Cody Wilson rattled lawmakers and law-enforcement agencies with a plastic gun created from a 3-D printer, home computer and blueprints he posted online for anyone to download.
科迪•威尔森(Cody Wilson)曾利用3D打印机和家用电脑制作出一款塑料枪，并将枪支的设计图放到网上供他人随意下载。这在议员和执法机构中间掀起了轩然大波。
Now, the 25-year-old law-school dropout is about to launch software aimed at covering the tracks of financial transactions made with bitcoin, the virtual currency that has exploded in popularity among spenders and speculators -- and raised concerns among regulators that it might be used for illegal activity.
现在，这名25岁的法律系辍学生又打算开发一种软件，用于掩盖用比特币所进行金融交易的踪迹。这种虚拟货币的人气一路暴涨，越来越受到挥霍狂、投机人士的追捧，也引发监管机构担忧其可能被用于违法活动。
'We need an anonymous cash online,' says Mr. Wilson, who oversees from his apartment near the University of Texas at Austin about a dozen self-described antiestablishment techies working on the software, called Dark Wallet. Some of them are paid in bitcoin.
这款软件名为“暗黑钱包”(Dark Wallet)。威尔森的住所位于奥斯汀得克萨斯大学(University of Texas)附近，他在这里远距离管理着十多个正开发这款软件、自称“非主流”的科技谜。其中一些人的工资就是用比特币支付的。威尔森说，我们需要匿名的在线现金交易。
'It's not that I want you to buy drugs,' he says. 'It's just that I think you should have the freedom to do it.'
他说，我不是想让你买毒品，只是觉得你有这样做的自由。
Mr. Wilson is one of the most prominent examples in a band of hackers, programmers and agitators trying to deploy technology in ways that disrupt what they see as limits on personal freedom. Even though they often live, work or mingle in Silicon Valley, they claim its rise has created too much technology that benefits corporate America or helps government snoop.
目前有一大批黑客、程序员以及鼓动者试图利用科技来打破他们眼中束缚了个人自由的壁垒。威尔森就是其中的佼佼者。虽然这些人大多在硅谷(Silicon Valley)生活、工作或者混迹在那里，但在他们看来，硅谷的崛起创造了太多科技，不仅令美国公司受益，也对政府窥探个人隐私起到了推波助澜的作用。
In the 1980s, such techies were known as cypherpunks and were obsessed with using complex encryption to keep communications secret. The modern version often focuses on mainstream products, such as Web browsers, open-source software and iPhones, with the aim of having world-wide impact.
上世纪80年代，这类科技谜被称为“密码朋克”(cypherpunk)，痴迷于使用复杂的加密术来给通信保密。而如今的新生代科技迷常常瞄准主流产品（例如网页浏览器、开放式源代码软件、iPhone等等），目的是产生全球性的影响。
Mr. Wilson, who graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2010 and then started law school here, shuns political labels. His bedroom features a Texas flag that says 'Come and take it,' a bookshelf with copies of the Federalist Papers and Austrian-born economist Friedrich von Hayek's libertarian treatise 'Road to Serfdom,' and several bullets.
威尔森2010年毕业于中阿肯色大学(University of Central Arkansas)，然后到得克萨斯大学学起了法律。他总是避免给自己贴上政治标签。他的卧室里摆放着一面得克萨斯州的孤星州旗，上面写着“Come and take it”（来啊，把它拿走吧），还有一个书架，上面摆放着《联邦党人文集》(Federalist Papers)、奥地利经济学家哈耶克(Friedrich von Hayek)的自由主义名作《通往奴役之路》(Road to Serfdom)等几本书和数枚子弹。
While bitcoin critics claim the currency is vulnerable to misuse because people can make transactions without their real names or addresses, Mr. Wilson and other bitcoin purists says it isn't secret enough.
比特币的批评人士指出，鉴于人们在进行交易时不必使用真实姓名或住址，比特币极易被误用。然而，威尔森和其他比特币狂热分子却说，这种虚拟货币的保密性还不够强。
To prevent fraud, all transactions made with each jumble of computer code tied to bitcoin are automatically posted in a ledger called the 'block chain.' That means it is possible for authorities to track a person's transactions if they can determine the user's bitcoin address.
为了防止欺诈，一切用比特币相关计算机密码进行的交易都会被自动公布在一个名为“block chain”的总账里面。这就意味着，如果能够确定使用者的比特币地址，那么当局或许可以追踪某个使用者的交易情况。
Dark Wallet is a no-frills, low-budget push led by Mr. Wilson to make bitcoin the electronic-commerce equivalent of a Swiss bank account. Attached to a browser such as Google Inc.'s Chrome, Dark Wallet will try to scramble the strings of numbers and letters that form bitcoins. The scrambling will occur as bitcoins are spent, making it harder to detect who is buying what.
“暗黑钱包”是威尔森领导推广的一个没有噱头、低成本的项目，目的在于将比特币打造成类似瑞士银行账户的电子商务版本。与谷歌(Google Inc.)的Chrome等浏览器连接后，“暗黑钱包”将把形成比特币的数字和字母串打乱。这样的过程发生在用户用比特币进行支付时，外界就更加难以识别谁在购买什么东西。
Dark Wallet is set for release in early 2014. It will be free, though the developers are accepting donations.
“暗黑钱包”计划于2014年年初发布。“暗黑钱包”的使用是免费的，但开发者接受捐赠。
Supporters concede it is likely impossible to make bitcoin transactions absolutely untraceable. Still, if Dark Wallet delivers as hoped and catches on with the virtual currency's users, law-enforcement officials will have more trouble tracking the flow of online commerce, some people close to U.S. officials say.
“暗黑钱包”的支持者承认，要想实现比特币交易完全无迹可寻也许是不可能的。然而一些接近美国执法部门官员的人士称，如果该项目如期推出，并且能够获得比特币用户青睐的话，那么执法部门官员在监督电子商务活动时将会遇到更多困难。
Stephen Hudak, spokesman for the U.S. government's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, declined to discuss Dark Wallet, but says: 'We'd be concerned about anything that would increase the threat level of money laundering.' Officials also have said they see benefits from digital forms of money.
美国政府下属金融犯罪执法网络(Financial Crimes Enforcement Network)的发言人霍达克(Stephen Hudak)拒绝讨论与“暗黑钱包”有关的问题，但他称，如果洗钱活动带来的威胁增大，我们自然会为此感到担忧。
Jon Matonis, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit group that serves as unofficial curator of the online currency, released on the Internet in 2009, says the Dark Wallet project is consistent with his efforts to promote and develop the digital cash as a private, government-free currency.
比特币基金会(Bitcoin Foundation)执行董事马佟尼斯(Jon Matonis)表示，“暗黑钱包”项目的推出和他本人为推广和开发电子现金（一种私人、无政府货币）所做的努力是一致的。该基金会是一个非营利性团体，是比特币的非官方代言机构。
But some of Dark Wallet's image and marketing are hard to stomach, he says. 'The average person . . . will think it's this criminal thing for buying drugs.'
不过马佟尼斯称，“暗黑钱包”的一些形象和营销手法令人们难以接受，普通人会认为这是用来购买毒品的违法工具。
Mr. Wilson focused on Dark Wallet after his plastic-gun effort was blocked. In 2013, he posted instructions for how to make a gun called 'Liberator' with 3-D printing. Three-dimensional printers use plastic materials to make objects as simple as a figurine or coffee cup.
威尔森在塑料手枪推广项目遇阻后开始关注“暗黑钱包”。他在2013年发布了关于如何通过3D打印技术制作名为“解放者”(Liberator)手枪的说明。
Federal officials warned that new plastic guns could fool metal detectors and compromise security. The State Department ordered him to remove his blueprints, citing arms-export laws.
联邦官员警告称，这种新的塑料手枪可以混过金属探测器的检查，带来安全威胁。美国国务院(State Department)要求威尔森删除相关图纸，理由是他违反了武器出口法。
The edict came right after Mr. Wilson dropped out of law school to work on plastic guns full-time. He obeyed the order.
上述事件发生在威尔森从法学院退学后不久。他在退学后开始全职制作塑料手枪。威尔森后来遵守了国务院的要求。
Bitcoin captured Mr. Wilson's interest. PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a billionaire libertarian, invited Mr. Wilson to a private Wyoming retreat, where the two men discussed the future of bitcoin. Mr. Thiel sees promise in the young entrepreneur, a person close to the billionaire says.
比特币引起了威尔森的兴趣。贝宝(PayPal)创始人、亿万富翁皮特•泰尔(Peter Thiel)曾邀请威尔森前往位于怀俄明州的一处私人寓所，两人就比特币的未来进行了探讨。一位接近泰尔的人士称，泰尔看中了威尔森所具有的潜质。
An online fundraising effort for Dark Wallet has attracted about $100,000. All told, Mr. Wilson says he has raised nearly $250,000, most of it in bitcoin.
“暗黑钱包”的网上捐赠活动已经获得了大约10万美元的捐款。威尔森称，他已经筹到了近25万美元，其中多数是比特币。
Dark Wallet 'captures everything we want to do,' he says. 'My particular brand of activism is crisis-forcing.'
威尔森表示，“暗黑钱包”涵盖了我们想要做的一切。