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内容概要:本文详细讨论了比特币作为一种创新的替代数字货币,在电子商务、微支付以及虚拟世界交易等多个领域的应用及其竞争力。同时,文章深入分析了比特币生态系统的各个组成部分,评估了其相较于黄金支持货币的竞争优势,并对其长期可持续性和潜在的技术风险进行了全面探讨,包括政府打击、通缩螺旋和技术故障等方面的内容。最后,文章还讨论了比特币可能面临的法律问题,如联邦政府对发行货币的垄断、证券法规、反洗钱法等相关法律规定。 适合人群:对加密货币尤其是比特币感兴趣的研究者、投资者和政策制定者。 使用场景及目标:帮助读者全面了解比特币的基本概念、应用场景、生态系统、竞争环境及法律风险,为投资决策提供理论依据。 其他说明:本文不仅从技术和经济角度剖析了比特币的优势和劣势,还从法律法规层面揭示了其面临的风险,有助于读者更全面地认识这一新兴数字货币。
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GRINBERG 110.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 11/11/2011 12:31 PM
[159]
Bitcoin: An Innovative
Alternative Digital Currency
by REUBEN GRINBERG*
I.Introduction ..................................................................................................... 160
II.Bitcoin Primer ................................................................................................ 162
III.Bitcoin Ecosystem ........................................................................................ 165
IV.Comparing Bitcoin to its Competition ....................................................... 168
A. Facilitation of e-commerce .................................................................. 168
1. Traditional e-commerce ................................................................... 168
2. Micropayments .................................................................................. 170
3. Virtual World and Game-Related Commerce .............................. 170
B. Gold-Backed Currencies ..................................................................... 172
V.Is Bitcoin Sustainable? .................................................................................. 174
A. Iraqi Swiss Dinar .................................................................................. 174
B. Confidence ............................................................................................ 175
1. Improper Use of Discretionary Authority ..................................... 175
2. Superior Competing Currency ........................................................ 176
3. Government Crackdown .................................................................. 177
4. Deflationary Spiral ........................................................................... 177
C. Potential Technology Failures ............................................................ 179
1. Anonymity Failure............................................................................ 179
2. Theft ................................................................................................... 180
3. Denial of Service ............................................................................... 180
VI.Legal Issues ................................................................................................... 181
* Yale Law School, J.D. 2011; University of Texas at Austin, M.S. 2007; Yale
University, B.S. 2005. The author is a first-year law clerk at a law firm in New York City.
The author would like to thank professor Jonathan R. Macey, professor Ronald Mann,
Melanie Keene, Gavin Andresen, and members of the Bitcoin community for their helpful
comments on an earlier draft of this Article. The author also thanks Assistant U.S.
Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose and Bernard von NotHaus, opposing parties in the
Liberty Dollar cases who took the time to answer my questions. Finally, the author also
thanks Zion Maffeo, David Simson, and other helpful editors of the Hastings Science &
Technology Law Journal.
GRINBERG 110.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 11/11/2011 12:31 PM
160 HASTINGS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 4:1
A. Federal Government’s Monopoly on Issuing Currencies ................ 182
1. The Stamp Payments Act of 1862 ................................................... 183
2. Prohibition on Coining Money and the Liberty Dollar Saga ....... 191
B. Securities Regulations ............................................................................ 194
1. Note or Stock .................................................................................... 195
2. Investment Contract ......................................................................... 196
3. Commodity ........................................................................................ 199
4. Currency ............................................................................................ 200
C. Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Regulations .............................. 204
VII. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 206
I. Introduction
Bitcoin is a digital, decentralized, partially anonymous currency,
not backed by any government or other legal entity, and not
redeemable for gold or other commodity. It relies on peer-to-peer
networking and cryptography to maintain its integrity.
1
Its
proponents argue that Bitcoin has many properties that could make it
an ideal currency for mainstream consumers and merchants. For
example, bitcoins are highly liquid, have low transaction costs, can be
used to send payments quickly across the internet, and can be used to
make micropayments. This new currency could also hold the key to
allowing organizations such as Wikileaks, hated by governments, to
receive donations and conduct business anonymously.
2
Amazingly, as of October 2011, a bitcoin (currency ticker BTC)
is worth about two U.S. Dollars (USD), there are about $20 million
worth of bitcoins in existence,
3
there are probably around 20,000
1. See Bitcoin, WIKIPEDIA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin (last modified Oct.
25, 2011); Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, B
ITCOIN
PROJECT, http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (last visited Oct. 25, 2011); FAQ, BITCOIN WIKI,
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ (last modified Oct. 25, 2011).
2. See Keir Thomas, Could the Wikileaks Scandal Lead to New Virtual Currency?,
PC
WORLD: BUSINESS CENTER (Dec. 10, 2010, 4:30 PM), http://www.pcworld.com/
businesscenter/article/213230/could_the_wikileaks_scandal_lead_to_new_virtual_currency
.html; Rainey Reitman, Bitcoin – a Step Toward Censorship-Resistant Digital Currency,
E
LECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION, (Jan. 20, 2011, 5:20 PM), https://www.eff.org/
deeplinks/2011/01/bitcoin-step-toward-censorship-resistant (“Bitcoin is particularly
interesting in the wake of recent events that demonstrated how financial institutions can
make political decisions in whom they service, showcased by the decisions of PayPal, Visa,
Mastercard and Bank of America to cut off services to Wikileaks.”).
3. See B
ITCOIN WATCH, http://bitcoinwatch.com/ (last visited Oct. 21, 2011).
GRINBERG 110.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 11/11/2011 12:31 PM
WINTER 2012] BITCOIN: ALTERNATIVE DIGITAL CURRENCY 161
Bitcoin users,
4
and over $300,000 worth of bitcoins are traded every
day.
5
Although the Bitcoin economy is flourishing, users are anxious
about Bitcoin’s legal status and the possibility of a government
crackdown.
6
Some point to Bitcoin’s ability, like all digital and
anonymous currencies, to facilitate money laundering, tax evasion,
and trade in illegal drugs and child pornography.
7
Indeed, the U.S.
government prosecuted and shut down the creators of e-gold, a digital
currency backed by gold, under state and federal laws for conspiracy
to commit money laundering, and also for providing services to those
involved in “child exploitation, credit card fraud, and wire
(investment) fraud.”
8
Others point to governments’ purported
interests in protecting their economies and monopolies on minting
new money.
9
These individuals point to the successful prosecution
and conviction of the creator of the Liberty Dollar, a paper and coin-
based currency backed by gold and other precious metals.
10
Part II explains how Bitcoin works and Part III describes its
nascent ecosystem of websites and services. Part IV compares Bitcoin
to its competition, including payment processors like PayPal and
digital gold currencies. Part V explores whether Bitcoin can be a
sustainable currency and why individuals would trust a currency not
supported by any legal institution and not redeemable for any
4. See Bitcoin Map, BITCOIN WIKI, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Map (last
modified Oct. 21, 2011).
5. See, e.g., B
ITCOIN WATCH, supra note 3 (when visited, approximately 110,000
bitcoins exchanged in previous 24 hours at an exchange rate of approximately 2.5 USD per
BTC).
6. See, e.g., epii, Comment on How long until governments outlaw bitcoin usage?,
B
ITCOIN FORUM (Mar. 29, 2011 8:40:41 AM), http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=
5110.msg74627#msg74627 (“I think that illegalization is Bitcoin’s most likely mode of
failure.”).
7. See, e.g., id. (“Considering how quickly services like Silk Road [an anonymous
marketplace for illegal drugs] have sprung up, and the fact that the demographic of people
who seem most interested in Bitcoin at this point tends to overlap with the demographic of
likely tax evaders, I am afraid that this illegalization might just be a matter of time.”).
8. See Peter C. Tucker, The Digital Currency Doppelganger: Regulatory Challenge or
Harbinger of the New Economy?, 17 C
ARDOZO J. INT’L & COMP. L. 589, 590–92 (2009)
(citations omitted).
9. See, e.g., Glass, Comment on How long until governments outlaw bitcoin usage?,
B
ITCOIN FORUM (Mar. 29, 2011 10:46:59 AM), http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?
topic=5110.msg74713#msg74713.
10. See, e.g., id.; Press Release, Department of Justice, Defendant Convicted of
Minting His Own Currency (Mar. 18, 2011), available at http://charlotte.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/
pressrel11/ce031811.htm [hereinafter DOJ, Liberty Dollar Conviction Release].
GRINBERG 110.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 11/11/2011 12:31 PM
162 HASTINGS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 4:1
commodity. Part VI explores a few of the many legal ramifications of
Bitcoin, including statutes supposedly aimed at enforcing the federal
government’s monopoly on issuing currency and securities regulation.
II. Bitcoin Primer
Julian Assange was probably unsurprised when PayPal, a
corporation with large market share susceptible to government
pressure, stopped processing donations to his whistleblowing
organization, Wikileaks, due to what Paypal deemed “illegal
activity.”
11
In the 1990s, Assange was a member of the cypherpunks
mailing list, a group that disdained most government regulation and
discussed achieving privacy and libertarian ideals by using
cryptography. In 1998, another member of the cypherpunks
proposed a digital, distributed, anonymous currency called “b-
money” that would allow “untraceable pseudonymous entities to
cooperate with each other more efficiently, by providing them with a
medium of exchange . . .”
12
About ten years later, a programmer
working under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto figured out how to
implement such a currency, publishing a description of his invention
and also releasing software to make it work.
13
Like the U.S. Dollar, Bitcoin is not redeemable for another type
of money or for a certain amount of a commodity, such as an ounce of
gold. Unlike the U.S. Dollar, Bitcoin is not backed by the U.S.
Government or any other legal institution and is a digital rather than
paper currency, storable on electronic media and transferable over
the internet.
14
Individuals who want to own or transact in Bitcoin can either run
a program on their own computer that implements the Bitcoin
protocol (a Bitcoin client),
15
or create an account on a website that
11. PayPal statement regarding Wikileaks, PAYPAL BLOG (Dec. 3, 2010),
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/12/paypal-statement-regarding-wikileaks.
12. Wei Dai, b-money, W
EI DAI’S HOME PAGE, http://weidai.com/bmoney.txt (last
visited Oct. 7, 2011) (the thirteenth paragraph).
13. Nakamoto, supra note 1.
14. See William Hett, Digital Currencies and the Financing of Terrorism, XV R
ICH.
J.L. & TECH. 4, 7 (2008), available at http://jolt.richmond.edu/v15i2/article4.pdf (describing
how digital currencies generally work).
15. The Bitcoin developers publish an “official” Bitcoin client for Windows, Mac OS
X, and Linux, with an ugly, confusing, but usable graphical user interface. See Original
Bitcoin Client, B
ITCOIN WIKI, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Original_Bitcoin_client (last visited
Oct. 25, 2011) (including screenshot of graphical user interface). Others are creating
alternative clients, such as one written in Java, and another intended for mobile devices
running the Android operating system. See Category:Clients, B
ITCOIN WIKI,
GRINBERG 110.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 11/11/2011 12:31 PM
WINTER 2012] BITCOIN: ALTERNATIVE DIGITAL CURRENCY 163
runs the Bitcoin client for its users. The Bitcoin client saves an
individual’s bitcoins in a file called the wallet, which the user must
secure and backup. These programs connect to one another over the
Internet forming peer-to-peer networks, making the system a
distributed one resistant to central attack.
New bitcoins are issued to competing “miners” who use their
computers to generate solutions to problems that help ensure the
integrity and security of the system. As the number of miners in the
network changes, the problem difficulty adjusts to ensure that
bitcoins are created at a predetermined rate and not faster or slower.
Currently, about 50 bitcoins are issued every ten minutes, although
the rate will halve to 25 bitcoins in about two years and will halve
every four years after that.
16
At those rates, 10.5 million bitcoins will
be created in the first four years, half that amount in the next four
years, and so on, approaching but never reaching a total supply of 21
million bitcoins, as illustrated in
Figure 1. Bitcoins are divisible to
eight decimal places.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Clients (last modified June 25, 2011); Bitcoin Wallet,
Android Market, https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet (last updated
Oct. 5, 2011).
16. A “block” contains the solution that the mining computers are trying to solve. A
block is created about once every ten minutes. According to the Bitcoin FAQ, 50 bitcoins
are awarded for the first 210,000 blocks generated, and the award is halved every 210,000
blocks afterwards. It takes about 4 years to generate 210,000 blocks (10 minutes / block x
210,000 blocks / 60 / 365). As of March 8, 2011, approximately 113,000 blocks have been
generated (according to my Bitcoin client), which means that in approximately two years
the award will be halved to 25 bitcoins. The total supply of bitcoins will approach but
never reach 21 million. FAQ: How are new Bitcoins created?, B
ITCOIN WIKI,
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#How_are_new_Bitcoins_created (last modified Oct. 25,
2011).
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