Wider fallout from a crypto collapse: How should charity really be done?
A trend-setting movement in philanthropy is undergoing an earthquake of criticism and self-examination because of something that on the surface seems wholly unrelated: the crumbling of a cryptocurrency exchange.
What links the two stories is Sam Bankman-Fried, who co-founded the exchange (FTX), grew rich, and was committed to giving money away under a philosophy known as effective altruism. When the company collapsed into bankruptcy amid allegations of misusing customer funds, questions of business governance were joined by ones of charitable philosophy.
The question in short: Does the imploding fortune of Mr. Bankman-Fried – the movement’s wealthiest known figurehead, who was arrested Monday in the Bahamas – tarnish the reputation of one individual or undercut the credibility of a whole movement he represented?
Effective altruists are devoted to a brand of philanthropy that aspires to be both expansively generous and rigorously intellectual. They are united in their commitment to a basic maxim: Do the most possible good with the resources you have. The philosophy rests on the premise that all lives are valued equally, and each of of dollars for charity, since its intellectual birth at Oxford University a decade ago.
