信任机器—比特币背后的技术如何改变世界

The promise of the blockchain

值得期待的区块链

The trust machine

信任机器

The technology behind bitcoin could transform how the economy works

比特币背后的技术可以改变经济的运作方式

BITCOIN has a bad reputation. The decentralised digital cryptocurrency, powered by a vast computer network, is notorious for the wild fluctuations in its value, the zeal of its supporters and its degenerate uses, such as extortion, buying drugs and hiring hitmen in the online bazaars of the “dark net”.

比特币有着不太好的名声。这种去中心化的数字加密货币，透过强大的计算网络驱动，最遭人诟病的在于价格波动非常大，还有支持者的狂热及许多不太能提及的 用途，例如，在类似“dark net 暗网”的网络集市上进行敲诈勒索，购买毒品和雇佣杀手等行为。

This is unfair. The value of a bitcoin has been pretty stable, at around $250, for most of this year. Among regulators and financial institutions, scepticism has given way to enthusiasm (the European Union recently recognised it as a currency). But most unfair of all is that bitcoin’s shady image causes people to overlook the extraordinary potential of the “blockchain”, the technology that underpins it. This innovation carries a significance stretching far beyond cryptocurrency. The blockchain lets people who have no particularconfidence in each other collaborate without having to go through a neutral central authority. Simply put, it is a machine for creating trust.

这是不公平的。一个比特币在今年的大部分时间价值已经非常稳定在250美元左右。监管者和金融机构，也从怀疑慢慢转向认同（欧盟最近承认它是货币）。但是，最不公平的就是，比特币的不光彩形象，使人们忽视了“区块链（blockchain）”，而这个技术奠定了比特币的巨大潜力。这一创新，其承载的延伸意义已经远远超出了加密货币这个范畴。区块链让没有信任的双方可以在没有中央权力机构的情况下，对互相协作上建立信心。简单的说，它是一个创造信任的机器。

The blockchain food chain

区块链的食物链

To understand the power of blockchain systems, and the things they can do, it is important to distinguish between three things that are commonly muddled up, namely the bitcoin currency, the specific blockchain that underpins it and the idea of blockchainsin general. A helpful analogy is with Napster, the pioneering but illegal “peer-to-peer” file-sharing service that went on line in 1999, providing free access to millions of music tracks.

要理解区块链系统的能力，它能够用来做什么，最重要的是能够区分三个通常被混淆的概念：比特币名字的由来？用来支撑其运作的区块链？和区块链本身的通用含义？一个比较贴切的比喻，就是Napster公司，这是一家在1999年出现，有着极其超前理念但是非法的P2P（点对点）共享网站，在它的网站上，提供了上百万的免费音乐服务。

Napster itself was swiftly shut down, but it inspired a host of other peer-to-peer services. Many of these were also used for pirating music and films. Yet despite its dubious origins, peer-to-peer technology found legitimate uses, powering internet startups such as Skype (for telephony) and Spotify (for music streaming)—and also, as it happens, bitcoin.

Napster网站被很快的关闭了，但是它却启发了众多其它的P2P服务。这种服务过去经常被用于盗版音乐和电影。然后尽管出身引人质疑，但是p2p技术还是找到了它的合法用途，如用于网络初创公司Skype（网络电话）和Spotify（音乐流媒体）——而且，还有例如比特币的出现。

The blockchain is an even more potent technology. In essence it is a shared, trusted, public ledger that everyone can inspect, but which no single user controls. The participants in a blockchain system collectively keep the ledger up to date: it can be amended only according to strict rules and by general agreement. Bitcoin’s blockchain ledger prevents double-spending and keeps track of transactions continuously. It is what makes possible a currency without a central bank.

而区块链是一个更加强有力的技术。它本质上是一个可共享的，可信的，每个人都可以检查的公开账本，但是没有任何一个单一用户能够控制它。整个区块链系统的参与者共同加以更新：它能够且只能按照严格的规则和公开的协议来进行修订。比特币的区块链账本能够阻止“double-spending 重复支付”，并且持续不断的跟踪交易。这让没有中央银行体系的货币发展成为可能。

Blockchains are also the latest example of the unexpected fruits of cryptography. Mathematical scrambling is used to boil down an original piece of information into a code, known as a hash. Any attempt to tamper with any part of the blockchain is apparent immediately—because the new hash will not match the old ones. In this way a science that keeps information secret (vitalfor encrypting messages and online shopping and banking) is, paradoxically, also a tool for open dealing.

区块链也是密码学意外成果的最新例证。使用数学算法用来扰乱信息的原始片段，并且把它变成一小段代码，这也就是哈希（hash）算法。任何企图来篡改区块链一部分的行为都是完全透明的——因为新哈希将无法与旧哈希值无法相容（能够立即发现信息已经被篡改）。通过这种数学的方式，在既保持信息机密性（这对于网上购物和网上银行场景下中加密信息是非常重要的）的同时，也成为能够公开交易的工具。

Bitcoin itself may never be more than a curiosity. However blockchains have a host of other uses because they meet the need for a trustworthy record, something vital for transactions of every sort. Dozens of startups now hope to capitalise on the blockchain technology, either by doing clever things with the bitcoin blockchain or by creatingnew blockchains of their own (see article).

比特币本身可能仅仅来自于好奇。然后区块链却还有许多其它用途，因为一个完全值得信赖记录满足了我们的需求，这是每一种交易都非常需要的东西。目前已经数十家初创公司希望能够利用现有的区块链技术，或者是使用比特币区块链做一些聪明的事情，或者是创建属于自己的区块链。

One idea, for example, is to make cheap, tamper-proof public databases—land registries, say, (Honduras and Greece are interested); or registers of the ownership of luxury goods or works of art. Documents can be notarised by embedding information about them into a public blockchain—and you will no longer need a notary to vouch for them.

例如，有一个想法，建立一个成本很低且能够防止篡改的公共数据库——进行土地登记（也许洪都拉斯和希腊会非常感兴趣的）；或者是奢侈品或艺术品所有权登记。公正文件信息可以被嵌入到一个公开的区块链中——你将不再需要一个公证员为其提供担保。

Financial-services firms are contemplating using blockchains as a record of who owns what instead of having a series of internal ledgers. A trusted private ledger removes the need for reconciling each transaction with a counterparty, it is fast and it minimises errors. Santander reckons that it could save banks up to $20 billion a year by 2022. Twenty-five banks have just joined a blockchain startup, called R3 CEV, to develop common standards, and NASDAQ is about to start using the technology to record trading in securities of private companies

金融服务公司正在尝试利用区块链来记录客户的资产证明，而不是再用一系列内部账本。一个值得信赖的私人帐本可以省去核对每笔交易，这种方式不仅速度更快而且可以减少错误。Santander 桑坦德银行预计到2022年，每年将能够为银行节省约200亿美元。25家银行已经加入了一家名为R3 CEV的区块链初创公司，来制订一个共同标准，纳斯达克也已经开始使用区块链技术来记录私人企业之间的股票交易。

These new blockchains need not work in exactly the way that bitcoin’s does. Many of them could tweak its model by, for example, finding alternatives to its energy-intensive “mining” process, which pays participants newly minted bitcoins in return for providing the computing power needed to maintain the ledger. A group of vetted participants within an industry might instead agree to join a private blockchain, say, that needs less security.

这些新的区块链并不需要完全和比特币运作的方式一样。他们中许多都采用调整过的方式，例如，在寻求替代方法的“mining挖矿”过程中，通常会以比特币来奖励那些提供计算机计算能力以维系账本的参与者。同一个行业的一群审查参与者很有可能同意一起组建一个非公开区块链，那他们就可以更少的安全考量来进行交易。

Blockchains can also implement business rules, such as transactions that take place only if two or more parties endorse them, or if another transaction has been completed first. As with Napster and peer-to-peer technology, a clever idea is being modified and improved. In the process, it is fast throwing off its reputation for shadiness.

区块链可以实现各种各样的商业规则，例如可以设定为仅仅在两方或者多方认可的情况下才交易，或者必需先完成其他交易等等。与Napster和p2p技术相比，一个比较清晰的想法已经在逐步完善。而在这个过程中，它正在迅速脱离过去的不好声誉。

New chains on the block

块上的新链

The spread of blockchains is bad for anyone in the “trustbusiness”—the centralised institutions and bureaucracies, such as banks, clearing houses and government authorities that are deemed sufficiently trustworthy to handle transactions. Even as some banks and governments explore the use of this new technology, others will surely fight it. But given the decline in trust in governments and banks in recent years, a way to create more scrutiny and transparency could be no bad thing.

对于那些“trust business 信托业务”的机构——中央集权机构和官僚体系而言，区块链的推广也许并不是一件好事。比如银行，清算公司和政府主管部门，这些都是被公认可以被完全信任来处理交易的机构。即使一些银行和机构已经在探索新技术的使用，其他的阻挠在所难免。不过考虑到这几年政府和银行的信赖度正在降低，通过一种方式来建立更多的监督和透明可能不是坏事。

Drawing up regulations for blockchains at this early stage would be a mistake: the history of peer-to-peer technology suggests that it is likely to be several years before the technology’s full potential becomes clear. In the meantime regulators should stay their hands, or find ways to accommodate new approaches within existing frameworks, rather than risk stifling a fast-evolving idea with overly prescriptive rules.

在区块链早期阶段来拟定相关法规将是一个错误：因为p2p技术发展的历史表明，在技术的潜力变得清晰之前还需要好几年。在此期间监管者应该先放下他们的手，或者找到一条能够在现有框架内来适应新发展的道路，总比冒着以过度管理的规则扼杀快速发展想法的风险来的好。

The notion of shared public ledgers may not sound revolutionary or sexy. Neither did double-entry book-keeping or joint-stock companies. Yet, like them, the blockchain is an apparently mundane process that has the potential to transform how people and businesses co-operate. Bitcoin fanatics are enthralled by the libertarian ideal of a pure, digital currency beyond the reach of any central bank.

共享公开账本的理念，或许听起来不是革命性或深具魅力。既不像复式薄记，也不像股份制公司。然而，就像它们，区块链是一个看来平凡的操作过程，但有潜力改变人们和企业之间的互相协作。比特币的狂热分子是为纯粹的自由理念所着迷，认为数字货币将超越任何央行能够延伸的境界。

The real innovation is not the digital coins themselves, but the trust machine that mints them—and which promises much more besides.

真正的创新不在于数位货币本身，而是铸造这些货币的信任机制——其带来的比想象的多得多。

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编译者/作者：耿直老僧

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