By Bitcoin Časopis - pred 6 mesiacmi - Čas na čítanie: 6 minúty
Socialista zo Silicon Valley: Sam Bankman-Fried
„Ľudia chcú autoritu, ktorá by im hovorila, ako si veci vážiť, ale volia si túto autoritu, ktorá nie je založená na faktoch alebo výsledkoch – vyberajú si ju, pretože sa zdá byť autoritatívna alebo známa.”
-Michael Lewis, The Big Short.
Renomovaný autor Michael Lewis vydal svoju knihu, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New 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.
Je to smiešne, pretože vo svojom jadre je príbeh Bankmana-Frieda veľmi starou školou, Veľký krátky- esque príbeh o privilegovanom hercovi, ktorý pre svoj vlastný zisk využil záľubu našej spoločnosti na to, aby hodnotil ľudí nie na základe ich doterajších skúseností – alebo ako to povedal Lewis, „faktov“ – ale skôr na základe súboru. heuristiky a súhlasu „sofistikovaných“ ľudí.
Schopnosť Bankmana-Frieda presvedčiť tých, ktorým veríme, že sú „inteligentnými ľuďmi“ našej spoločnosti – vrátane Lewisa – je neskutočná. Ale prečo sa doňho zamilovali?
Možno je to preto, že Bankman-Fried bol niekým, komu rozumeli. Bol zasvätený, ktorý – podobne ako oni – videl krypto ako komunitu, na ktorej by mohli zarábať, a nie ako ekosystém, ktorý treba živiť.
Krypto kolonializmus
Fortune Magazine in ich profil 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 Silicon Valley
Teraz to spojte s jeho prvorodeným právom – dvoma rodičmi, ktorí sú profesormi práva na modernej obchodnej bazilike – Stanfordskej univerzite a máte takmer mesiášsku postavu moderného kapitalizmu.
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 v 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 bola zaplatená close to a million dollars an hour to be a public spokesperson for Bankman-Fried.
Okrem Bankman-Friedových bona fides však skutočným predajným bodom, ktorý zaujal investorov, bola misia Bankmana-Frieda.
nie"efektívny altruizmus“ –– predplatenie trendových, falošných empatických hnutí je určite dobrým marketingovým ťahom pre elitných finančníkov. Čo však jeho investorov skutočne nadchlo, bolo jeho presvedčenie, že kryptomeny nie sú serióznym odvetvím, ktoré by si zaslúžilo budovanie, ale skôr skvelou príležitosťou, ako uchmatnúť veľa peňazí od gamblerov.
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.
Pokračoval: „Ale všetky tieto veci dnes nie sú pravdivé. A čo je teda vec, ktorú dnes ľudia robia? Obchodujú. A ak ľudia obchodujú a ľudia radi obchodujú, aký je obchodný model, ktorý zarobí veľa peňazí? Bola by to výmena."
Tento citát ukazuje, že investori Bankman-Fried nepovažovali krypto komunitu za vážne. Pre nich má samotná kryptomena rovnaký spoločenský význam ako dostať tri sady čerešní za sebou na hracom automate v kasíne vo Vegas. Radšej investujte do kasína ako do fotiek čerešní.
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.
Pre nich je misia taká dôležitá ako urobiť „charitu“ alebo ísť na služobnú cestu na strednej škole, aby vyzerali dobre pre prijímacieho dôstojníka z ligy brečtanu. Je to len súčasť „hry“.
This is quite problematic, since their investments in immature crypto companies –– and overall childish behavior, like when FTX zdvihol $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.
Máme byť tak prekvapení, že sa to nakoniec rozpadlo?
Kremíkový socialista
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.
Bol to však skutočne autentický impulz pre dobročinnosť, alebo bola jeho empatia len akousi hernou stratégiou na zvýšenie svojho sociálneho kapitálu?
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 povedal, že 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.
História je plná príkladov ľudí podobných Bankman-Friedovi, ktorí sa dostali k moci a sľubovali, že budú správcami novej, spravodlivejšej utópie. Keď v skutočnosti hlavnou zmenou, ktorú hľadajú, je byť tými pri moci. Bankman-Fried vzal ten tróp a posypal kultúrou Silicon Valley.
As Michael Lewis writes, for Bankman-Fried, most of life is just some kind of game. One which –– if most legal experts sú správne –– he won’t be getting any restarts on.
Toto je príspevok hosťa používateľa Jacob Kozhipatt. Vyjadrené názory sú úplne ich vlastné a nemusia nevyhnutne odrážať názory BTC Inc alebo Bitcoin Magazine.
Originálny zdroj: Bitcoin časopis