When you’ve earned more money than anyone could possibly spend across several lifetimes – believe us, we’ve even crunched the numbers – the reasonable thing to do is give it away. Which is why FTX Founder & CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has publicly committed to just that by signing the Giving Pledge.
Joining the ultra-wealthy likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, as well as Australia’s own Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht of Canva fame, a good majority of Bank-Fried’s US$21 billion / AU$29.3 billion fortune is being dedicated towards philanthropy. Either during his lifetime or in his eventual will.
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“A while ago, I became convinced that our duty was to do the most we could for the long-run aggregate utility of the world,” Sam Bankman-Fried wrote in his pledge letter.
“In the end, it’s the work my friends and colleagues at foundations do that matters the most.”
Sam Bankman-Fried has steadily been establishing himself in the public sphere beyond ranking among the richest individuals minted by the cryptocurrency market boom. The 30-year-old MIT graduate is something of an effective altruist, which entails striving to benefit as many people as much as possible and actually taking tangible actions to achieve said benefit.
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“Five years ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was working for a charitable organisation that promoted the then-fringe idea of effective altruism: using scientific reasoning to figure out how to do the most good for the most people,” explains Zeke Faux of Bloomberg.
“Then he spotted a seemingly too-good-to-be-true pricing anomaly in Bitcoin and decided that for him, the right path would be making tons of money to give away. Now, Bankman-Fried is one of the richest people in the world.”
“He’ll keep enough money to maintain a comfortable life: 1% of his earnings or, at minimum, $100,000 a year. Other than that, he still plans to give it all away – every dollar, or Bitcoin, as the case may be.”
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“You pretty quickly run out of really effective ways to make yourself happier by spending money,” Sam Bankman-Fried told Zeke Faux.
“I don’t want a yacht.”
To date, the FTX Foundation – FTX’s philanthropic arm – has set aside US$21.8 million / AU$30.4 million for charity.
At the time of this writing, the Giving Pledge boasts a total of 230 signatories hailing from 28 different countries. And suffice it to say, the collective net worth is staggering.