EOS 生父 ：Dan Larimer （BM）

本文由 BM 寫於兩年前：

It occurred to me that many people new to Steem and Steemit may not know much
about me. I think it is time I introduce myself along with everyone else.

很多不熟悉 Steem 和 Steemit 的人可能不瞭解我，是時候介紹一下自己了。

1. The Silver Rule 銀律

As someone who attempts to follow the silver rule, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others doing to you.”, I concluded that initiating violence against others is not an option. I know that I cannot remain rationally consistent while violating this rule.

銀律指“不要對別人做你不希望別人對你做的事”。作爲恪守銀律之人，我從不會用暴力對待他人，因爲一旦違反銀律，我無法理性地與自己的行事方式保持一致。

The logical outcome of this belief is that using threats of violence to extort money from others for any purpose is something that is off of the table. This means taxes and everything taxes pays for is off the table. This means war and violent revolution is off the table, but that doesn’t mean I want to sit back and do nothing.

這種信念合乎邏輯的結果是：暴力威脅或敲詐他人的方式不能解決問題。這意味着用徵稅或用稅款採購的方法不可能解決問題，意味着使用戰爭或暴力革命的辦法也解決不了問題，但這並不意味着我只會袖手旁觀。

2. Finding Free Market Solutions to Secure Life, Liberty, and Property

尋找自由市場的解決方案：安全的生命、自由和財產

About 5 years ago I came to a realization that the solution to the organized crime syndicate commonly referred to as government must be born from the free market. Furthermore, any free market alternative to government that is unable to free us from the current government will not be strong enough to prevent a new government from taking over.

五年前我認識到：解決有組織犯罪集團（常指 government）的辦法一定產自自由市場。而且，任何 government 的替代者都無法把我們從現在的 government 中解救出來，因爲這樣做只會導致新的 government 接管。

I also realized that the demand for life, liberty, and property is very high and anyone who could find a way to provide these things to the market could make a lot of money while making the world a much better place. It was at this point in time that I started looking for non-violent means of rendering violent forms of government powerless.

我也意識到，人性對生命、自由和財產的需求極高，任何能夠找到辦法把這些東西提供給市場的人都可以很賺錢，同時讓世界變美好。正是此時，我開始尋找一種非暴力手段——能讓暴力政府無能爲力的方式。

3. Start with Currency 從貨幣開始

I recognized that money is the root of government power and that use of money is entirely voluntary. No one forces you to be paid in dollars. The initial solution was to adopt gold and silver. I researched it and discovered that others had tried that approach and been shut down by governments. Governments have the power to seize property anywhere in the world. It became clear that the free market would require a form of money that is not backed by physical property.

我認識到，金錢是政府權力的根源，金錢的使用完全是自願的，沒人強迫你用美元支付，最初解決辦法是採用黃金和白銀。我研究了它，發現有人試過這種方法，但被政府關停。政府有權力在世界任何地方奪取財產。很明顯，自由市場將需要一種無需物質財產支持的貨幣形式。

I was attempting to engineer a digital currency when I discovered Bitcoin in early 2009. I instantly got involved with attempting to promote Bitcoin.

當我在 2009 年初發現比特幣時，我試圖設計一個數字貨幣，我立即參與了試圖推廣比特幣的工作。

4. Divorce 離婚

Around this same time I was also going through a porce. My porce was precipitated as a result of my on-going enlightenment that my ex-wife found to be incompatible with her world view. I was changing and rejecting old beliefs such as my Christian upbringing. The hypocrisy of the church and its widespread support violations of the Silver Rule made associating with that crowd increasingly difficult.

大約在同一時間，我卻正在操辦離婚，這是由於我日益改變的信仰所致，前妻發現這與她的世界觀不符。我原來篤信基督教，但僞善的教會雖然口頭接受、但卻肆意踐踏着“銀律”，使得我與他們日益疏離。

This process distracted me from Bitcoin, but also taught me some hard lessons. Attempting to follow my belief in voluntary dispute resolution, I convinced my ex-wife to use christian arbitration to pide our property and settle issues of custody and child support. This was a big mistake.

其間的過程不僅無法讓我全身心投入比特幣，而且給了我深刻的教訓。我追求用自願解決爭議，於是說服前妻用基督教的仲裁方式來分割財產、解決撫養權以及撫養子女的問題，但這卻鑄成大錯。

The arbitration ruling was somewhat balanced. I would have to pay insane spousal and child support, but she would have to live within 30 minutes or I would get custody. This ruling was supposed to be legally binding, but this is when I learned thatthe government owns our kids and parents have no authority to make binding decisions about custody.

仲裁結果從某種意義上說是平衡的。我不得不支付高到離譜的配偶贍養費和子女撫養費，但如果她不在 30 分鐘內搬離，撫養權將歸我。這個裁決應該有法律約束力，但這使我意識到：
擁有我們孩子的其實是政府，而作爲父母的我們，並沒有權力做出有約束力的撫養權裁決。

My ex-wife didn’t like the outcome and challenged it in the government courts. This is where I learned how irrational and biased the court system can be. At the end of the day the courts claimed they were bound to enforce the spousal support as ordered by arbitrators, but were free to change the custody. This turned a balanced judgment by arbitrators into a complete loss and made me learn just how corrupt the entire process is.

前妻不喜歡判決結果，到法院申訴。這讓我瞭解到法院系統是如何地不合理並且有偏見。最後，法院說他們必須按照仲裁員的命令強制我支付配偶贍養費，但可以自由改判監護權。這使得一個原本還算平衡的裁決，對我而言變成了一個徹底的損失，這讓我知道整個過程有多腐敗。

I realized I was a slave.I was compelled by the court to earn the salary of a software engineer regardless of any desire to start a business or change careers. My ex-wife was getting over half of my after-tax paycheck and I was forced to live with my parents because there was not enough left over to support an independent life. I was broke and near bankruptcy due to legal expenses incurred fighting for my kids for 2 years.

我意識到我是一個奴隸。
作爲一名軟件工程師，我被法院強制要求賺取工資，不管是否有創業或改行的願望。前妻獲得我稅後薪水的一半，我被迫搬去和父母同住，因爲沒有足夠的費用用來獨立生活。爲支付兩年來爭奪孩子的法律費用，我已瀕臨破產。

There is nothing more painful than realizing that the mother of your children is willing to shoot and/or kill you unless you bend to her will. She may not do it directly, but, from my perspective, asking the government to do it on her behalf is just the same.

沒有什麼比認識到這件事更痛苦的了：你孩子的母親要求你必須屈服於她的意願，否則她就一槍崩了你。她可能不會直接這樣做，但站在我的角度看來，要求政府代表她這樣做是一樣的。

5. Meditation 冥想

It was at the depth of this despair that I learned how to let go. Holding on to anger and resentment was only holding me back. I started meditating and learning who I really was. I learned the joy of living in the moment and not dwelling on my story and the injustice of it all. I had to let go of things I could not change and focus on what I can do. This experience gave me the strength to be calm in any storm.

在絕望的深處，我學會了放手，因爲堅持憤怒和怨恨沒有任何好處。我開始冥想，並且思考我是誰。我領悟到生活在當下的歡樂，而不是滯留在我所經歷的一系列的不公正。我不得不放棄我無法改變的事情，專注於我的力所能及。這段經歷讓我學會了在任何風暴中保持冷靜。

6. Renewed Commitment 新的使命

Not wanting to give up, I became more determined than ever to finda way to get justice. I started getting back into Bitcoin and attempting to figure out ways to organize society that did not depend upon violence. More specifically, I started looking for ways that everyone could work together to defend ourselves against this organized, family destroying, crime syndicate.

不願放棄，我變得比以往任何時候都更有決心找到通往正義之路。我轉身回到比特幣，試圖構建一種不依賴暴力的社會。更具體地說，我開始尋找一種方式，這種方式能讓人們共同抵禦各種暴力，比如：蓄意的家庭毀滅或有組織的犯罪集團。

At this time Bitcoin was having problems with governments shutting down exchanges and/or seizing their bank accounts. I realized that Bitcoin could die if we did not have a decentralized alternative to exchanges. This is when I started BitShares and invented BitUSD – the first trustless cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar.

此時，比特幣遇到了一些問題。在政府關閉了交易所，並且凍結交易所的的銀行賬戶。這讓我想到：如果我們沒有一個去中心化的交易所，比特幣就可能消失。此時，我開始寫比特股的代碼，並且發明了 BitUSD，BitUSD 是第一個與美元掛鉤的加密貨幣。

For the next 2 and a half years I systematically worked on solving the technological challenges necessary to bring blockchain technology to a level of maturity that could support a decentralized exchange. The resulting technology is known as Graphene and is what powers BitShares and Steem.

在接下來的兩年半中，我係統地解決了一些關鍵技術挑戰，把區塊鏈技術提升到可支持去中心化交易的成熟水平。由此產生的技術稱爲“石墨烯”，比特股和 Steem 都得到過石墨烯技術的賦能。

7. Social Lessons 社會給我上的課

Years working on BitShares taught me a lot. I learned hard lessons in community building and economics. Over this same period of time the blockchain industry matured. Government regulations became clearer. Centralized exchanges have been accepted and are no longer in danger of being shut down. In other words, the problem I set out to solve became almost a non-issue.

在 BitShares 兩三年的工作，教會我很多，我也學到了很多社區建設和經濟學方面的東西。與此同時，區塊鏈行業已經成熟，政府監管變得清晰，中心化的交易所也已被接受，不再有被關閉的危險。換句話說，我原來捋起袖子打算解決的問題，現在已不存在。

I also learned that my capitalist mindset was too short-sighted. I began to see how building a community around the selfish motives of earning income by charging fees on transactions limited adoption. I learned that “inflation” isn’t theft if it is done to compensate those who bring value. I learned thattrue theft is expecting people to work for free without getting a share in the product. This maturing perspective caused me to perge from many of people who were originally attracted to BitShares.

我也認識到，我對資本的認知過於短視。我開始思考如何建立一個自利驅動的社區，比如通過收取手續費。我瞭解到，如果“通貨膨脹”是爲了補償那些帶來價值的人而做的，那就不是竊取。
真正的竊取是期待人們免費生產產品、但卻無法通過產品獲得應有的回報。這種日益成熟的觀點使我與衆多 BitShares 的擁躉分道揚鑣。

8. Starting Steem 啓動 Steem 項目

I decided to take the lessons learned and create a new attempt at building an online community around my new values. These new values are based on the premise thateveryone who brings value deserves a share. They include the idea that the value of the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. They include the concept of not charging anyone who participates in our community, but rewarding everyone. They include the concept of long-term commitment rather than get-rich quick.

我決定吸取教訓，並圍繞我新的價值觀建立一個在線社區。這些新的價值觀基於這樣一個前提，即每個帶來價值的人都應該得到回報。這些新價值觀包含以下三種理念：

第一，整體價值遠大於部分之和；

第二，不向參與者索取任何東西，相反要獎勵他們；

第三，關注長期貢獻，而非快速致富。

9. The Future 未來

Going forward I hope to leverage the work here with Steem to build markets, insurance, mutural-aid societies, and justice systems that empower our community to disempower government. I believe that properly organized social pressures can be far more powerful than any standing army or government bureaucrat. Through blockchain technology we can organize ourselves and hopefully achieve our liberty.

展望未來，我希望能夠在這裏利用 Steem 來建立市場、保險、扶貧協會和司法系統，使我們的社區能夠卸下政府權力。我相信合理組織的社會壓力比任何常備軍或政府官員都要強大得多。通過區塊鏈技術，我們可以自我組織，實現自由。

Only by working together can we maximize the life, liberty, and property for all. Resorting to violence is a shortcut that can only destroy life, liberty and property. I am honored that so many of your are here and helping me realize this dream.

只有通過共同努力，才最大化我們的生命、自由和財富。訴諸暴力雖然是一種捷徑，但這種捷徑只能摧毀生命、自由或財富。我很榮幸能有這麼多的人來幫助我實現這個夢想。

譯者的話：

讀此文前，BM 在譯者眼裏只是個養黑貓的屌屌程序員。

BM 曾在網絡論壇上和被中本聰撕過一次，但他沒有選擇回撕中本聰，而是基於他的價值觀、獨自一人發明出 DPOS 共識算法（戳此複習），寫出 Bitshare、Steemit 以及 EOS 的主幹代碼，在暴力驅動的中心化世界面前，撕下了它的封面。

這是篇讓譯者不禁路轉粉的文章，不是因爲經歷，也不是因爲代碼能力，而是因爲 BM 終於發現了自己的使命，找到了 Something bigger than himself。

茨威格說過：“一個人生命中最大的幸運，莫過於在他人年富力強時，發現了自己的使命。”

對於 BM 而言，代碼能力是馬達，EOS 是車身，使命纔是指南針。