比特币疑云—匿名的货币主义者 By 李航

【导读】

比特币(Bitcoin)是一种网络虚拟货币，类似于企鹅公司的Q币。与现实货币和Q币不同的是，比特币并没有发行机构——它完全是通过一套复杂的算法产生的，而且具有稀缺性。这种货币自诞生至今虽然经历了投机性泡沫和崩盘，而且存在安全方面的问题，总体来看还是在蓬勃发展的，其易用性功不可没。当然，比特币的壮大，与毒品交易也不无关系。

【正文】

Bitcoin

比特币疑云

Monetarists Anonymous

匿名的货币主义者

After a spectacular crash, an online currency makes a surprising comeback

一种在线货币在经历了投机性崩盘后重现江湖，令人惊诧。

Sep 29th 2012 | from the print edition

“GIVE me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.” So said Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty. What would he make of Bitcoin, an online currency with no issuing authority whatsoever? Despite being written off following a speculative bubble and crash last year, the online cryptocurrency is still going strong, not least thanks to its ability to circumnavigate the law.

“只要让我控制一个国家的货币供应，至于是谁制定法律，我根本不在乎。”罗斯柴尔德银行业帝国的缔造者梅耶·阿姆谢尔·罗斯柴尔德如是说。那，他将如何看待一种完全没有发行机构的货币——比特币呢？虽然在去年的投机性泡沫与崩溃之后遭到减记，这种在线加密货币仍将强劲，这不仅要归功于其绕开法律的能力。

Bitcoin was devised in 2009 by a mysterious figure known as Satoshi Nakomoto. It is the world’s first, and so far only, decentralised online currency. Instead of a central bank, Bitcoins can be issued by anyone with a powerful personal computer: it mints them by solving extremely difficult mathematical problems. The problems are automatically made harder to ensure that the overall supply of Bitcoins cannot grow too fast. They are traded online, with transactions cryptographically authenticated.

比特币是在2009年由一个叫中本聪（罗马文字应为Satoshi Nakamoto）的神秘人物设计出来的。它是世界上第一种，也是至今唯一一种非集中发行的在线货币。发行比特币的机构并非中央银行，而可以是任何人——只要你有一台强大的个人计算机，通过解决极其复杂的数学问题来铸造比特币。为保证比特币的总供应量上涨的不要太快，这些数学问题会自动变得越来越难。这些比特币在网络上，通过加密认证后进行交易。

These curious capabilities make Bitcoins a combination of a commodity and a fiat currency (creating the coins is referred to as “mining” and they have value only because people accept them). But boosters inflated a Bitcoin bubble. Shortly after the currency launched, articles spread around the internet arguing that Bitcoins would protect wealth from hyperinflation and that early adopters would make a fortune. The dollar price of a Bitcoin currency unit climbed from a few cents in 2010 to a peak of nearly $30 in June 2011 (see chart), according to data compiled by Mt Gox, a popular online Bitcoin exchange. Inevitably, the currency then crashed back down, bottoming out at $2 in November 2011.

由于有这些奇怪的性能，比特币成了一种大宗商品与法定货币（创造比特币钱币的过程被称作是“开采”，并且它们能拥有价值只因为人们接受它们作为货币）的结合体。但是，狂热的支持者们吹大了比特币的泡沫。在这种货币推出后不久，互联网上就充斥着鼓吹比特币的文章。这些文章声称，比特币可以令财富免于超级通货膨胀的威胁，而且最先吃螃蟹的人会发大财。根据一家知名的比特币在线交易所Mt. Gox整理的数据，一比特币的价格，以美元结算，已经从2010年的几分钱飙升至2011年6月份的30元（如下图）。接着，这种货币不可避免地崩盘，降至2011年11月的低点2美元。

But in the nine months since, Bitcoin has recovered. One unit now costs $12, and the volume of transactions is increasing. Though the price still fluctuates against the dollar, it is less volatile than it was, which makes it a better store of value. Its use as a means of exchange is also getting easier: an increasing number of online retailers take the currency, and new smartphone apps make Bitcoins almost as easy to use as cash. A proliferation of exchanges means that it is relatively easy to swap Bitcoins for conventional currencies.

但是从那时起过了九个月，比特币又原地复活了。现在，比特币的单位价格是12美元，交易额也在攀升。尽管比特币兑美元的价格仍然在波动，但是波动率已经没有以前那么大了，这让比特币变得适合于储藏价值。其流通手段的功能也越来越容易实现：越来越多的在线零售商开始使用这种货币，而且新款智能手机应用程序让比特币变得与现金一样好用。交易所的增加意味着比特币与传统货币之间的互换相对容易了一些。

Tony Gallippi, the boss of Bitpay, which processes Bitcoin payments for retailers, says that his client list has increased from around 100 in March to 1,100 now. These are mostly e-commerce businesses, selling things like domain names and web hosting. But the list also includes a taxi-driver in Chicago and a dentist in Finland. “Credit cards weren’t designed for the internet,” he says. Bitcoin transactions cost less and cannot be reversed in the way credit-card transactions can be. This is important for firms selling to customers in countries known for credit-card fraud, such as Russia or Belarus.

Bitpay是一家处理比特币的零售商支付的公司。它的老板托尼·加利佩说，他的客户名单从三月份的100人左右，增至如今的1100人，客户大多是卖域名和虚拟主机等的电子商务企业。但是，名单上也有芝加哥的出租车司机、芬兰的牙医。对此，托尼说：“信用卡并不是为互联网而设计的。”比特币的交易成本（比信用卡）更低，而且不同与信用卡，比特币交易是不可逆转的。如果一家公司销售的客户来自因信用卡欺诈而臭名昭著的国家，如俄罗斯和白俄罗斯，那么比特币的这一特质将是十分重要的。

But another big reason for the currency’s success is its role in dodgy online markets. Although tracing Bitcoin transactions to real people is not impossible, the currency’s relative anonymity and ease of use makes it a natural conduit for criminal funds. On the website Silk Road, a sort of eBay for drugs hidden in a dark corner of the web known as Tor, Bitcoins are the only means of transaction. Buyers transfer their Bitcoins into an escrow account where they sit until receipt of the goods is confirmed. Bitcoin transactions on Silk Road are now worth $1.9m per month, estimates Nicolas Christin, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.

但是比特币的成功，很大程度上要归因于它在并不可靠的在线市场中所扮演的不光彩角色。虽然将比特币交易追溯到实体人并非不可能，但是这种货币的相对匿名性和易用性令它自然而然地成为了犯罪资金的渠道。“丝绸之路”是一个类似于eBay的毒品交易网站，用一种叫做Tor的技术隐藏在网络的角落里。在“丝绸之路”上，比特币是唯一的交易媒介。买家将比特币转入第三方托管账户。比特币被存在这个账户里面，直到收货得到确认。卡耐基梅隆大学的研究人员尼古拉斯·克里斯汀估计，现在“丝绸之路”上的比特币交易量已经高达每月190万美元。

This may explain why users put up with a big drawback. Bitcoins tend not to be very secure, says Richard Booth, a consultant at RSA, a cyber-security firm. As some users have found to their cost, hackers can sometimes steal Bitcoins from users’ online vaults. In the latest raid, on September 5th, hackers stole $250,000 in Bitcoins from Bitfloor, a large American exchange, causing it to shut down its operation. But although the raid caused a dip in the price of Bitcoins, it soon recovered. It turns out that a currency can thrive even when no one is making laws for it.

这或许解释了为什么用户能忍受比特币的巨大缺陷。网络安全公司RSA的顾问理查德·布斯说，比特币往往不是非常安全。正如有些用户付出了巨大代价后所发现的那样，黑客们有时候可以从用户的加密账户中偷取比特币。在最近的一次黑客突袭（9月5日）中，黑客们从美国的大型比特币交易所Bitfloor偷走了价值250,000美金的比特币，导致Bitfloor被迫关门歇业。但是，尽管这次黑客突袭造成了比特币的暂时性贬值，价格很快又恢复了。事实证明，即使没人为它立法，一种货币仍然能够茁壮成长。

from the print edition | Finance and economics            译者：李航

本文原文出自《经济学人》杂志