逮捕行动危及比特币未来

    今天的这则新闻肯定让比特币听起来更像是一种犯罪分子使用的货币，而不是一种加密货币。

    司法部1月底以涉嫌洗钱之名逮捕了查理?史瑞姆。史瑞姆在布鲁克林经营一家名为BitInstant、提供美元兑换比特币服务的公司。公司的业务流程如下：你把你的美元交给他，他把这笔钱转移至一家交易所，这样你就可以用比特币买东西了，尽管从技术上讲，你并不拥有比特币，它们的持有人依然是史瑞姆。至少几个月前接受我采访时，他是这样描述的（我当时正在撰写一篇关于比特币的报道）。不完全是一种交易，而是隔了一层。另一个人，被称为BTCKing的罗伯特?法耶拉，也受到指控。

    史瑞姆是个说起话来挺有条理的人。他肯定是一位比特币支持者，但并不是一位夸大其词的推销员。他也没有躲在见不得人的角落。他是比特币王国最知名、人脉最广的玩家之一。他开设了第一个接受比特币的酒吧。现在回想起来，这听起来或许有点像黑手党风格，但他开设的可不是一家比特币版本的艳舞酒吧(Bada Bit)！这件事很可能会引发一些怀疑，以及一种虚拟货币面临的某些后勤问题。

    为了撰写一篇探讨如何购买比特币的稿件，《纽约杂志》( New York Magazine )的凯文?卢斯特意使用过史瑞姆的BitInstant服务。他甚至还致电史瑞姆，问了一些问题。卢斯好像没发现什么不对劲的地方。其中有一个问题是，为什么BitInstant公司没有更迅速地执行客户的交易。但卢斯从来没有问过史瑞姆，他是如何把毒品交易资金洗得这么干净。

    控诉书丝毫没有提到史瑞姆与某桩毒品交易有直接联系，或者史瑞姆知道他处理的资金正被用来购买毒品。控诉书只是说，其中一些比特币正在充斥着毒品交易的在线黑市丝绸之路(Silk Road)流通。我猜想，应该是这种现象引起了监管当局的关注。然而，鉴于丝绸之路被取缔前在比特币王国占据的江湖地位，我猜想，几乎每一位比特币玩家在一段时间内都跟丝绸之路有着千丝万缕的联系。

    史瑞姆的公司是合法注册的，而且制定了一些防范洗钱的规则。史瑞姆开始怀疑法耶拉的交易可能非法时，他甚至威胁要停止处理此人的交易，而且声称，如果他不守规则，他就会向当局举报。当然，史瑞姆其实并没有这样做，他甚至为法耶拉提供了一些建议，教他如何隐藏自己的交易，这正是史瑞姆现在陷入麻烦的原因所在。

    那么，对于比特币来说，这件事意味着什么？在全球最大的比特币交易中心Mt. Gox上，比特币的价格今天早上上涨至近1,000美元，但有一家网站声称，史瑞姆被捕的消息曝光后，价格顿时下跌至800美元略高一点。

    当然，所有的货币都可用于犯罪活动。犯罪分子需要一种方式来获得报酬。如果你提供比特币、美元、克郎或其他货币的支付服务，脏钱将在某个时点通过你的系统。但相较于美元，如果这笔脏钱是比特币，那就是更大的事件。去年12月，苏格兰皇家银行(Royal Bank of Scotland )被控处理了5.23亿美元可能为非法交易的资金。一些交易对象是财政部黑名单记录在册的人物，其中包括恐怖分子和国际毒贩（基本上都是联邦政府的恶人榜成员）。监管当局介绍说，根据这家银行建立的一套制度化程序，它应该挖掘可疑信息，同时还要及时告知监管机构某笔资金正在流向它不应该归属的地方和个人。

    然而，苏格兰皇家银行并没有受到刑事指控，它的员工也没有。支付了一大笔罚款后，这家银行照常营业。形成鲜明对比的是，史瑞姆处理的最大一笔交易资金仅为1.3万美元，但他的公司BitInstant 已经被取缔。

    马克?安德森和其他风险资本家正在加入这股比特币风潮，声称比特币建立在坚实的技术基础之上，使用人的足够多，可以被视为一种有意义的货币。我的立场是，硬通货在某种程度上总要被其他交易系统所取代，无论取代它的是比特币还是其他什么东西。

    但像今天这样的新闻让我变得不太确定。比特币并不比美元更腐败。但这两起逮捕事件显示，创建一种新货币，特别是基于信任的加密货币，是一件多么困难的事情。当犯罪活动是用美元完成时，人们只是耸耸肩，摆出一副无可奈何的样子。银行只会遭受无关痛痒的惩戒。但如果犯罪分子使用比特币，这种货币似乎就成了罪恶社会不可或缺的一环。像今天的逮捕行动会让人们不太可能把手中的现金转换成比特币，尽管它并不应该受到这样的待遇。

    译者：叶寒

    The news out today sure makes bitcoin sound a lot more like a criminal-currency than a crypto one.

    The Department of Justice on Monday arrested Charlie Shrem on charges of money laundering. Shrem ran a Brooklyn-based company called BitInstant, which made it easier to swap dollars for bitcoins. The process went like this: You gave him your dollars. He transferred the money to an exchange so you could buy something in bitcoins, even if you didn't technically own the bitcoins. Those stayed with Shrem. At least that's how he described it to me a few months ago, when I talked to him for a bitcoin story I was working on at the time. Not quite an exchange, but one step removed. Another individual, Robert Faiella, who went by the name BTCKing was also charged.

    Shrem was a reasonable sounding guy -- a bitcoin backer for sure, but not an over-the-top salesman. And he wasn't hiding, either. He is one of the most prominent, well-connected people within the bitcoin universe. He opened the first bar to ever accept bitcoins. That may sound a little Goodfella-ish in retrospect, but it's not like he opened Bada Bit! That probably would have raised some suspicions, and some logistical issues for a virtual currency.

    Kevin Roose of New York Magazine used Shrem's BitInstant service for a story on how to buy a bitcoin. He even did a follow up Q&A with Shrem. Roose didn't seem to see anything amiss. There was a question about why clients weren't get their transactions executed faster. But Roose never asked Shrem how he was able to keep drug money so clean.

    And there is nothing in the complaint that says Shrem was directly connected to a drug deal, or that he knew that the money he was processing was being used to buy drugs. Just that some of the bitcoins were being used on Silk Road, which was rife with drug sales. I guess that should have raised concerns, but given how big Silk Road was in the bitcoin universe before it was shut down, I would guess that for a while nearly everyone who was doing business in bitcoins was a few steps removed from Silk Road.

    Shrem had registered his company with the authorities and had stated rules to stop money laundering. He even threatened to stop processing transactions for Faiella when he started to get suspicious that something illegal was going on, and he told him that he would report him to authorities if he didn't follow the rules. Of course, Shrem didn't actually follow through with that, and he even offered Faiella some advice on how to hide his transactions, which is why Shrem is in trouble today.

    What does this mean for bitcoin? The price of bitcoins on Mt. Gox was up this morning to nearly $1,000, but according to this site, they dropped to a little over $800 after the news of Shrem's arrest.

    Of course, all currencies are used for criminal activity. Criminals need a way to get paid. And if you are a payment processor in bitcoins or dollars or kroners or whatever, at some point dirty money is going to pass through your system. But it's a bigger deal when it happens with bitcoins than when it happens with dollars. In December, Royal Bank of Scotland was charged with processing $523 million in likely illegal transactions. Some of the transactions were for people on the Treasury Department's blacklist, which includes terrorists and international drug dealers. (Basically, the federal government's worst-person list.) According to regulators, the bank had institutionalized procedures for stripping out information that would tip off regulators that the money was going to places and individuals it shouldn't go to.

    And yet, no criminal charges were brought against RBS or any of its employees. The bank paid a large fine and moved on. The largest single transaction Shrem processed was $13,000. Shrem's company BitInstant has been shut down.

    Marc Andreessen and other venture capitalists are jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon, saying it is built on solid technology and is used by enough people to be considered a meaningful currency. My stance has been that whether it's bitcoin or something else, hard currency is going away in part to be replaced by some other transaction system.

    But news like today makes me less sure. Bitcoins are no more corrupt than dollars. But the arrests show just how hard it is to start a new currency, especially crypto ones, built on trust. When crimes are done with dollars, people shrug. Banks get slapped on the wrist. But when it happens in bitcoin, the currency appears to be part and parcel with the criminal underbelly of society. Arrests like today's will make people less likely to convert their cash to bitcoins, even if it shouldn't be that way.