科技獨行俠 放下3D槍拾起比特幣

Cody Wilson rattled lawmakers and law-enforcement agencies with a plastic gun created from a 3-D printer, home computer and blueprints he posted online for anyone to download.

科迪•威爾森(Cody Wilson)曾利用3D打印機和家用電腦製作出一款塑料槍，並將槍支的設計圖放到網上供他人隨意下載。這在議員和執法機構中間掀起了軒然大波。

Now, the 25-year-old law-school dropout is about to launch software aimed at covering the tracks of financial transactions made with bitcoin, the virtual currency that has exploded in popularity among spenders and speculators -- and raised concerns among regulators that it might be used for illegal activity.

現在，這名25歲的法律系輟學生又打算開發一種軟件，用於掩蓋用比特幣所進行金融交易的蹤跡。這種虛擬貨幣的人氣一路暴漲，越來越受到揮霍狂、投機人士的追捧，也引發監管機構擔憂其可能被用於違法活動。

'We need an anonymous cash online,' says Mr. Wilson, who oversees from his apartment near the University of Texas at Austin about a dozen self-described antiestablishment techies working on the software, called Dark Wallet. Some of them are paid in bitcoin.

這款軟件名爲“暗黑錢包”(Dark Wallet)。威爾森的住所位於奧斯汀得克薩斯大學(University of Texas)附近，他在這裏遠距離管理着十多個正開發這款軟件、自稱“非主流”的科技謎。其中一些人的工資就是用比特幣支付的。威爾森說，我們需要匿名的在線現金交易。

'It's not that I want you to buy drugs,' he says. 'It's just that I think you should have the freedom to do it.'

他說，我不是想讓你買毒品，只是覺得你有這樣做的自由。

Mr. Wilson is one of the most prominent examples in a band of hackers, programmers and agitators trying to deploy technology in ways that disrupt what they see as limits on personal freedom. Even though they often live, work or mingle in Silicon Valley, they claim its rise has created too much technology that benefits corporate America or helps government snoop.

目前有一大批黑客、程序員以及鼓動者試圖利用科技來打破他們眼中束縛了個人自由的壁壘。威爾森就是其中的佼佼者。雖然這些人大多在硅谷(Silicon Valley)生活、工作或者混跡在那裏，但在他們看來，硅谷的崛起創造了太多科技，不僅令美國公司受益，也對政府窺探個人隱私起到了推波助瀾的作用。

In the 1980s, such techies were known as cypherpunks and were obsessed with using complex encryption to keep communications secret. The modern version often focuses on mainstream products, such as Web browsers, open-source software and iPhones, with the aim of having world-wide impact.

上世紀80年代，這類科技謎被稱爲“密碼朋克”(cypherpunk)，癡迷於使用複雜的加密術來給通信保密。而如今的新生代科技迷常常瞄準主流產品（例如網頁瀏覽器、開放式源代碼軟件、iPhone等等），目的是產生全球性的影響。

Mr. Wilson, who graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2010 and then started law school here, shuns political labels. His bedroom features a Texas flag that says 'Come and take it,' a bookshelf with copies of the Federalist Papers and Austrian-born economist Friedrich von Hayek's libertarian treatise 'Road to Serfdom,' and several bullets.

威爾森2010年畢業於中阿肯色大學(University of Central Arkansas)，然後到得克薩斯大學學起了法律。他總是避免給自己貼上政治標籤。他的臥室裏擺放着一面得克薩斯州的孤星州旗，上面寫着“Come and take it”（來啊，把它拿走吧），還有一個書架，上面擺放着《聯邦黨人文集》(Federalist Papers)、奧地利經濟學家哈耶克(Friedrich von Hayek)的自由主義名作《通往奴役之路》(Road to Serfdom)等幾本書和數枚子彈。

While bitcoin critics claim the currency is vulnerable to misuse because people can make transactions without their real names or addresses, Mr. Wilson and other bitcoin purists says it isn't secret enough.

比特幣的批評人士指出，鑑於人們在進行交易時不必使用真實姓名或住址，比特幣極易被誤用。然而，威爾森和其他比特幣狂熱分子卻說，這種虛擬貨幣的保密性還不夠強。

To prevent fraud, all transactions made with each jumble of computer code tied to bitcoin are automatically posted in a ledger called the 'block chain.' That means it is possible for authorities to track a person's transactions if they can determine the user's bitcoin address.

爲了防止欺詐，一切用比特幣相關計算機密碼進行的交易都會被自動公佈在一個名爲“block chain”的總賬裏面。這就意味着，如果能夠確定使用者的比特幣地址，那麼當局或許可以追蹤某個使用者的交易情況。

Dark Wallet is a no-frills, low-budget push led by Mr. Wilson to make bitcoin the electronic-commerce equivalent of a Swiss bank account. Attached to a browser such as Google Inc.'s Chrome, Dark Wallet will try to scramble the strings of numbers and letters that form bitcoins. The scrambling will occur as bitcoins are spent, making it harder to detect who is buying what.

“暗黑錢包”是威爾森領導推廣的一個沒有噱頭、低成本的項目，目的在於將比特幣打造成類似瑞士銀行賬戶的電子商務版本。與谷歌(Google Inc.)的Chrome等瀏覽器連接後，“暗黑錢包”將把形成比特幣的數字和字母串打亂。這樣的過程發生在用戶用比特幣進行支付時，外界就更加難以識別誰在購買什麼東西。

Dark Wallet is set for release in early 2014. It will be free, though the developers are accepting donations.

“暗黑錢包”計劃於2014年年初發布。“暗黑錢包”的使用是免費的，但開發者接受捐贈。

Supporters concede it is likely impossible to make bitcoin transactions absolutely untraceable. Still, if Dark Wallet delivers as hoped and catches on with the virtual currency's users, law-enforcement officials will have more trouble tracking the flow of online commerce, some people close to U.S. officials say.

“暗黑錢包”的支持者承認，要想實現比特幣交易完全無跡可尋也許是不可能的。然而一些接近美國執法部門官員的人士稱，如果該項目如期推出，並且能夠獲得比特幣用戶青睞的話，那麼執法部門官員在監督電子商務活動時將會遇到更多困難。

Stephen Hudak, spokesman for the U.S. government's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, declined to discuss Dark Wallet, but says: 'We'd be concerned about anything that would increase the threat level of money laundering.' Officials also have said they see benefits from digital forms of money.

美國政府下屬金融犯罪執法網絡(Financial Crimes Enforcement Network)的發言人霍達克(Stephen Hudak)拒絕討論與“暗黑錢包”有關的問題，但他稱，如果洗錢活動帶來的威脅增大，我們自然會爲此感到擔憂。

Jon Matonis, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit group that serves as unofficial curator of the online currency, released on the Internet in 2009, says the Dark Wallet project is consistent with his efforts to promote and develop the digital cash as a private, government-free currency.

比特幣基金會(Bitcoin Foundation)執行董事馬佟尼斯(Jon Matonis)表示，“暗黑錢包”項目的推出和他本人爲推廣和開發電子現金（一種私人、無政府貨幣）所做的努力是一致的。該基金會是一個非營利性團體，是比特幣的非官方代言機構。

But some of Dark Wallet's image and marketing are hard to stomach, he says. 'The average person . . . will think it's this criminal thing for buying drugs.'

不過馬佟尼斯稱，“暗黑錢包”的一些形象和營銷手法令人們難以接受，普通人會認爲這是用來購買毒品的違法工具。

Mr. Wilson focused on Dark Wallet after his plastic-gun effort was blocked. In 2013, he posted instructions for how to make a gun called 'Liberator' with 3-D printing. Three-dimensional printers use plastic materials to make objects as simple as a figurine or coffee cup.

威爾森在塑料手槍推廣項目遇阻後開始關注“暗黑錢包”。他在2013年發佈了關於如何通過3D打印技術製作名爲“解放者”(Liberator)手槍的說明。

Federal officials warned that new plastic guns could fool metal detectors and compromise security. The State Department ordered him to remove his blueprints, citing arms-export laws.

聯邦官員警告稱，這種新的塑料手槍可以混過金屬探測器的檢查，帶來安全威脅。美國國務院(State Department)要求威爾森刪除相關圖紙，理由是他違反了武器出口法。

The edict came right after Mr. Wilson dropped out of law school to work on plastic guns full-time. He obeyed the order.

上述事件發生在威爾森從法學院退學後不久。他在退學後開始全職製作塑料手槍。威爾森後來遵守了國務院的要求。

Bitcoin captured Mr. Wilson's interest. PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a billionaire libertarian, invited Mr. Wilson to a private Wyoming retreat, where the two men discussed the future of bitcoin. Mr. Thiel sees promise in the young entrepreneur, a person close to the billionaire says.

比特幣引起了威爾森的興趣。貝寶(PayPal)創始人、億萬富翁皮特•泰爾(Peter Thiel)曾邀請威爾森前往位於懷俄明州的一處私人寓所，兩人就比特幣的未來進行了探討。一位接近泰爾的人士稱，泰爾看中了威爾森所具有的潛質。

An online fundraising effort for Dark Wallet has attracted about $100,000. All told, Mr. Wilson says he has raised nearly $250,000, most of it in bitcoin.

“暗黑錢包”的網上捐贈活動已經獲得了大約10萬美元的捐款。威爾森稱，他已經籌到了近25萬美元，其中多數是比特幣。

Dark Wallet 'captures everything we want to do,' he says. 'My particular brand of activism is crisis-forcing.'

威爾森表示，“暗黑錢包”涵蓋了我們想要做的一切。