Lifeboat Basis claims that it’s devoted to ‘safeguarding humanity’ and has ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Tether founder J.R. Willett, and plenty of different outstanding names.
Apart from its safeguarding declare, it additionally says it has non-profit 501(c)(3) standing. That is although it’s been on the auto revocation listing for the IRS since 2020.
Protos reached out to Lifeboat Basis to request verification of this standing, however at press time it hadn’t responded.
This failure to make clear its non-profit standing isn’t proof that this ‘foundation’ has been deserted, because it incessantly posts updates about its members and who has been added to which of its many boards.
Learn extra: Lifeboat Basis can’t clarify the place its crypto donations go
Cryptocurrency counterparties
Lifeboat Basis continues to solicit crypto donations, and in contrast to many teams that instantly convert all crypto they obtain into fiat, it truly continues to carry vital holdings.
Beforehand, the muse listed the addresses the place it held its crypto. A evaluate of these addresses additionally offers us perception into its counterparties.
Lifeboat Basis has been accepting crypto donations since 2013 when the fund kicked off with a 500-bitcoin donation from Brian Cartmell. Whereas his bio on the muse’s web site focuses extra on his work on Spam Arrest, he’s maybe higher recognized for his work at Web Leisure Group, an oft-sued grownup leisure firm that when distributed Pamela Anderson’s notorious intercourse tape.
Due to how lengthy Lifeboat has been accepting donations, we see donations coming from long-failed exchanges like Mt. Gox and QuadrigaCX. We even see a small donation from Laxo Commerce, a high-yield funding program that attempted to advertise itself by sending mud quantities of bitcoin to many addresses.
We additionally get some perception into the place Lifeboat Basis sends its property. These addresses, labeled as ‘Coinbase,’ ‘Binance,’ ‘Bitfinex,’ ‘Cryptsy,’ typically consolidate into different Lifeboat Basis Addresses.
Bitcoin is by far the crypto asset that has seen most exercise from Lifeboat but it surely does settle for donations on quite a lot of different chains, together with many you might by no means have heard of like anoncoin, bytecoin, CryptogenicBullion, Sprint, noblecoin, NXT, peercoin, and solarcoin.
The web sites for a lot of of those property have been taken down.
The Ethereum tackle acquired roughly 190 ether from an tackle labeled as ‘Bitfinex’ and despatched some out to Bitfinex and Coinbase.
There are additionally some particular person donors listed who ended up being essential to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, together with Jaan Tallinn, who was one of many people who helped initially fund Alameda Analysis, and Charlie Shrem, who gained true notoriety for his function in Mt. Gox, and was finally sentenced to jail for a cost of aiding and abetting unlicensed cash transmission
Tether founder J.R. Willett is listed as a really small donor who gave lower than $5, however he has beforehand informed Protos that he was not a donor.
Charlie Lee, the founding father of Litecoin, was additionally a donor who gave 10 Litecoins.
In whole, the Lifeboat Basis acquired over 1,100 bitcoins and 190 ether, representing the lion’s share of the cryptocurrency donations acquired.
Non-crypto donors
Many of the donors to the muse at this level appear to be companies profiting from the chance to get their names, hyperlinks, and logos featured on the web site, presumably to enhance their rating in search engines like google.
The listing is plagued by divorce attorneys, private harm attorneys, casinos, dispensaries, and a few suspicious corporations that publicize issues like ‘credit reward perks.’
It was extra frequent for Lifeboat to get donations from extra outstanding people like futurist Ray Kurzweil, however these appear to have slowed to a trickle, which is smart when you think about the Lifeboat Basis can’t even preserve its non-profit standing.
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