Coin flip

抛硬币

Facebook wants to create a worldwide digital currency

Facebook希望创造一种全球数字货币

Libra could be massively disruptive—including to the social network itself

“天秤”可能会造成巨大的干扰，包括社交网络本身

Jun 20th 2019 | SAN FRANCISCO

A GLOBAL DIGITAL currency would make sending money across the world as easy as texting. It would do away with fees, delays and other barriers to the flow of cash. It might give those in less developed countries access to the financial system and a means to protect hard-earned wages against runaway inflation. It could trigger a wave of innovation in finance, much as the internet did in online services.

全球数字货币将使向世界各地汇款变得像发短信一样容易。它将消除费用、延误和其他阻碍现金流动的障碍。它可能会让欠发达国家的人进入金融体系，并提供一种手段，保护辛苦挣来的工资不受失控通胀的影响。它可能引发金融领域的一波革新浪潮，就像互联网在在线服务领域所做的那样。

 

That, in a nutshell, is what Facebook promised on June 18th. Within a year, the social network will launch a new currency to be known as Libra, in honour of an ancient Roman unit of mass—it is also the word for “pound” in many romance languages. Inevitably, Facebook dished out a generous helping of trendy words like crypto and blockchain. Unable to contain its appetite for Silicon Valley platitudes, Facebook claimed that its mission was to “empower billions of people”. Making money or strengthening its market power are, apparently, a sideshow.

简而言之，这就是Facebook在6月18日做出的承诺。在一年内，这家社交网站将推出一种名为“天平”的新货币，以纪念古罗马的一个质量单位——在许多罗曼语中，“天平”也是“磅”的意思。Facebook不可避免地提供了大量的流行词汇，比如crypto（加密）和blockchain（区块链）。由于平凡陈腐的硅谷已近无法满足其野心，Facebook宣称其使命是“赋予数十亿人权力”。显然，赚钱或增强其市场实力只是一个插曲。

词汇

dish out/给予；分发

Platitude/陈词滥调；平凡；陈腐

Sideshow/穿插表演；串演的节；小事件

Notwithstanding the guff, the commercial potential is indeed significant—as are the potential problems. If each of Facebook’s 2.4bn users converted a slice of their savings into Libras, it could become a widely circulated currency. It could also, if broadly adopted, vest unprecedented power in the hands of its issuer. In a tacit acknowledgment that its mishandling of user data, tolerance of the spread of misinformation and other sins have devalued its stock with policymakers, users and potential partners—though not investors—Facebook wants to outsource the running of Libra to a consortium of worthies recruited from the world of finance, technology and NGOs. The consequences for the global financial system could be significant. So could the impact on Facebook’s business.

尽管有这些废话，但商业潜力确实很重要——潜在的问题也是如此。如果Facebook 24亿用户中的每一位都将自己的一部分储蓄转化为Libras，它可能会成为一种广泛流通的货币。如果得到广泛采纳，它还可能将前所未有的权力授予发行者。在心照不宣之下,用户数据的处理不当,容忍错误信息的传播和其他过失致使其股票贬值政策制定者,用户和潜在搭档——尽管并不是投资者——Facebook想让外包““天秤””项目的群体为一个由来自来自世界的金融、科技和非政府组织知名人士组成的一个财团。这对全球金融体系的影响可能是重大的。对Facebook业务的影响也是如此。

词汇

Tacit/缄默的；不言而喻的；心照不宣

Consortium/财团；联合

 

If the project lives up to the mock-ups, buying, selling, holding, sending and receiving Libras will become a doddle. It can be done in Facebook’s Messenger app or WhatsApp, another messaging-service-cum-social-network it owns—and, later next year, in a stand-alone app.

如果该项目符合实物模型的要求，那么购买、出售、持有、发送和接收““天秤””将变得轻而易举。它可以在Facebook的Messenger小程序或另一款通讯服务兼社交网络WhatsApp中完成，明年晚些时候，该种货币还可以在一个独立的应用程序中实现。

词汇

mock-up/实物模型

doddle/轻而易举的事，不费吹灰之力的事

 

So far, so familiar. Messenger already offers payments to Americans. WhatsApp is testing a similar function in India. But these services do not cross borders, and require users to have a bank account. Fintech firms like TransferWise, which offer international transfers, take a 4-5% cut to wire $200, a third less than Western Union. But Libra will be much cheaper, and require no bank accounts: more Bitcoin than Venmo.

到目前为止，一切流程都是很熟悉。“信使”程序已经向美国人提供支付服务。WhatsApp正在印度测试类似的功能。但这些服务不跨越国界，要求用户拥有银行账户。像TransferWise这样提供国际转账服务的金融科技公司，电汇200美元的费用减少了4-5%，比西联汇款少了三分之一。但““天秤”“会便宜得多，而且不需要银行账户:比通过Venmo这个转账媒介花费更少的比特币（数字货币）。。

 

 

Except that, unlike Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, Libras will change hands in seconds, not minutes, for next to nothing, not a few dollars. The system should handle 1,000 transactions a second at its launch, and more later, compared with no more than seven a second for Bitcoin. The virtual coins will be bought with real money, which will top up the reserve backing the currency. This should prevent wild price swings from speculation.

不过，与比特币和其他加密货币不同，”天秤”的易手时间是几秒钟，而不是几分钟。该系统启动时每秒应处理1000笔交易，之后还会处理更多交易，而比特币每秒的交易量不超过7笔。虚拟货币将用真金白银购买，这将补充货币的储备。这应该可以防止投机交易导致价格的剧烈波动。

词汇

Speculation/投机；推测；思索；投机买卖

 

If it works, Libra could be a money-spinner for Facebook, albeit not directly. Notional transaction fees would not generate much revenue. But Libras should allow Facebook to charge more for online ads, by making purchases of advertised products quicker and simpler. It could furnish a new source of data to target adverts, making up for user information Facebook will forgo with the “pivot to privacy”, which Mark Zuckerberg, its boss, proclaimed in March in respect of messaging. Facebook may catch up with WeChat, a Chinese super-app which offers payments and other services, and whose foreign ambitions are on hold as the Sino-American trade war rages on.

如果成功了，“天秤”可以成为Facebook的摇钱树，尽管不是直接的摇钱树。名义上的交易费用不会产生多少收入。但“天秤”的用户应该允许Facebook对在线广告收取更高的费用，方法是更快、更简单地购买广告产品。Facebook的老板马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)在今年3月宣布，Facebook将推出“转向隐私”(pivot to privacy)服务，以弥补用户信息的不足。Facebook可能会赶上微信，这是一个提供支付和其他服务的中国超级应用程序，随着中美贸易战的继续，它的海外野心被搁置。

词汇

Forgo/放弃；停止；对…断念

Pivot/在枢轴上转动；随…转移

Technically and financially, Facebook could probably pull off such an ambitious undertaking on its own. But not politically. Its culture is less amoral than it was in its youth, when it aspired to “move fast and break things”—but only a bit. Chary consumers may choose not to entrust their money to a social network which has, until recently, leaked their personal data left and right. Unless users are on board, merchants may be reluctant to embrace the currency, however hassle-free.

从技术和财务上讲，Facebook很可能独自完成这样一项雄心勃勃的事业。但不是政治。它的文化不像年轻时那么不道德，那时它渴望“快速行动，打破陈规”——但只是局部。谨慎的消费者可能会选择不把钱托付给一个直到最近才左右泄露了他们个人数据的社交网络。除非用户同意，否则商家可能不愿接受这种货币，尽管这种货币没有任何麻烦。

词汇

Amoral/与道德无关的；无从区分是非的；超道德的

 

Enter the Libra consortium. The association, to be based in Geneva, will take over from Facebook before the first Libra has been spent, and manage the hard-currency reserves. Facebook has enlisted 28 other prospective founding members out of an envisaged 100, each with equal voting rights and operating a node in a decentralised system which issues coins. They include financial firms (Visa, Stripe), online services (Spotify, Uber), cryptocurrency wallets (Anchorage, Coinbase), venture capitalists (Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures) and charities (Kiva, Mercy Corps)—though, for the time being, no banks. Not a libertarian alternative to the existing financial system, in other words, but a complement.

进入“天秤”财团。该协会总部位于日内瓦，将在“天秤”的第一笔钱花完之前接管Facebook，并管理硬通货储备。Facebook从预计的100名创始成员中招募了28名其他潜在创始成员，每个人都拥有平等的投票权，并在一个发行硬币的分散化系统中运营一个节点。它们包括金融公司(Visa、Stripe)、在线服务公司(Spotify、Uber)、加密货币钱包(Anchorage、Coinbase)、风险投资家(安德森•霍洛维茨基金(Andreessen Horowitz)、联合广场风险投资公司(Union Square Ventures)和慈善机构(Kiva、美慈)——尽管目前还没有银行。换句话说，这不是对现有金融体系的自由主义替代，而是一种补充。

 

To add credibility to its promise, broken in the past, to keep social and financial data separate, Facebook has created a subsidiary, Calibra, to run Libra services within its apps. It is unlikely to face hurdles to uptake from Apple or Google. It is impossible to imagine them expelling Messenger and WhatsApp—and later other providers Facebook is inviting to the open-source project—from their app stores, as they have done with other cryptocurrency offerings, many of which were scams.

Facebook过去曾承诺将社交数据和财务数据分开，为了增加可信度，该公司创建了一个子公司Calibra，在其应用程序中运行“天秤”服务。它不太可能面临从苹果或谷歌那里收购的障碍。很难想象他们会像对待其他加密货币产品一样，将Messenger和whatsapp(后来Facebook还邀请其他提供商加入开源项目)从他们的应用程序商店中驱逐出去，其中很多都是骗局。

词汇

expell/驱逐

To get Libra going, the consortium will pay merchants to offer discounts to customers who use the new currency, financed by a $10m one-off fee each member pays for a seat at the table. Eventually, Facebook would like anybody, not just the consortium, to be able to generate the currency, transfer it and offer services on top of its “blockchain” (crypto-speak for the database that keeps track of who owns what). At that point, Libra would turn into Bitcoin, minus the kinks and the libertarianism.

为了让“天秤”走下去，该财团将付钱给商家，让他们为使用新货币的顾客提供折扣，资金来源是每位（财团）会员支付1000万美元的一次性入席费。最终，Facebook希望任何人，不仅仅是财团，都能够生成货币，将其转移，并在其“区块链”(用于跟踪谁拥有什么东西的数据库的密码)之上提供服务。在那个时候，“天秤”会变成比特币，去掉那些扭结，奇想和自由主义。

词汇

 kink/折裂；扭结；奇想

Hard currency

硬通货

In a project with so many moving parts, much can go wrong. Although Facebook says it has a working prototype, the technology is untested; sceptics doubt that a 100-node system, let alone a bigger one, could process thousands of transactions per second. Hackers are doubtless champing at the bit.

在一个有这么多活动模块的项目中，可能会出现很多问题。尽管Facebook称其有一个工作原型，但该技术尚未经过测试;怀疑论者怀疑，一个拥有100个节点的系统，更不用说一个更大的系统，每秒能处理数千个事务。毫无疑问，在这系统背后，黑客们正跃跃欲试。

Then there are consortium dynamics. Facebook will have to prove to the other 99 Libra members that it is truly prepared to give up control. At the same time, because important decisions need a two-thirds majority, someone has to knock heads together. The history of information technology is littered with initiatives that collapsed under the weight of internal conflict.

此外还有财团的掌权部分。Facebook必须向其他99个“天秤”成员证明，它真的准备放弃控制权。与此同时，因为重要的决策需要三分之二的多数，所以必须有人集思广益。在信息技术的历史上，充满了在内部冲突的重压下崩溃的计划。

词汇

Dynamics/动力学，力学

The biggest barrier may be political. Facebook has apparently consulted many regulators. The providers of digital wallets will have to comply with national rules, such as those against money-laundering. Calibra, whose integration into Messenger and WhatsApp will initially make it the dominant wallet, is bound to stoke competition concerns. These may recede as the currency grows bigger and more decentralised, only to be replaced by worries about financial stability.

最大的障碍可能是政治。Facebook显然咨询了许多监管机构。数字钱包的提供者必须遵守国家规定，比如反洗钱规定。Calibra与Messenger和WhatsApp的整合，最初将使其成为占据主导地位的钱包，这势必会引发竞争担忧。随着人民币的升值和更加分散化，这些担忧可能会消退，取而代之的是对金融稳定的担忧。

Libra’s success, then, is far from assured. But it could prove useful even if it flops, for it offers a blueprint for how Facebook itself could one day be governed. The Libra Association’s main task is to oversee the blockchain, ensuring, for instance, that Calibra does not enjoy privileged access to it. An equivalent Facebook Association, some observers have ventured, could be composed of representatives of users, advertisers, data-protection authorities and so on. Their job could be to oversee the “social graph”, another database, which lists all of Facebook’s users and the links between them—and to guarantee that Facebook users can post to another social network, and vice versa.

“天秤”的成功还远未确定。但即使失败了，它也可能被证明是有用的，因为它为Facebook有朝一日如何管理自己提供了一幅蓝图。“天秤”协会的主要任务是监督区块链，确保，例如，Calibra不享有特权访问它。一些观察人士大胆提出，一个类似的Facebook协会可能由用户、广告商、数据保护机构等方面的代表组成。他们的工作可能是监督“社交图”，另一个数据库，它列出了Facebook的所有用户和他们之间的链接，并确保Facebook用户可以发布到另一个社交网络，反之亦然。

Calls for a Facebook constitution along these lines have grown louder as the social network’s influence on world affairs, from election-meddling in America to genocide in Myanmar, has become apparent. Mr Zuckerberg is no stranger to such thinking. In 2009 Facebook let users vote on big changes in its privacy policies but abandoned the experiment with global democracy a few years later. Last year Mr Zuckerberg announced that Facebook wanted to set up a “content review board” of independent experts—a kind of “Supreme Court”, in his words, which would make “the final judgment call on what should be acceptable speech”.

随着Facebook对世界事务的影响越来越明显，从干涉美国大选到缅甸种族灭绝问题，要求制定符合这些原则的Facebook章程的呼声越来越高。扎克伯格对这种想法并不陌生。2009年，Facebook允许用户对其隐私政策的重大变化进行投票，但几年后就放弃了全球民主的实验。去年，扎克伯格宣布Facebook想要建立一个由独立专家组成的“内容审查委员会”——用他的话来说，这是一种“最高法院”，它将“对什么应该是可接受的言论做出最终判断”。

词汇

Meddle/  干涉，管闲事

Genocide/种族灭绝

Asked whether Libra could serve as a model for Facebook, David Marcus, who is in charge of the project, replies that it marks “a coming of age, the moment we recognise that there are some things that we shouldn’t control—and a radical departure from the traditional way of operating things”. Perhaps. But checks and balances would almost certainly make Facebook less profitable. It would be ironic if a new digital currency marked the beginning of the end of Facebook’s money-minting days.

当被问及“天秤”能否成为Facebook的模范时，负责该项目的大卫•马库斯回答说，这标志着“一个成熟的时刻，我们意识到有些事情是我们不应该控制的——这与传统的运营方式截然不同”。也许。但制衡几乎肯定会降低Facebook的盈利能力。如果一种新的数字货币标志着Facebook赚钱时代的终结，那将是具有讽刺意味的。

词汇

Ironic/讽刺的；反话的