公共區塊鏈如何防止像 Lou Pearlman 的「Dirty Pop」騙局這樣的龐氏騙局

我最近在 Netflix 上觀看了《骯髒流行音樂：男孩樂隊騙局》。我對後街男孩和 NSYNC 背後的音樂大亨盧·皮爾曼 (Lou Pearlman) 如何實施美國歷史上最大的龐氏騙局之一感到著迷和震驚。

Blockchains, Ponzi Schemes, and the Next Big Scam

區塊鏈、龐氏騙局和下一個大騙局

Recently, I watched ‘Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam’ on Netflix and was simultaneously enthralled and horrified by the story of how Lou Pearlman, the music mogul behind the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, ran one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in American history.

最近，我在Netflix 上觀看了《骯髒流行音樂：男孩樂隊騙局》，同時對後街男孩和NSYNC 背後的音樂大亨盧·皮爾曼(Lou Pearlman) 如何實施美國歷史上最大的龐氏騙局之一的故事感到著迷和震驚。

Pearlman stole approximately $300 million from investors, banks, friends, and family by convincing them to invest in companies that either didn’t exist or weren’t as successful as he claimed. In classic Ponzi scheme fashion, he used money from new investors to pay old ones before getting caught and eventually being sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2008.

皮爾曼說服投資者、銀行、朋友和家人投資那些根本不存在或不像他聲稱的那麼成功的公司，從他們那裡竊取了大約 3 億美元。在經典的龐氏騙局中，他用新投資者的錢來支付老投資者，然後被捕並最終在 2008 年被判處 25 年監禁。

Throughout the show, I couldn’t help but think about how a scalable public blockchain could have prevented Pearlman and other Ponzi conmen like Bernie Madoff from duping their victims. While it’s too late for them, it could prevent the next big scam and save investors money and lives.

在整個節目中，我忍不住思考可擴展的公共區塊鏈如何阻止皮爾曼和伯尼·麥道夫等其他龐氏騙子欺騙受害者。雖然對他們來說為時已晚，但它可以防止下一個大騙局，並為投資者節省金錢和生命。

Public Blockchains – The Immutable Truth Machines

公共區塊鏈—不可變的真理機器

In essence, blockchains are public ledgers akin to financial books. Being public, they are transparent and auditable by anyone.

本質上，區塊鏈是類似於金融帳簿的公共帳本。由於是公開的，它們是透明的並且可以被任何人審計。

Contrary to popular opinion, Bitcoin and similar systems are not anonymous. Every transaction in the system’s history is visible in clear text on the public ledger, and every transaction that occurs on it in the future will be, too.

與流行觀點相反，比特幣和類似系統不是匿名的。系統歷史中的每筆交易都在公共分類帳上以明文形式可見，未來發生的每筆交易也將如此。

Furthermore, transaction records cannot be altered once they are confirmed. The ledger’s state is decided by decentralized consensus between nodes, and even if records were updated, those changes would be shown rather than overwriting the original entries.

此外，交易記錄一經確認就無法更改。帳本的狀態是由節點之間的去中心化共識決定的，即使記錄被更新，這些變化也會被顯示出來，而不是覆蓋原始條目。

It’s not difficult to see how such a system could make Ponzi schemes like Pearlman’s difficult to carry out. Fundamentally, these scams depend on keeping multiple sets of books, creating false transactions to make it seem like actual business activity is occurring, and paying older investors with new investors’ money.

不難看出這樣的系統如何使像皮爾曼這樣的龐氏騙局難以實施。從根本上來說，這些騙局依賴保留多套帳簿，製造虛假交易，使之看起來像是實際的商業活動正在發生，並向老投資者支付新投資者的資金。

Such fraudulent activity would soon become evident if all records were visible on a public blockchain—the false activity wouldn’t show on the ledger, and it would be impossible to erase or cover up old ones. Anyone with basic pattern detection skills could quickly find out that new deposits were paying out old investors.

如果所有記錄都在公共區塊鏈上可見，這種詐欺活動很快就會變得明顯——虛假活動不會顯示在分類帳上，而且不可能刪除或掩蓋舊記錄。任何具有基本模式檢測技能的人都可以很快發現新存款正在向老投資者支付。

Better yet, blockchains would make it easy to confirm or expose claims like the type Lou Pearlman made to entice investors. Investors would need only to ask for cash positions, assets, and cash flow, and they could check claims against the public records on the blockchain. It would be as simple as saying, “tell me your wallet addresses,” and verifying their balances and transaction histories.

更好的是，區塊鏈將使確認或揭露類似 Lou Pearlman 為吸引投資者而提出的主張變得容易。投資者只需要詢問現金頭寸、資產和現金流，他們就可以根據區塊鏈上的公共記錄檢查索賠情況。就像說“告訴我你的錢包地址”並驗證他們的餘額和交易歷史一樣簡單。

AI Analytics Can Supercharge Fraud Detection

人工智慧分析可以增強詐欺偵測

Combined with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered analytics, blockchain tech makes it much easier for regulators and law enforcement to spot scams and alert investors. While some suspicious activity might make it past individual investors’ radars, it would be unlikely to do so if regulators with advanced analytics tools were scanning records and looking for red flags.

與人工智慧 (AI) 驅動的分析相結合，區塊鏈技術使監管機構和執法部門更容易發現詐騙並向投資者發出警報。雖然一些可疑活動可能會繞過個人投資者的雷達，但如果監管機構擁有先進的分析工具來掃描記錄並尋找危險信號，則不太可能這樣做。

In a nutshell, public scalable blockchains eliminate the need for trust. What scammers like Lou Pearlman or Madoff claim could be verified or exposed as lies, eliminating the need to rely on their word. There would be one set of immutable financial books with a transaction history that no one can manipulate.

簡而言之，公共可擴展區塊鏈消除了對信任的需求。像盧·皮爾曼或麥道夫這樣的騙子所聲稱的內容可以被證實或揭露為謊言，從而消除了依賴他們的話的需要。將會有一套不可變的金融帳簿，其中包含任何人都無法操縱的交易歷史。

Given how Pearlman’s Ponzi scheme caused his lifelong friend, Jerome Rosen, to take his life and how Madoff’s con led to dozens of suicides, we must move to a blockchain-based financial system as soon as possible.

鑑於皮爾曼的龐氏騙局如何導致他一生的朋友傑羅姆羅森自殺，以及麥道夫的騙局如何導致數十人自殺，我們必須盡快轉向基於區塊鏈的金融系統。

The next big Ponzi could be operating today or coming to a venue near you soon, and it can be prevented by moving to a system where records can be publicly audited, verified, and falsified. For this to happen, blockchains must be public, scalable, and capable of many transaction types.

下一個大型龐氏騙局可能會在今天運作，或者很快就會出現在您附近的場所，並且可以透過轉移到可以公開審計、驗證和偽造記錄的系統來防止它。為了實現這一點，區塊鏈必須是公共的、可擴展的，並且能夠處理多種交易類型。

In Satoshi Nakamoto’s immortal words, we need “one global chain” to create the transparent, honest world he hoped to create.

用中本聰的不朽名言來說，我們需要「一條全球鏈」來創造他希望創造的透明、誠實的世界。