• Aditya Baradwaj, a former engineer at Alameda Research, claims that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), his former boss, stole his entire life savings.
• He paints a vivid picture of the rise and fall of FTX and its contradictions, grand visions, and heartbreaking consequences.
• He recounts his first day working for Alameda Research and his first encounter with SBF playing video games while having a business call.
SBF’s Vision That Never Came to Be
Aditya Baradwaj was an engineer at Google when he decided to join the small but mysterious crypto firm Alameda Research led by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). When he arrived at the office, SBF was taking a business call while playing League in characteristic fashion – this was also their trading floor.
The Grand Vision for FTX
Baradwaj details how SBF shared with him the grand vision for FTX – “to provide the world’s leading digital asset exchange with unparalleled liquidity and speed” – which would eventually become their downfall. Despite this optimistic outlook, things quickly began to unravel as they faced issues such as latency problems and poor engineering quality of code.
The Reality of Working for SBF
Baradwaj gives insight into what it was like to work for SBF – both positive and negative aspects. On one hand, SBF created an environment where employees were encouraged to think big and take risks in order to innovate; on the other hand, he could be cruel with no regard for employees’ feelings or ambitions which created high levels of stress in the workplace.
The Unfortunate Collapse of FTX
Baradwaj explains how all of this ultimately resulted in the collapse of FTX due to “poor management decisions coupled with technical challenges that were impossible to overcome” resulting in him losing his entire life savings as well as many other people being affected negatively by it all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Aditya Baradwaj’s story highlights some of the unfortunate costs associated with risk-taking in the cryptocurrency industry. His experience shows that even though there are great opportunities available within this space, investors should always be aware of potential pitfalls before investing their hard earned money into any venture.