紐時賞析／FTX閃電破產 慈善業前景黯淡

FTX’s Collapse Casts a Pall on a Philanthropy Movement

FTX閃電破產 慈善業前景黯淡

In short order, the extraordinary collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX has vaporized billions of dollars of customer deposits, prompted investigations by law enforcement and destroyed the fortune and reputation of the company’s founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

加密貨幣交易所FTX崩盤，短時間內讓客戶數十億美元存款蒸發，促使執法部門展開調查，並摧毀該公司創辦人兼執行長班克曼佛瑞德的財富與名聲。

It has also dealt a significant blow to the corner of philanthropy known as effective altruism, a philosophy that advocates applying data and evidence to doing the most good for the many and that is deeply tied to Bankman-Fried, one of its leading proponents and donors. Now nonprofits are scrambling to replace millions in grant commitments from Bankman-Fried’s charitable vehicles, including the FTX Future Fund, whose grant recipients’ work includes pandemic preparedness and artificial intelligence safety.

此事還嚴重打擊被稱為「有效利他主義」的慈善領域，這種哲學主張利用數據與證據為大多數人帶來最大益處，與其主要支持者和捐贈者之一班克曼佛瑞德密切相關。現在，非營利組織正忙著找錢，取代班克曼佛瑞德旗下慈善工具的數百萬美元贈款承諾，其中包括FTX未來基金。該基金的贈款接受者工作項目包括流行病防範與人工智慧安全。

Through a nonprofit called Building a Stronger Future, Bankman-Fried also gave to groups including news organizations ProPublica, Vox and the Intercept.

透過一個名叫「建設更強大未來」的非營利組織，班克曼佛瑞德還捐款給ProPublica、Vox和「攔截」等新聞機構。

In a note to staff members Friday, ProPublica’s president, Robin Sparkman, and editor-in-chief, Stephen Engelberg, wrote that the remaining two-thirds of a $5 million grant for reporting on pandemic preparedness and biothreats were on hold. “Building a Stronger Future is assessing its finances and, concurrently, talking to other funders about taking on some of its grant portfolio,” they wrote.

在周五寫給員工的一份通知中，ProPublica總裁史帕克曼及總編輯恩格伯格寫道，用於報導疫情防範和生物威脅的500萬美元贈款，剩下三分之二已遭擱置，「『建設更強大未來』正評估其財務狀況，並跟其他金主討論承擔其部分資助組合」。

Bankman-Fried’s fall from grace may have cost effective altruist causes billions of dollars in future donations. For a relatively young movement that was wrestling over its growth and focus, such a high-profile scandal implicating one of the group’s most famous proponents represents a significant setback.

班克曼佛瑞德的沉淪，恐讓有效利他主義事業未來的捐款損失數十億美元。對一個相對年輕的運動來說，它正努力發展壯大和集中精力，如此引人矚目的醜聞牽涉到該團體最知名支持者之一，這代表著一個重大的挫折。

Effective altruism focuses on the question of how individuals can do as much good as possible with the money and time available to them.

有效利他主義關注的是，個人如何利用自己的金錢和時間盡可能多多行善。

In a few short years, effective altruism went from a somewhat obscure corner of charity favored by philosophy students and social workers to a leading approach to philanthropy for an increasingly powerful cohort of millennial and Gen-Z givers, including Silicon Valley programmers and hedge fund analysts.

有效利他主義在短短幾年內，從哲學系學生跟社會工作者青睞的慈善領域中一個鮮為人知角落，變成一個日益強大的千禧世代與Z世代捐贈群體做慈善的主要方式，包括矽谷程式工程師與避險基金分析師在內。

Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna, have said they are devoting much of their fortune to effective altruist causes.

臉書與Asana共同創辦人莫斯科維茨及妻子卡莉．圖納表示，他們將把大部分財富用於有效利他主義事業。

“I don’t know yet how we’ll repair the damage Sam did and harden EA against other bad actors,” Moskovitz wrote in a tweet Saturday. “But I know that we’re going to try, because the stakes remain painfully high.”

莫斯科維茨周六發推文說：「我還不知道我們將怎樣補救山姆造成的傷害，並強化有效利他主義對抗其他壞人，但我知道我們會嘗試，因為一旦失敗風險高到令人痛苦。」

文／Nicholas Kulish　譯／陳韋廷