connect_with_me/donate_to_me.html

2025-09-09

Donate

How to donate (Unrestricted)

Method 1: Monero (XMR)

monero:86YnBpJvrd6eUTuTk58h2ibyw8hWiFYNjhr4E3jBL3puSf3QBzXEQbiAhj7NCmcq9d2pk6KYW7bYyhef9P6t4dMaMeHpzig

(Address updated on 2025-08-12)

• Use for amounts in range 0 to $500k
• Do not message me or anyone in my circle stating that you've donated.
• Common method of buying XMR is to find a KYC or no-KYC option to purchase BTC and then swap it for XMR. Reddit or a friend can help.

Method 2: Wire transfer, Paypal/Stripe, equity transfer

• Contact me to get my bank details. You will have to complete a background check.
• Use for amounts in range $1000 to $500k
• For amounts above $500k, please send $500k first and then give me 2 weeks to figure out legal aspects. I can put significant effort to figure out the details of our future relationship.

Do not donate if

• if your expected networth in next 5 years is below $500k. There's a possibility you need this money more than me.
• if you feel you have obtained most of your money by morally grey or immoral means. This is true whether or not I ever get to know how you obtained your money.

Consequences of donating to me

• Donation below $1000
  • Will not significantly change my life
  • Will provide me encouragement
  • Will help with raising larger amounts of funding in future.
• Donation above $20k
  • Will significantly help
  • Can obtain UK/US/EU visa sponsorship for long duration. Will help with obtaining expert feedback and collaborators via in-person networking
  • Can complete projects listed below
• Donation above $500k
  • Will significantly help
  • Can get EU citizenship, US green card
  • Can complete more ambitious projects (not listed anywhere, but message me for more)

Past financial record

Current net worth as of 2025-08: Between $20k to $100k

Expenses

• Ongoing living expenses: $150-$400 per month (can vary depending on projects I'm working on)
• Money spent on whistleblower guide: ~$250 + 3 months of living expenses (ongoing project, not yet complete)
• Money spent on Prolific.com survey: ~$265 (200 GBP)
• Money spent on booksearch project: ~$2600 + 6 months of living expenses
• Money spent on hosting GPT2: $0-20/month (ongoing expense)

Earnings

• Money earned from crypto trading and investments: >$20k. Includes working at Rari Capital and investing in crypto during bull run in 2021.

Restricted versus Unrestricted

Money

• If you want to donate to a specific project, please contact me so we can work out the details.
• Otherwise I will assume your donation is unrestricted, with the intention that I have more agency in the world.
  • I will prefer spending it on a project that I consider important, but I make no legally binding promises regarding the same. There is always a possibility I end up spending it on something you disagree with.

Visa

• I am not keen on shifting to the US on a visa that lets someone else arbitrarily restrict what I do or say.
  • I understand that my speech and behaviour may affect your reputation. We may be able to negotiate a way for your reputation to be insulated from mine despite you providing me a visa. Please contact me to discuss more.

Ideal funder

I'm not sure if there's even one grantee on Earth that satisfies following criteria

• received $1M funding
• non-profit
• public advocacy
• AI extinction risk

There are currently very non-profit funders for public advocacy around AI risk. Most large funders are funding alignment researchers and US policymakers, in order to make societal changes while keeping most of humanity out of the decision-making process. I don't have a moral problem with this strategy but I think it has high probability of failure, and that public advocacy is more likely to succeed than this strategy.

Relevant: FLI digital media accelerator

Explanation of REPT purchase

An investment I made that I now consider morally grey was purchasing significant amount of REPT to profit from victims of smart contract hacks.

• Rari Capital's smart contracts were hacked twice, first in 2021-05 and second in 2022-04. After the first hack, IOU tokens called REPT were issued to all victims. They could either hold these tokens till they were repaid back by Rari, or sell them to someone else. Some of the users sold them to me at a deep discount. Eventually Rari did in fact pay back the hack victims, allowing me to profit.
• I did not cause the smart contract hacks, was not responsible for smart contract security and had left the company over 3 weeks prior to these investments in REPT.
• I do not currently intend to return this money to the counterparties who sold me REPT. I might consider returning it if I became much wealthier than I currently was. If I had to redo the situation again, I might have made different choices. I think Samuel!2021 undervalued the importance of building a strong reputation compared to Samuel!2025.

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