2019年经济学人 Facebook推出“天秤币”(1)（在线收听）

Business

来源于《商业》版块

Facebook

脸书

Coin flip

抛硬币

The social network’s grand designs for virtual cash could be surprisingly consequential—including for itself

这家社交网络对虚拟现金的宏伟设计可能会产生令人惊讶的结果——包括对它自己

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.

一种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。这种数字货币可能会使欠发达国家的人成功进入金融体系，并保护辛苦挣来的工资不受失控通胀的影响。还可能像联网在线服务一样引发金融领域的一波创新浪潮。

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6月18日脸书做出的承诺。在一年内，这家社交网站将推出一种名为“天秤币（Libra）”的新货币，命名为纪念古罗马的一个质量单位——在许多罗曼语中，“Libra”也是“磅”的意思。不可避免地，Facebook创造了不少诸如crypto（加密）和blockchain（区块链）等时髦词汇。由于无法抑制自己对硅谷陈词滥调的胃口，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次要事件。

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.

尽管是些废话，但商业潜力确实很重要——潜在的问题也是如此。如果脸书24亿用户中的每一位都将自己的一部分储蓄转为天秤币，天秤币可能会成为一种广泛流通的货币。如果广泛使用，发行者还能得到前所未有的权力。默认其对用户数据的处理不当，容忍错误信息的传播和其他错误使其股票在政策制定者、用户和潜在合作伙伴(尽管不是投资者)眼中贬值，在这种众所周知的情况下，脸书希望将天秤币的运营外包给一个财团，由来自金融界、科技界和非政府组织的知名人士组成。这对全球金融体系可能产生重大影响。也可能对脸书的业务产生重大影响。