专访Blockchain联合创始人：中国是创新、市场和文化的重要汇集地

提起比特币，业内最家喻户晓的公司莫过于Blockchain.info。这家提供比特币钱包和区块数据查询服务的软件公司，已经是全球数字货币爱好者们学习入门知识时最先认识的企业之一。

Blockchain创立于2013年，运营至今在140多个国家总共拥有超过850万钱包用户，其区块浏览器和开发平台也被广泛应用。2014年，Blockchain完成A轮3050万美元融资。

Blockchain联合创始人Nicolas Cary在今年9月特地安排了为期一周的中国行，这是未来全球拓展计划的重要部分。而随着中国作为创新，市场和文化重要汇集地的价值逐渐凸显，对全球企业来说，中国市场都具有极大吸引力。

这是Nicolas首次来到中国大陆。在到访中国的众多比特币和区块链创新企业后，切身感受到中国的创新氛围和庞大市场，言语中也不忘表达他对比特币的巨大热爱。Nicolas说，他认为中国的比特币和区块链公司很多，区块链公司的技术创新非常有趣，但是他的兴趣点依然专注在比特币。

Nicolas与成员合影

交流中不难感受到他始终保持的热情，这可能跟他的经历有关。Nicolas在大学期间主修领导力研究和国际政治经济学，是商业学位毕业生。创业之前他曾远赴印度拓荒地区教授英文以及进行扶贫评估工作。Nic是一位连续创业者，在联合创立Blockchain之前，他还是PipelingDeal的联合创始人。最近，他又联合创立了YBUSA.org，挖掘年轻商业领袖，帮助他们创业。

很难想象，Blockchain这家伟大的公司几年前的境况，竟然还是挤在一间两居室的公寓里办公，大家有时必须睡在地板上。Nicolas开玩笑说，在公司成立早期，他和Peter Smith这两位创始人可能创下了最少睡眠的纪录。

得益于Nicolas的中国行，让我们有机会近距离聊聊他对中国市场的看法、雷霆网络的最新进展和Blockchain的未来计划。以下为采访实录：

关于雷霆网络和区块链

8btc:雷霆网络现在进展如何？

Nicolas：First, a little background for those who don’t know about Thunder. Thunder is the first ever usable implementation of a lightning.network. A lightning.network is a P2P network between thousands of nodes that builds payment channels. Using 10 random nodes at a time, these payment channels create a large network-like mesh. The benefit is the ability to make live, nearly instant, and ultra-cheap transactions in a trustless environment that settle back to the Bitcoin blockchain. We have a lot of work to finish first, but the promise of faster and more affordable payments at scale is the mission. Development is in good shape, and the project has a good stature right now. In fact, we just implemented persistence to disk (so anyone can restart applications without losing everything). You can keep track of our progress here and even get involved on GitHub: https://www.blockchain.com/thunder/
首先，向那些不了解雷霆网络的人先稍微介绍一下。雷霆网络是有史以来第一种可用的闪电网络实施。闪电网络是一个P2P网络，由数千用于创建支付通道的节点构成。一次使用10个随机节点，这些支付通道创建一种类似网络的大型网格。好处就是能够在一个无需信任的环境下进行实时，接近即时并且超廉价的交易。首先我们有很多工作要做，不过，更快更负担得起的支付规模的承诺是我们的任务。目前雷霆网络的开发进展的非常好，该项目目前也有很好的名声。事实上，我们刚刚实现了磁盘的持久性（这样每个人都能够重启应用程序，并且不会丢失任何东西）。你可以在这里跟踪我们的进展，甚至还可以参与GitHub：https://www.blockchain.com/thunder/

8btc:雷霆网络目前还面临一些怎样的困难？

Nicolas：Lightning Network technology heavily depends on SegWit (or a similar change) so the slow progress of the bitcoin network upgrade (SegWit or similar) is definitely a concern. The general political uncertainty around Soft Fork vs Hard also clouds the future. It would be really nice to get more consensus there and a reliable time table from the core development community.

闪电网络技术严重依赖于隔离见证（或者相似的改变），所以缓慢的比特币网络升级进程确实是个问题。围绕在软分叉vs硬分叉周围的政治不确定性同样让未来变得模糊。如果能够在这一点达到共识以及从core开发者社区获得可靠的时间表真的会非常好。

8btc:你认为比特币行情跟比特币基础设施的完善有怎样的关系？

Nicolas：There is an ever increasing demand for more affordable and faster payment options. Convenience, cost, and reliability factor into customer behaviors and expectations. The Bitcoin market will absolutely be impacted by the perception the community and public have of its reliability and potential future utility. Bitcoin is the most affordable and convenient way to make many payments today, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new innovations coming forward. The Bitcoin community must continue to improve or new technologies will make it obsolete.

目前对更加可负担的起和更快的支付选项的需求政治与日俱增。便利性，成本和可靠性都是客户的期望。社区和公众对其可靠性和未来可能的实用性的看法绝对会影响到比特币市场。比特币目前是最实惠和方便的支付方式，但是这并不意味着未来不会有新的创新。比特币社区必须不断改善，否则新的技术就会令其变得过时。

8btc:你对比特币区块大小的争议有什么看法？你怎么看待比特币现在的发展局势？

Nicolas：Bitcoin has become so popular that millions of people rely on it to make fast, affordable and reliable digital payments. Just like a highway with too much traffic starts to slow down, the Bitcoin network now has congestion and transaction times are suffering. Our firm, Blockchain, which serves millions of wallet users feels the brunt of this when users experience latency in confirming their transactions, or see fees increasing to make regular payments. So, on the one hand we have a high quality problem, but it’s still a real issue. When the network gets backlogged on the global blockchain, we get thousands of customer support inquires from regular users that don’t know much about the technicalities and just need the system to be reliable. This is why I’m in favor of a simple scaling solution now, with the continued efforts led by the development community to plan for wide-spread adoption. I think Bitcoin should be used by a billion people, but unless we plan for success and don’t price people out, that won’t be possible. This issue was urgent at the beginning of 2016 and it’s still an issue.

比特币已经变得如此流行，以至于数百万人都依赖它来进行快速实惠并且可靠的数字支付。就像一条高速公路，如果车辆太多就会拥堵，速度就会降下来，比特币网络如今已经变得拥堵，交易所需要的等待时间令人非常痛苦。我们公司Blockchain.info为数百万钱包用户提供服务，我们对于交易拥堵是首当其冲，用户遇到交易确认延迟，或者看到普通支付手续费上升。所以，一方面，我们面临高质量问题，但它仍然是一个真正的问题。当网络在全球区块链上积压时，我们就会接到来自普通用户的数千客户支持查询，这些用户对技术并不太了解，他们只需要系统可靠。这就是我为什么赞成简单的扩容方案，同时开发者社区继续努力来使比特币获得广泛的使用。我认为比特币应该被10亿人所使用，不过除非我们做好成功的计划，否则就不可能获得这么多用户。这个问题在2016年初就非常紧迫，目前仍旧如此。

8btc:你是什么时候开始接触比特币的？一开始接触有什么感受？

Nicolas：I first learned about Bitcoin in 2011 from a close friend. I was cautiously skeptical but I’m also a very curious person so I spent a lot of time researching it. Once I discovered that it was digitally scarce, impossible to counterfeit, fungible, and that anyone in the world – regardless of geography or socioeconomic status – could use it, I was convinced it would change the world for good. Of course, a lot of people told us it would never work, and that it would be impossible. We’ve heard a lot of naysayers come and go but in my opinion this is the most exciting and important work anyone can be investing their time in.

我最初知道比特币是在2011年通过我的好友。我当时小心谨慎并且充满怀疑，不过因为我是一个充满好奇的人，所以我花费了很多时间来研究比特币。当我发现比特币具有稀缺性， 不可伪造，世界上的每一个人——无论在何处，无论社会经济地位如何——都能够使用它时，我相信比特币将会改变这个世界。当然，很多人告诉我们比特币永远都行不通，根本不可能成功。我们来来回回见到了很多反对者，但是在我看来，比特币是一项最令人兴奋并且重要的工作，任何人都能够为它花时间。

8btc:有观点认为区块链比比特币更重要，你认为呢？

Nicolas：When people say they love blockchain technology but are not sure about Bitcoin it always makes me smile a little. It’s like saying you like light bulbs but you’re not sure about electricity. Not every business problem or backend system can be replaced by blockchain technology; it’s not a panacea, but it has already inspired incredible innovation and, realistically, it is the most reliable network, backed by the largest development community and most mature businesses. There will be alternative projects and implementations, including private networks which will be built “fit-to-purpose” but just as companies favored intranets to the internet in the early days, I believe that many will realize that the real innovation and power here is in the public nature of the bitcoin block chain.

当有人说他们很喜欢区块链技术但对比特币不确定时，我都想笑。这就像是说，你喜欢灯泡，但不确定是否喜欢电。不是每一个业务问题或后端系统都可以由区块链技术所取代；它并非灵丹妙药，不过这种技术已经激发出难以置信的创新，而且，现实地，它是最可靠的网络，由最大的开发社区和最成熟的企业所支持。还将会有一些替代性项目和实施，包括创建用于‘适用于某些目的’的私有网络，但是就像在互联网早期，那些青睐创建内部网络的公司，我认为许多人会意识到真正的创新和力量在于比特币区块链的公有性质。

Blockchain.info的全球业务拓展

8btc:介绍一下Blockchain的全球发展计划吧。Blockchain在近期还有哪些发展计划呢？

Nicolas：At Blockchain, we’re on a mission to build an open, accessible and fair financial future, one piece of software at a time. We have over 8.5 million wallet users in over 140 countries around the world. We’re well known for our Block Explorer too, which is the most popular and reliable site for tracking data and analytics. This year we’ve launched a completely rebuilt, and more reliable wallet product for iOS, Android and Web. Native translations are now supported in over 16 languages, including Chinese. We have some pretty exciting developments that will roll out this fall; unfortunately, we can’t share them quite yet, but follow up on twitter and on our blog and you can hear the exciting news.

在Blockchain.info，我们正在致力于创建一种开放的可访问的并且公平的金融未来。我们在140多个国家总共拥有超过850万钱包用户。我们因为区块浏览器而为人所知，我们的区块浏览器是最流行并且可靠的跟踪数据和分析的网站。今年，我们已经推出了完全重新打造的更加可靠的钱包产品，可用于IOS，安卓和网页。支持本地翻译成超过16种语言，包括中文。在今年秋季，我们将会推出一些相当令人兴奋的发项目。很遗憾，在这里暂时还不能分享，不过，请关注我们的推特和博客并拭目以待。

Nicolas参加博鳌观察金融创新峰会合影

8btc:你对中国市场和数字货币区块链社区怎么看？

Nicolas：The Chinese market is very exciting to us. It’s been an early adopter of digital currency so we’re here to learn more about how people want to use it. We’re also here to make friends. One of our guiding principles is that our users should own their financial future so we empower them to “Be Your Own Bank”. Our users come first. We’re open to feedback and always want to improve our products so please let us know how we can better serve you.

中国市场令我们感到非常兴奋。这是数字货币的早期采用者，因此，我们在这里了解更多关于人们如何使用数字货币。我们也在这里交朋友。我们的一个指导原则是，我们的用户应该拥有自己的财务，这样我们可以让他们“成为自己的银行”。用户是第一位。我们开通了反馈，并且一直希望改善我们的产品，所以请让我们知道如何更好地为你提供服务。

8btc:你怎么看现在Fintech全球发展趋势？你觉得中国是在领先地位吗？

Nicolas：Fintech is a new word, and I don’t think it would exist without Bitcoin in some ways. The development of the blockchain and bitcoin has started a world wide conversation that’s extremely exciting. From London, to New York, to Bejing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, people are talking about the digitization of financial services. Shouldn’t it be as easy as sending an email to make a payment online? Most young people think so and now Fintech companies are forming all over the world.

金融技术是一个新词，某种程度上，我不认为它会脱离比特币而存在。区块链和比特币的发展已经开启了全球性的对话，这一点令人兴奋。从伦敦到纽约，再到北京，上海和香港，人们正在谈论着金融服务的数字化。难道网络支付不应该像发送邮件一样简单吗？大多数年轻人认为应该如此，如今金融技术公司正在全球范围内不断形成。

8btc:你来过中国几次？感受有什么不一样？这次来中国有什么特别的安排吗？

Nicolas：This is my first trip to mainland China so it’s going to take some time for me to reflect on this experience but without a doubt China is an exciting intersection of innovation, market, and culture.

这是我首次到访中国大陆，所以需要花费一点时间来感受这次经历，不过，毫无疑问，中国是创新，市场和文化的重要汇集地。

关于 Blockchain.info

8btc:Blockchain现在团队有多大？女性员工多吗？

Nicolas：The work we do is driven by a burning desire to offer financial empowerment to everyone and anyone in the world. Our core values remind us to “Challenge convention, empower the end user, sanctify security, be humble, be honest, be human, and delight in the details.” Due to the global nature of our vision, we see diversity as a competitive advantage; which is why if you come into our office you’re just as likely to hear English, as French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Cantonese, or maybe even Dutch. Last time I checked we’re near 50 teammates, with over 30% of our staff being female including several executives. We’re hiring like crazy, so check out blockchain.com/careers to find open positions. We saved a spot for you!

我们所做的工作的动力来自于我们燃烧的热情，旨在为全球每一个人都能提供金融环境。我们的核心价值是‘挑战传统，帮助终端用户，创造安全性，谦虚和诚实做人，乐于细节’。由于我们愿景的全球性，我们将多样化视为竞争优势；如果你到我们办公室，你可能会听到英语，法语，西班牙语，德语，粤语，甚至荷兰语。上一次我数了一下，我们有近50名同事，女同事超过30%，包括几名女主管。我们正在疯狂招聘，所以你可以查看一下我们的网站blockchain.com，看看我们正在招聘哪些岗位。我们给你留有位置哦！

8btc:你跟 Peter Smith怎么认识的？为什么决定创办Blockchain?

Nicolas：Peter and I both have extensive experience living aboard, building technology companies, and cutting complexity. We’re extremely focused on laying the foundation for an enduring company that changes the way people think about financial services. We work constantly to serve our users, empower our team, and improve our community.

Peter和我长期居住国外，在创建技术公司和降低复杂性方面都有丰富的经验。我们非常专注于为一家长期公司打下基础，这改变了人们对金融服务的看待方式。我们不断为我们的用户提供服务，充实我们的团队，改善我们的社区。

8btc:你们关系怎么样？遇到分歧怎么处理的？

Nicolas：Being a founder of a company can feel a bit lonely so it’s extremely helpful to have a partner you can share the experience with and rely on. I’m lucky to have a good friend, and extremely capable Co-Founder to build this company with. In all the years Peter and I have worked together we have never once raised our voices at each other.
成为一家公司的创始人可能会感觉有点孤单，所以如果能有一个可以依赖的合作伙伴和你分享经验会非常有好处。我很幸运有一个好朋友，非常有能力作为联合创始人来共同创建这家公司。这些年来，Peter和我共同工作，我们从未向对方大吵大嚷。

8btc:有没有创业过程中的故事可以分享？

Nicolas：I think I’ll have to save the stories for when we write the book someday, but I think Peter and I might have set a world record for sleep deprivation during the early years.

我想还是把这些故事留在以后我们写书的时候再说吧，不过，我认为Peter和我在早期的时候创造了一个撑着不睡觉的世界纪录。

8btc:Blockchain公司发展到现在达到你们最初的目标了吗？

Nicolas：Sometimes you spend so much time focused on the future it’s hard to celebrate the successes during your journey. Just a few years ago our company was still based out of a small two-bedroom apartment where everyone worked in the kitchen and sometimes had to sleep on the floors. We’ve accomplished a lot with very little and we’re proud of that but we’re just getting started.

有时候，你会花费很多时间专注于未来，很难在你的旅途中庆祝胜利。就在几年前，我们的公司还是在一个两居室公寓里，所有人都把厨房当作办公的地方，有时必须睡在地板上。我们完成了很多事情，我们对此感到很自豪，但是我们仍旧才刚刚开始。