解碼“比特幣”

The U.S. has the dollar， Japan， the yen. Countries in the eurozone have the euro. Now some people have come up with a currency not tied to any country or government. It’s called bitcoin， and a number of online stores now accept bitcoins as payment.

David Kestenbaum （Reporter）： Bitcoins don’t actually exist in the physical world. You can’t hold one in your hand. They’re just on computers.

Jacob Goldstein （Reporter）： We wanted to try to buy lunch with bitcoins. So we talked with Gavin Andresen， a programmer who’s done a lot of work on bitcoin. He didn’t actually create the bitcoin system， though. In fact， he said there’s a strange story behind that.

Gavin Andresen： The idea started with a guy named Satoshi Nakamoto. He’s a bit of a mysterious figure. We’re not sure if Satoshi Nakamoto is his real name.

Kestenbaum： Whoever Satoshi Nakamoto is came up with a pretty clever system. Everybody who uses bitcoin has a digital wallet. And when you buy something， you send your bitcoins to someone else’s wallet. It’s what computer geeks call a 1）peer-to-peer system.

Goldstein： There’s no center to the whole thing. It’s not like there’s one computer somewhere storing all the information. The system is run by everybody. Bitcoin is money backed by the people who use it—independent of any government. For Gavin Andresen， that’s a big part of the appeal.

Andresen： For me， that’s more comforting than thinking that politicians or central bankers won’t screw it up. I actually trust the wisdom of the crowds more.

Kestenbaum： Bitcoin is a lot like cash—but an online version. There are no big fees. And 2）transactions are 3）anonymous. That makes it hard to know how many people are using bitcoins， but every day， hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins are trading in online currency exchanges.

Goldstein： Satoshi set up the system so that there’s a finite number of bitcoins that can ever be created. In that way it’s a bit like gold.

Kestenbaum： Gavin Andresen says the best way for us to get some bitcoins is to buy some. In the same way you can trade dollars for British pounds， you can also trade dollars for bitcoins in online exchanges. The website 4）Gawker ran a story about an online market where you could use bitcoins to buy heroin， 5）LSD， and other illegal drugs. After that story ran， the exchange rate for bitcoins started rocketing up.

Goldstein： Then someone posted online that they’d had half a million dollars worth of bitcoins stolen.

Kestenbaum： A few days later， the main bitcoin exchange website got hacked and had to shut down for a while. So we couldn’t buy bitcoins there. Gavin gave us the name of a guy， who was actually just ten blocks away： Bruce Wagner.

Goldstein： We sit in Bruce Wagner’s office where he has two computers. He has me go to this website mybitcoin to set up an account. I signed up for an account at mybitcoin. All I had to do was create a username and password. I didn’t have to provide my name or any other personal information. Then I gave Bruce $40 in cash， and he looked up the exchange rate.

Wagner： That comes out， my calculator， to 2.352941176. You might wonder why we go that many 6）decimal places. And the reason is because we expect the bitcoin， one day， could be worth$100，000 a bitcoin. So those decimal places will matter in the future.

Goldstein： Oh there it is. My account balance is 2.35294117 bitcoins. We had our bitcoins. But before we used them， we had an important question. Are they legal？ Can you just create and use some new currency？

Kestenbaum： We called Ronald Mann， at Columbia Law School. And he said， it is legal—for now. If it turns out bitcoins are used mostly for illegal stuff， the government could shut the whole thing down.

美國有美元，日本有日元。歐元區國家有歐元。如今有人創立了一種不依附于任何國家或政府的貨幣。人們稱之為“比特幣”，現在有不少網上商店都接受比特幣作為支付貨幣。

大衛·克斯滕鮑姆（記者）：比特幣其實并不存在于物質世界里。你不能拿捏把玩。那只是存于電腦中的貨幣。

雅各布·哥爾德斯坦（記者）：我們想試試用比特幣來買份午餐。于是，我們和加文·安德烈森進行了交談。他是一名程序師，在比特幣上花了很多的工夫。不過，他其實并沒有創立比特幣系統。事實上，他說那個系統背后有個奇怪的故事。

加文·安德烈森：這個想法始于一個名叫中本聰的人。他是個身份神秘的人物。我們不確定中本聰是不是他的真名。

克斯滕鮑姆：不管中本聰是誰，他想出了一個極為聰明的系統。每個使用比特幣的人都有一個電子錢包。當你購物時，你就將你的比特幣發送到別人的錢包里。這種做法被電腦極客們稱為對等系統。

哥爾德斯坦：整個系統并沒有中心。并不是某臺電腦在某處儲存所有的信息。這個系統由眾人共同運作。比特幣是一種用家本位的貨幣——獨立于任何政府。對于加文·安德烈森來說，那是最具吸引力的地方。

安德烈森：對我來說，這更為令人寬慰，因為不用去想政客或者中央銀行會把它搞砸。我其實更相信群眾的智慧。

克斯滕鮑姆：比特幣跟現金有許多相似之處——不過是在線版本。不會有大筆的交易費用。交易過程是匿名的?！?br>