By Bitcoin Magazine - 6 months ago - Reading Time: 6 minutes
Sosyalis Silisyòm Valley a: Sam Bankman-Fried
"Moun yo vle yon otorite pou di yo ki jan yo bay bagay yo valè, men yo chwazi otorite sa a pa baze sou reyalite oswa rezilta yo - yo chwazi li paske li sanble otorite oswa abitye."
-Michael Lewis, gwo kout la.
Otè ki renome Michael Lewis pibliye liv li a, Going Infinite: Leve non ak otòn yon nouvo tycoon, on the rise and fall of FTX on the first day of the trial of its notorious founder Sam Bankman-Fried (Bankman-Fried). The book has met with heavy criticism by commentators for its seemingly favorable portrayal of the millennial crypto founder.
Li komik paske nan nwayo li yo, istwa Bankman-Fried se yon lekòl trè ansyen, Gwo KoutIstwa yon aktè privilejye ki te pwofite, pou pwòp benefis pa li, predileksyon sosyete nou an pou l fè jijman valè sou moun pa akòz dosye yo -- oswa jan Lewis te di li, "reyalite" -- men pito baze sou yon seri. nan eristik ak apwobasyon nan men moun "sofistike".
Kapasite Bankman-Fried genyen pou konvenk moun nou fè konfyans yo se "moun entelijan" nan sosyete nou an -- ki gen ladan Lewis -- se yon bagay estrawòdinè. Men, poukisa yo te tonbe pou li?
Petèt, se paske Bankman-Fried te yon moun yo te konprann. Li te yon inisye, ki -- tankou yo -- te wè crypto kòm yon kominote yo te kapab pwofite sou, olye ke yon ekosistèm nouri.
Krypto kolonyalis
Fortune Magazine in pwofil yo of Bankman-Fried, wrote that the Bay Area native doesn’t look like the most powerful man in crypto. But is that really true?
If anything, a 20-something year-old man oozing social awkwardness, an MIT degree, and poor fashion-sense is the wet dream of many a modern “sophisticated” tech investor. Bankman-Fried could easily be a character on the HBO show Silisyòm Valley
Koulye a, konpoze sa ak dwa nesans li -– de paran ki se pwofesè lalwa nan yon bazilik modèn nan komès -– Stanford University, epi ou gen prèske mesyanik figi nan kapitalis modèn.
One need not look further than the praise given to him by Kevin O’Leary, saying “I'm a big advocate for Sam because he has two parents that are compliance lawyers." the Shark Tank investor said nan 2022.
O’Leary continued: “If there's ever a place I could be that I'm not going to get in trouble, it's going to be at FTX.” We later found out that the Canadian investor te peye close to a million dollars an hour to be a public spokesperson for Bankman-Fried.
Men, pi lwen pase bon fides Bankman-Fried a, vrè pwen vann ki te kaptire atansyon envestisè yo se misyon Bankman-Fried a.
Pa "altrwism efikas" –– abònman nan mouvman tendans, fo anpatik se sètènman yon mouvman maketing bon pou bayeur elit. Men, sa ki vrèman eksite envestisè li yo se te kwayans li ke kriptografik pa t 'yon endistri serye ki merite pou yo bati, men pito yon gwo opòtinite yo gen tan pwan yon chaj sak lajan nan men jwè aza.
As a Sequoia Capital’s venture capitalist put it in a now deleted profile on Bankman-Fried, “Yes, crypto eventually could replace money, and, yes, it can eventually decentralize the web,” the investor said.
Li te kontinye: “Men, tout bagay sa yo pa vre jodi a. Epi, kisa moun fè jodi a? Yo fè komès. Men, si moun komès, ak moun ki renmen komès, ki modèl biznis la ki pral fè tòn lajan? Se ta yon echanj."
Sitasyon sa a montre ke envestisè yo nan Bankman-Fried pa t 'wè kominote a crypto kòm grav. Pou yo, crypto tèt li gen menm siyifikasyon sosyete a pou jwenn twa seri seriz nan yon ranje sou yon machin plas nan yon kazino Vegas. Pi bon envesti nan kazino a olye ke foto yo nan seriz.
Agree or disagree with them, the crypto, and specifically the bitcoin subsection, of the community is serious with their goals. They are largely a set of libertarian, hyper-principled people. They are profoundly serious about their view on how blockchains can be used to liberate the currently unbanked, protect the value of one’s labor from ever increasing inflation, and connect people around the world through payments, and specifically remove government interference in money.
As Erik Voorhees’ puts it –– in what is now one of the final debates with Bankman-Fried –– “what we are doing here is in effect bringing the same separation that occurred between church and state to state and payments. In effect freeing people around the world.”
The earnesty of belief held by people like Voorhees doesn’t compute for people like Sequoia VC or Bankman-Fried. For them those beliefs were useful in that they got a community to work hard for close to no reward until the first few bitcoin bull runs. But the belief itself? For the jaded elite, a company mission often is a means to a single end: Enrich one’s bank account.
Pou yo, yon misyon enpòtan menm jan ak fè yon "charite," oswa ale nan yon vwayaj sèvis nan lekòl segondè yo gade byen pou yon ofisye admisyon Ivy league. Li se jis yon pati nan "jwèt la."
This is quite problematic, since their investments in immature crypto companies –– and overall childish behavior, like when FTX leve soti vivan $420,690,000 from 69 investors –– is a large part of the reason the “crypto” industry isn’t respected by the general public.
Moreover, Bankman-Fried regularly made statements criticizing bitcoin, for being “slow, and bulky.” Keep in mind, the bitcoin community not only birthed crypto, but are –– for better or worse –– perhaps the most ideologically pure people in technology.
Moreover, Bankman-Fried sought to influence legislation that would impact the earnest bitcoin. Since he was –– prior to FTX’s collapse –– one of the biggest Washington donors, he likely would succeed in lobbying the government to follow his view.
But this here is a form of colonization. The crypto community was a vibrant ecosystem prior to Bankman-Fried’s entry. It was a bunch of misfits that came together to build something that was unique and important. A chance to feel empowered in a system they feel marginalized in. For Bankman-Fried and his cohorts to come into it aiming to make a percentage off of the trading fees of investors –– rather than create products and businesses in the ethos of bitcoin –– was their original sin.
Èske nou ta dwe tèlman sezi ke li evantyèlman tonbe apa?
Yon Sosyalis Silisyòm
In a similar vein to a young child who asks “why doesn’t the government just print more money and give it to the homeless?” –– Bankman-Fried’s claim to fame was to make a lot of money and give it away. Like some benevolent patrician. Andrew Carnegie in board shorts.
Men, èske se reyèlman yon enpilsyon natif natal pou charite, oswa èske senpati li jis yon kalite estrateji jwèt ogmante kapital sosyal li?
In a phone call with crypto reporter Tiffany Fong, Bankman-Fried said that he donated as much money to Republicans as he did Democrats, but did so quietly in order to gain favor with journalists who he felt were predominantly left wing. In other words, Bankman-Fried manufactured a public persona of humanitarianism, but in reality his raison d'être was to gain more power and clout
His former business partner Anthony Scaramucci te di ke he saw Bankman-Fried as having a sort of “superiority complex.” So, perhaps in Bankman-Fried’s head he thought that he could single-handedly solve all of the world’s problems if only he had all of the money.
Whatever the truth may be –– what is it that made Bankman-Fried think that he had the right to use other’s money at his own discretion? Or for him to enter a space that he, once again, had close to nothing to do with creating. What made him think that he should be the authority who decides what aspects are kosher or haram? Or write legislation for it?
At its core is a belief he was the smartest person in the room. A belief certainly had the innate privilege to feel given his parents’ societal standing, and his undeniable analytical wit. But, what was missing in the matrix of Bankman-Fried was a soul. A soul that would allow for him to truly respect community that he was entering as a stranger.
Istwa ranpli ak egzanp moun ki sanble ak Bankman-Fried, ki te monte sou pouvwa a pwomèt yo dwe jeran nan yon nouvo utopi ki pi jis. Lè, an reyalite, chanjman prensipal yo ap chèche a se yo ki nan pouvwa a. Bankman-Fried te pran trope sa a epi vide kilti Silisyòm Valley.
As Michael Lewis writes, for Bankman-Fried, most of life is just some kind of game. One which –– if most legal experts yo kòrèk –– he won’t be getting any restarts on.
Sa a se yon pòs envite pa Jakòb Kozhipatt. Opinyon yo eksprime yo se antyèman pwòp yo epi yo pa nesesèman reflete sa yo ki nan BTC Inc oswa Bitcoin Magazin.
Sous orijinal: Bitcoin Magazine