MIRI Receives All-Time Largest Donation and Major Crypto Support from Vitalik Buterin

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MIRI·intelligence.org/2021/05/13/two-major-donations/

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Announces two major donations to MIRI in 2021, including a $15.6M anonymous crypto donation and a $4.4M gift from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, reflecting significant private funding for AI safety research.

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Summary

MIRI announced two major donations in May 2021: an anonymous cryptocurrency investor donated 3001 MKR tokens (liquidated for ~$15.6M, disbursed over 2021–2025), and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated 1050 ETH worth ~$4.4M. These represent the largest individual contributions in MIRI's history, significantly boosting its AI safety research funding.

Key Points

•Anonymous donor gave 3001 MKR tokens liquidated for $15,592,829, restricted to $2.5M/year through 2024 with remainder in 2025.
•Vitalik Buterin donated 1050 ETH worth $4,378,159, the third-largest contribution to MIRI's research program.
•Both donors had previously supported MIRI, including in the 2017 fundraiser.
•The anonymous donation is the largest single gift in MIRI's history, making the donor MIRI's all-time largest supporter.
•Open Philanthropy's ~$7.7M grant in 2020 remains the largest single contribution, with these new gifts close behind.

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Our all-time largest donation, and major crypto support from Vitalik Buterin - Machine Intelligence Research Institute

Our all-time largest donation, and major crypto support from Vitalik Buterin

May 13, 2021

Colm Ó Riain

I’m thrilled to announce two major donations to MIRI!

First, a long-time supporter has given MIRI by far our largest donation ever: $2.5 million per year over the next four years, and an additional ~$5.6 million in 2025 .

This anonymous donation comes from a cryptocurrency investor who previously donated $1.01M in ETH to MIRI in 2017. Their amazingly generous new donation comes in the form of 3001 MKR, governance tokens used in MakerDAO , a stablecoin project on the Ethereum blockchain. MIRI liquidated the donated MKR for $15,592,829 after receiving it. With this donation, the anonymous donor becomes our largest all-time supporter.

This donation is subject to a time restriction whereby MIRI can spend a maximum of $2.5M of the gift in each of the next four calendar years, 2021–2024. The remaining $5,592,829 becomes available in 2025.

Second, in other amazing news, the inventor and co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, yesterday gave us a surprise donation of 1050 ETH, worth $4,378,159 .

This is the third-largest contribution to MIRI’s research program to date, after Open Philanthropy’s ~$7.7M grant in 2020 and the anonymous donation above.

Vitalik has previously donated over $1M to MIRI, including major support in our 2017 fundraiser.

We’re beyond grateful for these two unprecedented individual gifts! Both donors have our heartfelt thanks.

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