It has been 10 months since the collapse of FTX. Adi, a former Alameda Research engineer who has recovered from the trauma, wrote on social platforms what he has seen and heard since becoming an employee of SBF, trying to FTX victims restore the truth.
As an engineer at Alameda Research, I had my entire life savings stolen from me by my former boss: Sam Bankman-Fried.
Now, after months of recuperation from the craziness of the FTX collapse, I’m ready to tell my story.
Let’s start at the beginning:
(1/25)#SBF#FTX pic.twitter.com/x5wKvT0Dy2
— Adi (e/acc) (@aditya_baradwaj) August 23, 2023
SBF employees’ first impressions of FTX and Alameda
“As an engineer at Alameda Research, I had my life savings stolen by my former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried. Now, after months of recovering from the madness of the FTX collapse, I’m ready to Tell my story." Adi said.
Adi first mentioned the time when he first became an SBF employee. At that time, Adi had just resigned from Google, and Alameda and FTX were not yet well-known in the technology circle. He only knew that many of the early employees of this company graduated from UC Berkeley.
The company's office is unassuming, located on the fourth floor of an ordinary office building in downtown Berkeley, and the company's name is not even listed on the building's directory.
Adi's office
When Adi first walked into the office, SBF was sitting at his desk in the middle of the trading area, playing League of Legends and answering his phone. Adi said this was typical of SBF, the area where Alameda trades.
In addition, although external news indicates that SBF has turned to full-time management of FTX, in fact the two companies are highly related. Shared offices, social events, and housing arrangements between the two companies are the norm.
SBF’s grand vision and future plans
When he first entered the office, Adi was not sure who SBF was talking to on the phone, but he heard some snippets from SBF: “Decentralization is the future, and the most valuable thing you can do for yourself is to put down your hands. Everything, get involved in the cryptocurrency space.”
“This is the first of many contradictions I see in Sam. On the one hand, he will extol the virtues of decentralized, permissionless finance to anyone who will listen. But a custodial, KYC-required derivatives exchange It’s not exactly a model of decentralization,” Adi said.
That night, SBF revealed its plan to move the company to the Caribbean island (Bahamas). Although Adi knew nothing about the Bahamas, SBF said: "You know that FTX's annual revenue exceeds 10% of the GDP of the Bahamas. ?"
As Sam explained, FTX’s vision extends far beyond the cryptocurrency exchange, with SBF talking about plans to build a vaccine factory in the Bahamas, FTX executives’ strategy for making political donations, and not letting China take the lead in basic biotech research importance of anti-malarial bed nets and vegetarianism.
After listening to this, it is clear that every action taken by SBF, whether it is Alameda, FTX, Bahamas and policy recommendations, is part of a grand plan that allows it to continuously expand its circle of influence and become a global phenomenon. beneficial power.
"Not just a company, but a monument to effective altruism," Adi said.
Irresponsibility within FTX and Alameda
As an ambitious new employee, Adi said he was attracted to SBF's vision and wanted to contribute to the world, and over the next year and a half, life has changed in unimaginable ways.
Photos of Adi’s life in the Bahamas
Although he enjoys a wealthy life as shown in the movies and often rubs shoulders with celebrities, sports superstars and political figures, at the same time, Adi also sees irresponsibility:
Risk management was sloppy for a company handling billions of dollars in capital.
Technical debt can make any software engineer cry.
Millions of dollars in wasteful spending, and the arrogance of thinking it's not going to amount to anything.
The outcome is as everyone knows, SBF did not build a vaccine factory, let alone eradicate malaria, and investors, users and employees, those who trusted him most, suffered a devastating economic blow, and the half-built FTX The ruins of the headquarters also litter the beaches of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.
Adi said that in the past few months, he has seen a lot of speculation related to FTX and Alameda on the Internet, but not all of them are true. What are SBF, Caroline (former CEO of Alameda) and others like in reality? Is this all just a scam? What is life like in the Bahamas? Adi believes people have a right to know the truth.
However, the experience at FTX and Alameda is too complex to be fully explained in a series of posts. If people are interested in the company’s inside information, Adi said that it will be shared regularly, and Lian News will continue to pay attention to subsequent developments.
This article reveals the true face of SBF: the real experience of an Alameda engineer. What irresponsibility did FTX have? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.