匿名的货币主义者-比特币ER

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2013-1-5 12:11:36 作者：blackbeard 来源：巴比特论坛

Bitcoin
比特币
Monetarists Anonymous
匿名的货币主义1者

After a spectacular crash, an online currency makes a surprising comeback
网上货币-比特币在经历大幅暴跌之后，东山再起令人惊奇。


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.
“如果我能控制一个国家的货币供给，我不会在乎谁制定法律。”这是罗斯柴尔德家族金融王朝的建立者梅尔·阿姆谢尔·罗斯柴尔德说过的名言。他该怎样看待比特币呢？这种在线货币没有任何发行机构。尽管去年投机泡沫形成并破裂之后被人唱衰，这种网络电子2货币现在仍然持续走强，尤其是因为它能够避开法律监管。

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.
2009年，一位名为中本智的神秘人物发明了比特币。它是世界第一种，且是迄今为止唯一一种去中心化的网络货币。比特币不需要中央银行，每一台强劲的个人电脑都可以发行它：通过求解极度困难的数学问题来铸币。这些数学问题会自动难上加难，以保证比特币的发行总量不会增长过快。在加密认证的交易中，它们通过网络被交换。


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.
这些奇特的能力使得比特币成为商品与法币3的混合物（制造比特币被称为“挖掘”，它的价值仅仅是因为人们接受它。）。然而比特币的支持者们也把泡沫制造出来。这种货币推出后不久，鼓吹比特币可以保护财富免受恶性通胀侵蚀以及早期用户可以发大财的文章就遍布因特网。根据Mt Gox-一家广受欢迎的比特币网上交易所收集的数据显示，一比特币单位的美元比价从2010年的仅仅几美分攀升到2011年6月顶峰时的接近30美元（见上图）。然后其币值迅速跌落至2011年11月时的底部2美元，也是在所难免了。

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.
但是之后的九个月以来，比特币币值一路回升。1比特币单位现在值12美元，而且其交易总额还在不断增长。尽管其兑美元币值仍然波动不断，但已不像过去那么起伏不定了，这让它的保值能力更强了。它作为贸易手段也愈加便利：接受比特币的网络零售商不断增加，而新的智能手机程序使得比特币的使用几乎和现金一样方便。贸易的激增意味着将比特币兑换为传统货币相对容易了。

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 Russia or Belarus.
Bitpay是一家处理零售商比特币支付业务的公司，老板托尼·盖里皮表示他们的客户名单已经从三月的100位左右增至现在的1100位。这些客户主要是销售域名及网络主机托管之类东西的电子商务公司。但是其中也包括了芝加哥的一名出租车司机和芬兰的一名牙医。他说：“信用卡不是为因特网设计的。”比特币交易成本更低而且不能像信用卡那样可以撤销4。如果客户是来自以信用卡诈骗著称的国家（如俄罗斯或白俄罗斯），这个特性对出售货品的公司就很重要了。

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.
但是比特币成功的另一个重大原因是因为它在网上黑市中发挥着作用。尽管追查比特币交易中的真实人物并不是不可能，但它相对的匿名性及使用的便利性使得它成为黑钱流通的天然管道。丝绸之路（Silk Road)网站是一个类似eBay的毒品电子市场，藏在网络上名为Tor的阴暗角落里5，比特币是该网站唯一的交易手段。买家将比特币转入一个第三方账户中，在收货确认之前，比特币一直存在其中。卡内基·梅隆大学的研究员尼古拉斯·克里斯丁估计，现在丝路上每月的比特币交易价值达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.
也许这就解释了为什么比特币的用户对于一项重大缺陷保持容忍。网络安全公司RSA的顾问理查德·布兹表示，比特币可能不是特别安全。有时黑客可以从用户的网上金库中偷走比特币，一些用户已经付出了代价。最近一次发生在9月5日的洗劫中，黑客从美国一家大型交易所Bitfloor偷走了价值25万美元的比特币，导致其关张大吉。虽然此次偷窃造成了比特币的比价下跌，但很快也就恢复原样了。这表明，即使没有人为一种货币制定法律，它也可以繁荣兴旺。