This is a linkpost for https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2022/charity-money-launched-sam-bankman-frieds-empire
Found this reporting interesting. The entire financial operation was expressly set up by funding from top Effective Altruists. I think we previously saw EA as resembling a victim in this scenario, but I am curious how that understanding evolves at this moment as we learn more.
When Bankman-Fried and others like Mac Aulay tried to raise money for the idea from crypto investors outside the Effective Altruism movement, they weren’t taken seriously. Without backers inside Effective Altruism, it’s hard to imagine Bankman-Fried, a recent college grad, getting more than $100 million to play with at a crypto trading firm. And without Alameda, there never would have been an FTX.
This is not true. The FAQ was not put together by CEA, and so far as I know Hamish has no affiliation with CEA (nor did he ever claim to).
The article now says the FAQ was "put together by the effective altruism forum." This is not true either, nor does it make sense. If they would like to copy and paste:
"A user on the effective altruism forum posted an FAQ."
This makes it sound a lot less official and less like something you'd want to quote in a publication. But that's because it is in fact not official at all.