) of Protect Our Future, urging them to provide an explanation, but received no response. My inquiry can be viewed here.Cryptocurrency Interests Amongst CandidatesOf the 27 endorsed candidates I have been able to link 16 as having meaningful pro-cryptocurrency sentiment and/or comittee positions that would make them target-worthy by cryptocurrency lobbyists.A selection of candidates and their ties are presented here. A full table of all candidates endorsed by POF is available in the appendix.POF CandidateCrypto Sympathies/ Conflict of InterestAbigail Spanberger (VA-07)://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/sec-official-steps-down-ftx-connectionAdam Hollier (MI-13)Received donations from Web3Forward PAC, a cryptocurrency lobbying group - $412K Gilbert Villegas (IL-03)Expressed pro-cryptocurrency sentiments as an alderman.Rep. Spanberger sits on the subcomittee which oversees the CFTC.It is known that SBF and other crypto adherents were lobbying authorities to shift crypto oversight from the SEC to CFTC.The presence of cryptocurrency advocates amongst POF's endorsed candidates was also picked up by the press:The Bankman-Frieds have insisted the organizations are focused on pandemic preparedness and aren’t about influencing cryptocurrency policy. But endorsed candidates are sometimes major supporters of the crypto sector. Lafazan, for example, said back in June he would take campaign donations in cryptocurrency and said he would file a bill in the Nassau County Legislature to create a cryptocurrency task force. Torres, too, who won support from Guarding Against Pandemics, has also publicly boosted the industry.Ray La Raja, a political scientist who studies campaign finance at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, says it’s likely no coincidence that Protect Our Future’s funds have gone to establishment candidates at a time when Congress is considering cryptocurrency regulations.One, Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat who has become well known as the first Gen-Z member of Congress, got $8,700 in contributions from the Bankman-Fried brothers and nearly $1 million in help from Protect Our Future, almost all of it after announcing a “crypto-advisory council” for his campaign.Opportunity For Tommorrow PACThere is also another fund that appears to have close ties to Protect Our Future called Opportunity For Tomorrow. The fund was exclusively donated...