正如之前提到的，尽管通过密码技术对电子货币进行研究已经有三十多年了，但是这些努力似乎在比特币的快速成功面前都显得缓慢。有个叫Has Nakamoto的人，他能比所有密码破译者加在一起还要厉害，而这我们从来都没有听说过。比特币绝不是完美的，对于一些显著的问题我们还将继续讨论。到底比特币有什么特质保证其成功呢？
As mentioned earlier, despite three decades’ research on e-cash by the cryptographic community [10, 15, 8, 9], all these efforts seem to have been dwindled by the swift success of Bitcoin. Has Nakamoto, a single individual whose name previously unheard of, outsmarted the ingenuity of all the cryptographers combined? Bitcoin is by no means perfect and some well-known problems are discussed later on. So what is it in Bitcoin that has ensured its success?
通过对比特币的深入调查，我们发现，尽管比特币使用的编码并不那么复杂，但是它的设计实际上却反映了令人惊异的独创性和先进性。更为重要的是，它最为迅速地解决了激励问题。
After an in-depth investigation of Bitcoin, we found that although Bitcoin uses no fancy cryptography, its design actually reflects a suprising amount of ingenuity and sophistication. Most importantly, it addresses the incentive problems most expeditiously.
没有信用中心。比特币的结构是完全分散式的，没有任何可信实体。比特币假设其网络中的大多数节点是可靠的，并且依靠于一个多数人投票的机制避免双支出，以及调节纠纷。相反，大多数电子货币都需要一个“中央银行”，以便于为电子货币发行提供信用担保和重复支付监测。这对于希望摆脱政府、银行或者当局控制的自由贸易货币的个人（比如自由主义者、毒品走私和其他地下经济的支持者）来说具有极大的吸引力。值得注意的是，除了上述提到的非法使用，也有合法的使用，文章后面的部分将会提到。类似于分布式互联网的原动力精神，这样一个纯分散的系统保证了不论什么人，都不会单独屈服于诱惑或是被政府干涉个人利益。
No central point of trust. Bitcoin has a completely distributed architecture, without any single trusted entity. Bitcoin assumes that the majority of nodes in its network are honest, and resorts to a majority vote mechanism for double spending avoidance, and dispute resolution. In contrast, most e-cash schemes require a centralized bank who is trusted for purposes of e-cash issuance, and double-spending detection. This greatly appeals to individuals who wish for a freely-traded currency not in control by any governments, banks, or authorities—from libertarians to drug-dealers and other underground economy proponents (note that apart from the aforementioned illegal usages, there are numerous legitimate uses as well, which will be mentioned later). In a spirit similar to the original motivation for a distributed Internet, such a purely decentralized system guarantees that no single entity, no matter how initially benevolent, can succumb to the temptation or be coerced by a government into subverting it for its own benefit.
激励和经济体制。比特币的经济生态系统设计十分出色，充分保证了用户的参与热情。首先，新一代的比特币分布在一个可预期的利率里：比特币“挖矿人”通过解决程序问题获得比特币，随着前面流程的确认，这一过程速度正在翻倍。同时，“挖矿人”也可以通过帮助完成上述交易而选择性地收取交易费用。这寄予了用户明确的经济刺激，让他们投资空闲的计算周期来确认交易发生，发掘新比特币。
Incentives and economic system. Bitcoin’s eco-system is ingeniously designed, and ensures that users have economic incentives to participate. First, the generation of new bitcoins happens in a distributed fashion at a predictable rate: “bitcoin miners” solve computational puzzles to generate new bitcoins, and this process is closely coupled with the verification of previous transactions. At the same time, miners also get to collect optional transaction fees for their effort of vetting said transactions. This gives users clear economic incentives to invest spare computing cycles in the verification of Bitcoin transactions and the generation of new Bitcoins. At the time of writing the investment of a GPU to accelerate Bitcoin puzzle solution can pay for itself in 6 months.
可预期的货币供应。 比特币使得新币确信会被定在一个固定的汇率。也就是说，比特币社区和能投入在货币的可计算的总资源越大，这个计算的困难就越大。这为早期的使用者提供了强有力的刺激，也就是说参与越早，就能以更低廉的价格获得比特币。（在之后的一个部分，我们将会讨论这种货币供应，在未来很长一段时间内，将会对价值、激励和安全性方面产生什么样的消极影响）
Predictable money supply. Bitcoin makes sure that new coins will be minted at a fixed rate, that is, the larger the Bitcoin community and the total computational resource devoted to coin generation, the more difficult the computational puzzle becomes. This provides strong incentives for early adopters — the earlier in the game, the cheaper the coins minted. (In a later section we discuss negative consequences that the adopted money supply schedule will have, in the long term, on value, incentives, and security.)
可分性和可替代性。比特币有一个实际性的吸引力，就是它可以简单地被分为或者再结合为任意可能的面值。这是（绝大程度上匿名的）电子货币系统的致命要害。因为面值需要标准化来达到不可链接，这也意外地造成电子货币交易可计算的成本直线上升。对于比特币来说，联接是内在的，这也是防范双重花费的一个性质；但是其身份是“匿名的”。
Divisibility and fungibility. One practical appeal of Bitcoin is the ease with which coins can be both divided and recombined to create essentially any denomination possible. This is an Achilles’ heel of (strongly anonymous) e-cash systems, because denominations had to be standardized to be unlinkable, which incidentally makes the computational cost of e-cash transactions linear in the amount. In Bitcoin, linkage is inherent, as it is what prevents double spending; but it is the identities that are “anonymous”.
多功能性、开放性和活力。比特币十分灵活，这特质部分归结于其完全分布式的设计。开放源的本质诱发了新应用的设计开发，同时刺激了新的业务。由于其灵活性和开放性，围绕比特币衍生的丰富生态系统发展迅速。例如，混合器服务迎合了需要更好匿名保证的用户。提供给卖主的付款处理器服务可以嵌入他们的网页，这样他们就可以与普通货币一道接收比特币。
Versatility, openness, and vibrancy. Bitcoin is remarkably flexible partly due to its completely distributed design. The open-source nature of the project entices the creation of new applications and spurs new businesses. Because of its flexibility and openness, a rich extended ecosystem surrounding Bitcoin is flourishing. For example, mixer services have spawned to cater to users who need better anonymity guarantees. There are payment processor services that offer gadgets venders can embed in their webpages to receive Bitcoin payments alongside regular currency.
脚本语言。另一个突出且非常具有创新性的特点是允许用户（付款人和收款人）在他们的比特币交易中嵌入脚本。即使如今的供参考的现实并没有完全使用这一特点的功能，但理论上来说，人们可以通过脚本实现丰富的交易语义和合同，例如，存款、托管和争议协调、保证合同，包括外部状态的使用等。我们可以相信，更为丰富的金融合同和机制的形式未来将会围绕比特币使用这一特点展开。
Scripting. Another salient and very innovative feature is allowing users (payers and payees) to embed scripts in their Bitcoin transactions. Although today’s reference implementations have not fully utilized the power of this feature, in theory, one can realise rich transactional semantics and contracts through scripts, such as deposits, escrow and dispute mediation, assurance contracts, including the use of external states, and so on. It is conceivable that in the future, richer forms of financial contracts and mechanisms are going to be built around Bitcoin using this feature.
交易的不可逆。比特币交易很快，而且是不可逆的。这对于关心信用卡违约和退单的供应商来说是一个有利可图的市场。以前，通过和销售专业杂志的供应商进行个人交流，交易者不能同信用卡违约盛行的特定国家的消费者做生意。但是通过比特币，交易者可以把他的生意延伸到其他国家，因为在那里他的利益会因为交易的不可逆性而受到保护。
Transaction irreversibility. Bitcoin transactions quickly become irreversible. This attracts a niche market where vendors are concerned about credit-card fraud and chargebacks. Through personal communication with a vendor selling specialty magazines, he mentioned that before, he could not conduct business with customers in certain countries where credit-card fraud prevails. With Bitcoin, he is able to extend his business to these countries due to the protection he obtains from the irreversibility of transactions.
低费用和低摩擦。比特币检验者目前的市场交易费用十分低（这是可以由付费者选择的）；这对于小微付费非常有吸引力，因为交易费用往往在小微付费占了很大的比例。比特币也因非中介化、无传统国际货币转移的额外费用而同样具有吸引力。
Low fees and friction. The Bitcoin verifiers’ market currently bears very low transaction fees (which are optional and chosen by the payer); this can be attractive in micro payments where fees can dominate. Bitcoin is also appealing for its lack of additional costs traditionally tacked upon international money transfers, due to disintermediation.
准备好的可供实施。最后但也是最重要的是，和其他的电子货币相比，比特币已提供了非常多的可实施平台，不仅限于台式电脑，也包括手机。开源项目运营活力十足，并且发展现状和前景良好。
Readily available implementations. Last but not the least, in comparison with other ecash schemes, Bitcoin has provided readily available implementations, not only for the desktop computer, but also for mobile phones. The open-source project is maintained by a vibrant community, and has had healthy developments. | 
发表于 2017-10-21 23:45:27
收藏