比特币即将颠覆金融业

    2013年以来，业界一直在鼓噪要努力使复杂的金融功能成为比特币的一部分，但2014年才是真正开花结果的年份。对这些功能最积极的开发活动都是在“大师币基金会”（Mastercoin Foundation）主导下进行的。这是一个开发者们按照与大多数“加密数字货币项目”同样松散的合作方式组成的非营利组织。它是基于威利特的白皮书和编程建立起来的，旨在往比特币数据区块链里增加众多金融功能，包括允许用户创建全新的资产类别，比如股票或其他所有权证书，同时创建一系列自动“智能合同”。

    一些单打独斗的创业者也在努力建设这个基础设施。其中一位就是雷吉•米德尔顿，他目前正在打造一个叫BTC Swap的客户端。他声音沙哑，短小精悍，看起来很像个生意人，跟传统上那种年纪轻轻、邋里邋遢的比特币开发者形象迥异。但他狡黠地称自己“不算是个无政府主义者”，而且BTC Swap恰恰就是直接对目前的金融业发出的警告。BTC Swap目前还处于早期开发阶段，旨在促进米德尔顿所说的“零信任数字合同”的发展。它主要是用软件代码来重新实现各种金融功能，直接撮合交易的供需双方，而不再需要中介机构的帮助。由于这些合同自动签署、即刻完成，同时它们主要适用于那些已经在比特币数据区块链上有所体现的资产，因此米德尔顿称它们能消除交易双方的风险，也能大幅降低传统的银行和中介机构收费。

    米德尔顿希望，他这套系统眼下立刻就能发挥的功能是用比特币来对现有的各国货币进行套期保值交易。鉴于比特币的价值目前仍然波动剧烈，米德尔顿宣称分散的套期交易如果可行，将能确保那些持有比特币的个人手中资产的价值，同时让系统保持稳定（考虑到很多人一直对比特币持怀疑态度，应该会出现大量买家卖空比特币对冲美元）。而且，整个系统都要依靠去中心化才能确保安全性和可靠性。米德尔顿说：“我的这些合同都是点对点的，如果有人黑了我的服务器，他们什么都得不到。”听听，有人在这里叫阵呢。

    由于点对点货币交易的成本极低，这种对冲功能确实有很独特的发展前景。比特币使少至一分钱的几分之几这种微交易也能进行，但米德尔顿说：“就现在来说，如果进行这种微支付，比特币价值的巨大波动肯定会让你损失惨重。”而因为米德尔顿的互惠信贷端成本很低，“我能让（受款人）掌控风险并将波动性降到极低的水平。”

    Efforts to make complex financial functions a part of Bitcoin have been bubbling through 2013, but 2014 will see them come to fruition. The most prominent active development of these functions is taking place under the auspices of the Mastercoin Foundation, a nonprofit organization of developers along the same loose, collaborative lines that define most "cryptocoin projects." Mastercoin, based on Willett's white paper and programming, is projected to add many functions to the Bitcoin blockchain. These include allowing users to create new asset classes, such as stocks or other ownership certificates, and create a variety of automated "smart contracts."

    Independent entrepreneurs are also working to build this infrastructure. One of these is Reggie Middleton, currently building a client called BTC Swap. Middleton, gravelly voiced, dapper, and businesslike, doesn't fit the stereotype of woolly young bitcoin developers. But he slyly describes himself as "not quite an anarchist," and BTC Swap is a shot directly across the bow of the financial industry. Still in early development, BTC Swap is planned to facilitate a variety of what Middleton calls "Zero-Trust Digital Contracts," which recreate financial functions in software code by matching offered and desired transactions between parties without the need for intermediary institutions. Because these contracts are automated, instantaneous, and executed with assets already represented in the Bitcoin blockchain, Middleton says they eliminate counterparty risk while also subtracting conventional banking and brokerage fees.

    The most immediate function Middleton envisions for his system is for hedging bitcoin against existing national currencies. With bitcoin's valuation still showing huge volatility, Middleton claims the availability of distributed hedging will both ensure the value of bitcoin for individuals holding the asset and provide systemic stability. (Given persistent skepticism, there should be plenty of takers to short bitcoin against the dollar.) And the entire system relies on decentralization for its security and integrity: "My contracts are peer-to-peer," says Middleton. "If you hack my servers, there's nothing to get." Somebody call Target (TGT).

    Such hedging functions have particularly unique promise because of the extremely low transaction costs of peer-to-peer currency. Bitcoin makes microtransactions ranging down to fractions of a cent viable, but Middleton says that "right now, if you do micropayments, the volatility of bitcoin can really take you out." Because of the low cost of Middleton's swaps, "I can let [payees] manage risk and decrease volatility at the micro-level."