Ftx.com Has Probably Collapsed

This is maybe tangential of me to say, but since this post is coming from an EA forum: I think the cozy relationship between EA and FTX has done <i>immense</i> damage to the public image and standing of the EA movement.<p>I&#x27;ve never been an EA person (much less a utilitarian) but I can appreciate the meat and potatoes of applied ethics, especially when those ethics are applied <i>consistently</i>. The infusion of cryptocurrency funny money into that world has completely perverted both aspects: much of EA now seems focused on speculative concerns (AGI) rather than real ones (world hunger or civic integrity), and all sorts of perverse rationales are offered for wealth extraction in service of future utils rather than <i>just doing morally good things.</i>

The collapse of FTX will impact the whole crypto space negatively. Nothing is spared.<p>1. All the alt-coins in FTX&#x2F;Alameda Reasearch holding will be liquidated. E.g. Solana has been down &gt;40% already.<p>2. The value of the FTT tokens issued by FTX valued at billions has evaporated. The value of FTT were used to buy other coins, directly and indirectly inflated all of them, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. When the value of FTT evaporates, it can be thought of as billions have been sucked out of the crypto markets. The prices of all coins will drop, including BTC and ETH.<p>3. The cascading falling of the alt-coins. Some alt-coins will fail. Just now there&#x27;s an incoming $1B+ Solana tokens being unlocked and will be released to flood the market. Other alt-coins will be impacted in a similar way. One can argue some of these coins are created out of the thin air just like FTT. Their value can simply vanish just like FTT.

Does anyone know how Coinbase avoided this fate? I really thought it would be them to fall, but they proved everyone wrong.<p>There’s some key difference between Coinbase and an exchange like FTX. Is it because FTX had a token, and then leveraged themselves using their own token?<p>Binance has a token too. Are they in similar danger? It would be an interesting contrast to know why one exchange is safe vs another.<p>Here’s SBF testifying in front of congress in Dec 2021 that FTX is completely transparent and therefore safe: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tiktok.com&#x2F;t&#x2F;ZTRxC7XrT&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tiktok.com&#x2F;t&#x2F;ZTRxC7XrT&#x2F;</a><p>Consumers need to be able to research claims like these. Is there a way to make a “Warning: this exchange is over leveraged” indicator? Or is it just impossible to know?

The good times made crazy people look smart and the bad times are making crazy people look like idiots.

That was incredibly fast. Interesting to note is that the failures are growing and FTX contagion is real. I am weirdly positive about this because I like the tech but I don&#x27;t like the &quot;degens&quot; Having spent the last 20 years in Finance, the last thing you want is fuck around with other people&#x27;s money.

&gt; FTX is currently unable to process withdrawals. We strongly advise against depositing.

FTX was obviously a ponzi scheme, as described half a year ago here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2022-04-25&#x2F;sam-bankman-fried-described-yield-farming-and-left-matt-levine-stunned" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2022-04-25&#x2F;sam-bankm...</a> by a very well-respected financial columnist (Matt Levine)<p>&gt; I think of myself as like a fairly cynical person. And that was so much more cynical than how I would&#x27;ve described farming. You&#x27;re just like, well, I&#x27;m in the Ponzi business and it&#x27;s pretty good.<p>If effective altruists with their superior analytical abilities can&#x27;t figure out that the money they&#x27;re getting is fraudulent, how do you expect them to make rational decisions on what charities are most effective?

and yet Bitcoin is off 4.5% off of lows $15.6k -&gt; $16.3k

Is this effective altruism or ineffective altruism?

Many young people had the hopes of maybe getting rich through crypto when all other avenues to a comfortable life that were available to boomers had disappeared. Now this will be a bucket of cold water to those hopes.

Meh. Zuck has altru’ed a lot more market cap this year on his VR punt.

Utilitarianism makes it impossible to make a credible promise. Duh, the utilitarians were lying for the greater good. What did you expect?

SBF was a very positive force for EA, now that he&#x27;s down everyone piles on him? shameless