比特幣價格昨日飆升至一年多來最高點
The price of the cryptocurrency bitcoin surged yesterday to its highest in more than a year amid a wave of Chinese testimonials for a “social financial network” called MMM, which bears the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme.
隨着一些中國人熱炒一個叫做“MMM”的“社交金融網絡”，加密貨幣比特幣的價格昨日飆升至一年多以來的最高點。該平臺具備了傳銷的特徵。
New members of MMM have to buy bitcoins to join the scheme, the brainchild of Sergey Mavrodi, a former Russian parliamentarian once jailed for fraud.
MMM的新會員必須購買比特幣來加入這項由謝爾蓋氠夫羅季(Sergey Mavrodi)提出的計劃。馬伕羅季是俄羅斯前議員，曾因詐騙入獄。
The bitcoins are sent to other members of the network as “mutual aid”. Participants are promised a 30 per cent return a month, with bonuses for referrals or posting testimonials online.
作爲一種“互助”，比特幣被髮送給MMM網絡中的其他會員。網站承諾予以參與者每月30%的回報，介紹其他人入會或者在線上傳證言將獲得獎金。
“Today, on October 31, I received 20 per cent interest and [a bonus] as a recommender, for a total of $7,750. I truly experienced the greatness of 3M and the sincerity of all the participants,” said Wen Qiang, one of the hundreds of MMM evangelists taking to YouTube in the past 24 hours.
“今天，10月31日，我獲得了20%的利息，以及作爲推薦者的‘獎金’，總額達到7750美元。我真正體會到了MMM的偉大，以及所有參與者的真誠，”文強（音譯）說，他是過去24小時內數百名在YouTube上宣傳MMM的人之一。
The bitcoin price surged by more than a fifth to above $490 in the latest spike for the virtual currency created in 2008.
這種2008年問世的虛擬貨幣的價格出現最新漲勢，飆漲逾五分之一，至490美元以上。
Championed by libertarians for its lack of centralised control, bitcoin lost three-quarters of its value in 2014 after the failure of a prominent exchange. Despite its fringe reputation bankers have in recent months expressed mounting interest in the underlying technology known as blockchain.
因爲缺乏中央控制，比特幣受到了自由主義者的擁護。2014年，由於一家知名的比特幣交易所破產，其價值曾縮水四分之三。儘管比特幣帶有邊緣聲譽，但近幾個月銀行界人士對其基礎技術——被稱爲塊環鏈(blockchain)——表現出越來越大的興趣。
MMM has elements typical of pyramid schemes, marked by rewards for recruitment and the promise of outsize profits. The flawed economics of such schemes all but doom them to collapse.
MMM具備了傳銷的典型特徵，其標誌是招募獎勵和鉅額盈利承諾。這類計劃的經濟原理存在缺陷，幾乎註定會走向覆滅。
MMM claims on its website that it is legal because the scheme involves money transfers between private persons. The price of bitcoin has more than doubled in the past month, to value existing stock at more than $7bn.
MMM在網站上聲稱自身合法，因爲該計劃涉及的是私人之間的轉賬。過去一月，比特幣的價格上漲了一倍多，使現有比特幣存量的價值超過70億美元。
