紐約時報：Tether 聯合創始人和他破碎的加密貨幣夢想

Original author: David Yaffe-Bellany, Laura N. Pérez Sánchez

原文翻譯：魯夫、前瞻新聞

On a sunny day in 2022, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Brock Pierce enjoyed taking friends on a boat trip to Vieques Island, about 75 miles from his home in Puerto Rico. Pierce wanted to show off one of his “favorite places in my life.” property: a once-glamorous beachfront resort that he bought for more than $15 million.

In its heyday, the resort was a W Hotel with a 6,000-square-foot spa, a restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef and sweeping ocean views, and it was a mainstay of Vieques’ tourism industry. The hotel was hit by Hurricane Maria and was forced to close. Pierce reopened it and used his cryptocurrency fortune to revitalize the hotel and the local economy.

布洛克·皮爾斯 (Brock Pierce) 於 2017 年移居波多黎各

皮爾斯曾是一名兒童演員，現已精通表演。在前往別克斯島時，他將義大利製造的遊艇停泊在當地港口，帶領客人沿著野馬出沒的海灘，來到緊閉百葉窗的 W 飯店主入口。

“This is a big personal bet for me,” Pierce said. “It’s where my heart is.”

但皮爾斯的誇張表現只是一種幻覺。與他在波多黎各啟動的許多其他宏偉項目一樣，該酒店現在陷入了債務和法律糾紛的泥潭。去年秋天，皮爾斯在與另一位投資者的糾紛中失去了這家酒店。如今，這家酒店仍然關閉，窗戶被砸碎，地板上長滿了黴菌和馬糞。空蕩蕩的中庭裡，擺放著西班牙著名建築師設計的$17,000躺椅。這個地方充滿了灰塵。

皮爾斯重開 W Vieques 酒店的夢想未能實現

W飯店涼爽的大廳裡堆放著各種顏色的椅子

2017 年皮爾斯搬到波多黎各時，他投資了一系列實驗性加密貨幣業務。在智囊團的幫助下，他做出了振興當地經濟的令人驚訝的承諾。皮爾斯因其在創造世界上最受歡迎的數位貨幣之一方面所發揮的作用而聞名。他帶領了波多黎各的一波工業移民浪潮，其中許多人開始購買土地並大肆宣傳他們稱之為 Puertopia 的項目，希望將美國領土變成加密貨幣投資者和科技新創公司的中心。中心。

“If you’re an American and you’re in the cryptocurrency industry, you’ve got to go to Puerto Rico at least once,” Pierce said in 2019.

Puerto Rico is a cryptocurrency paradise. In 2012, the local government passed legislation to turn the archipelago into a tax haven for wealthy immigrants. Under the law, now known as Act 60, people who move there can apply for a benefit that exempts them from paying taxes. The measure is aimed at boosting investment in Puerto Rico’s economy, which has been struggling to recover from a two-decade financial crisis.

But according to hundreds of pages of court records and interviews with more than two dozen people familiar with his efforts in Puerto Rico, Pierce’s vision of a cryptocurrency-driven economic recovery has yet to materialize. His business partners betrayed him, and some colleagues say he’s running out of money. There is no clear evidence that Pierces arrival has helped the local economy. Instead, Bill 60 has become a symbol of a new era of exploitation.

許多當地人將皮爾斯視為全球精英幾個世紀以來將波多黎各視為私人遊樂場的最新例子。 19世紀末美國入侵後，美國商人奪取了當地數百英畝的土地來建造甘蔗種植園，並將利潤輸送到島上。幾十年後回到美國，美國海軍在別克斯島上進行了軍事演習，包括破壞生態系統並造成長期健康問題的炸彈試驗。

隨著皮爾斯和其他富有移民的到來，波多黎各居民看到了新的裂縫，房價飆升，尤其是在沿海城鎮，迫使當地家庭離開家園。在W飯店外的牆上，一群當地藝術家畫了一幅壁畫，畫中皮爾斯身穿深紅色束腰外衣，手持比特幣標誌符號，標題為：殖民主義。

變色龍本能

最近的一個週五晚上，43 歲的皮爾斯在聖胡安老城的修道院酒店(Convent Hotel) 坐下來喝咖啡，這家酒店以前是共濟會分會所改建的，現在是波多黎各秘密移民的非正式基地。他戴著一頂橘色寬邊帽子，穿著一件印有「疤痕永不斷裂」字樣的超大白色T卹，用誇張的手勢指著窗外，窗外是一條繁忙的鵝卵石大道，名叫克里斯托街，是英國最古老的街道之一。

“This was one of the first pieces of colonial infrastructure built by the Spanish conquistadors,” he explained. “It was the first brick road in the entire Western Hemisphere.”

現在，這片風景屬於皮爾斯：他於 2018 年以 $480 萬購買了修道院。

皮爾斯帶著一份不同尋常的履歷來到波多黎各：他是明尼蘇達州一名房屋建築商和一名教會官員的兒子，曾是一名兒童演員，曾在《Mighty Ducks》電影中短暫出演角色，並與喜劇演員辛巴達一起主演了一部名為《First Child》的電影。成年後，他成為多個知名加密貨幣項目的早期投資者，最終賺$7億到$10億。財富。

天線 波多黎各聖胡安的景色 。皮爾斯帶領一群投資者前往波多黎各，致力於將美國領土變成加密貨幣投資者和科技新創公司的中心。

60號提案通過後，來自美國的遊客成為波多黎各各地餐廳和夜總會的常見景象。皮爾斯是火人節的常客，也是最知名的遊客之一。在老胡安的街道上，經常可以看到他沿著聖街行走：他身材矮小，精力充沛，穿著T恤和皮革背心，脖子上戴著項鍊。

據參加派對的兩名人士透露，皮爾斯在多拉多的一個封閉社區購買了兩棟房子，那裡住著富人，他與合夥人企業家克里斯托·羅斯(Crystal Rose) 以及母親萊內特·卡拉布羅(Lynette Calabro) 住在那裡。皮爾斯與當地政治人物交往，舉辦奢華的派對，客人有時會服用可卡因和氯胺酮等毒品。

有一段時間，皮爾斯以其開放和好奇心成功地吸引了一些當地人。就像一個熟練的演員一樣，他有一種變色龍般的本能，可以根據觀眾的喜好調整自己的行為。幫忙管理皮爾斯遊艇的當地海事專家烏戈·德拉烏茲說，如果是個瘋子，他就會表現得非常嚴肅。但如果是個瘋子，他就會表現得很瘋狂。

Pierce showed an interest in almost all world religions and had a hippie spirit. Once, while traveling with some fellow Act 60 immigrants, he nestled in the arms of a Kapok tree, a tree that some I felt a connection to him because he had a spiritual depth, said Carli Muñoz, a Puerto Rican pianist who dated Pierce in San Juan.

木棉公園是別克斯島的一個旅遊景點和保護區。公園的中心是波多黎各最古老的木棉樹。

But that was as far as the goodwill went. “I had made up my mind not to do business with him anymore,” Muñoz said.

Real estate records show that Muñoz has purchased at least 14 properties since moving to Puerto Rico. Some of those properties, like the monastery, are already functioning businesses. But Muñoz has also announced plans to transform much of his portfolio into new projects. The projects have not come to fruition. A hospital he bought in Humacao late last year is in trouble, and the gallery was recently put up for sale. In 2019, Pierce took over a building in Old San Juan that he built in the 1980s. The three-story building once housed a childrens museum. For a time, he told local media he used it as a place to meet with friends and discuss ideas. Today, the building is empty, with walls covered in The paint is peeling off.

聖胡安老城前兒童博物館內的廢棄空間，皮爾斯說他買下這個空間是為了聚集和討論 大 想法。

“It’s so sad,” said Robert Cimino, a Puerto Rican businessman who owned the building for 19 years before selling it to Pierce for $2 million. “I wanted to sell it to someone who could maintain it.”

皮爾斯一次又一次地找到當地的波多黎各人幫助他進行開發項目，但其中許多合作者後來表示，他們受到了剝削，而且報酬不夠。與此同時，他在法庭上與另一位第 60 號法案移民約瑟夫·利普西三世 (Joseph Lipsey III) 發生糾紛，後者去年奪取了 W 酒店的控制權，聲稱皮爾斯拖欠貸款。

Pierce denies defrauding anyone. But at least three lawsuits are pending against him in local courts. Over coffee at the monastery, he admitted that his poor judgment and naivety had derailed his plans in Puerto Rico. “I trusted people,” he said. “That’s one of the things that got me into trouble,” he said.

選美比賽中的噓聲

皮爾斯喜歡將自己描繪成地緣政治推動者。 2020年，他以獨立候選人身分競選美國總統，獲得近5萬張選票。他吹噓自己在薩爾瓦多和巴拿馬都有約會。 6 月的一個晚上，他的助手宣布皮爾斯將參加與西太平洋小群島帛琉總統的 Zoom 通話。

“I’ve spent a lot of time with leaders of nearly every religious faith in the world,” Pierce said at the monastery, “as well as leaders of many of the world’s nation states.”

但皮爾斯的主要關注點是波多黎各，他在那裡成為了 60 號提案的主要代言人。這種宣傳使波多黎各成為加密貨幣愛好者的熱門目的地：根據政府數據，目前約有 2,600 人受益於第 60 號法案的稅收減免。

當皮爾斯到達時，當地人表現出強烈反對。有人在兒童博物館的牆上用紅漆寫下：外國人回家吧。但在幕後，別克斯正在擴大他的房地產帝國。他聘請了當地著名的酒店開發商貢薩洛·格拉西亞（Gonzalo Gracia）來幫助他在波多黎各尋找可以修復並改造成旅遊景點的建築。

皮爾斯幫助組織了 2021 年在聖胡安舉行的世界小姐選美比賽。當他被介紹為評委之一時，觀眾發出了噓聲。

Soon, Pierces business progress began to deteriorate, and he frequently got into legal disputes with local partners. In 2021, he helped organize the Miss World pageant at a concert venue in San Juan. By then, Pierce was already considered a speculator in Puerto Rico. Politico: The crowd booed him when he was introduced as one of the judges. He later sued Puerto Rican beauty pageant executive and former Miss World Stephanie del Valle, claiming she owed him $1.2 million. Ms Del Valle refuted the allegations. His own lawsuit, accusing Pierce of defamation and seeking $31 million in damages, is pending in local court. (The dispute is pending in local court. Pierce says he is “committed to a fair resolution of this matter.”)

德爾瓦萊是第一批與皮爾斯發生衝突的波多黎各人之一，指責他欺騙和操縱他們。在選美比賽期間，皮爾斯購買了 W 酒店 80% 的股份。該交易是他在波多黎各最大的投資之一。一，為他向地方政府尋求超過$30百萬的稅收抵免鋪平了道路。

格雷西亞協助收購。法庭記錄顯示，他代表皮爾斯會見了別克斯島當地官員，並找到了一位建築師來規劃酒店的重新開業。

但這種合作關係是短暫的：格雷西亞在 2022 年的訴訟中聲稱，交易一旦敲定，皮爾斯就將他排除在該項目之外，並拒絕向他支付 $790,000 的佣金。

A similar situation played out at another project on Vieques. In 2021, Pierce asked a local naval engineer to help him open a hotel and museum on a ship docked off the island’s northern coast. The engineer requested anonymity to avoid being identified. He arranged meetings with local administrators and discussed the project with the mayor, but Pierce abruptly abandoned the plan. In an interview, he said Pierce still owed him $17,000 for the work. Said he had no such debt.)

Last year, there were signs that Pierce was stretched thin. He asked De la Uz to fix up the Aurora, the yacht he used to ferry friends to and from the West Coast. Most of the guests, De la Uz recalled, were “people he had tried to convince to give him.” He is an American who has money,” and “he portrays himself as the savior of Puerto Rico.”

在 2023 年的訴訟中，德拉烏茲聲稱他和共同擁有這艘遊艇的皮爾斯拖欠了維修費用。德拉烏茲說，當客人在甲板上聚會時，遊艇正在進水並慢慢下沉。進入加勒比海。

皮爾斯拒絕對這些指控發表評論，他表示：我們正在積極透過法庭處理這些問題，以達成公平的解決方案。

“I didn’t do any due diligence”

當皮爾斯乘坐 Aurora 號外出時，他有時會帶一位新人來到 Act 60 社區：62 歲的物流大亨利普西 (Lipsey)。有一段時間，皮爾斯只知道利普西的暱稱「喬佩皮」。皮爾斯認為他不善於社交，但他很感興趣。 「我相信這是一個非常善良的人，」皮爾斯說。

Pierce knew only the general circumstances of Lipsey’s arrival in Puerto Rico. In 2017, Lipsey made a fortune from relief work after Hurricane Maria through contracts with the U.S. government. But two years later, a legal scandal exposed his Living in high society in Aspen, Colo. A wild New Years party at Lipseys home led to a police investigation, and he and his wife eventually pleaded guilty to serving alcohol to a minor and were sentenced to a years probation.

利普西夫婦賣掉了在阿斯本的房子，最後搬到了波多黎各，在皮爾斯附近定居。很快，兩家人的關係就變得親密了。利普西的妻子與皮爾斯的母親成為了朋友。皮爾斯回憶說，2022 年卡拉布羅女士因心臟病去世後，利普西說他向她做出了承諾：他將永遠陪伴在她的家人身邊。

Pierce and Lipsey have worked together on various business projects, but the most significant deal involved the W Hotel. Last October, Lipsey agreed to lend Pierce $10 million, including $4 million to buy the remaining 20% of the hotel and $6 million to buy the remaining 20% of the hotel. The terms were risky for Pierce: He had to close the hotel deal within two weeks. As collateral, he had to put up his entire stake in W Hotels. Pierce said he was I felt uncomfortable with the request but agreed to it. “I didn’t do any due diligence,” he recalls.

協議簽署一個月後，利普西指責皮爾斯違反協議並奪取了酒店的控制權。利普西後來在法律文件中聲稱，皮爾斯沒有按計劃使用借來的資金，而是把錢花在了私人飛機上。 ，並在聖胡安、邁阿密和洛杉磯舉辦了一場長達 72 小時的生日派對。

隨著爭端不斷升級，皮爾斯邀請利普西在 Hacienda Tamarindo 會面，這是皮爾斯以 100-320 萬圖元買下的別克斯島的一家小旅館。利普西後來告訴波多黎各警方，這次會面相當於綁架。皮爾斯隨後鎖上了利普西的房間並請求她的幫助。他拿起手機，然後鎖上了門，一名武裝警衛在附近巡邏。

2021年，皮爾斯以$320萬收購了精品酒店Hacienda Tamarindo

在法庭上，皮爾斯否認挪用借來的錢或綁架利普西。但他的一位顧問、最近搬到波多黎各的卡桑德拉·韋塞爾曼 (Cassandra Wesselman) 表示，當 W 酒店糾紛開始時，他的心情不太好。韋塞爾曼女士說，她建議將武裝警衛帶到塔馬林多莊園，以保護皮爾斯免受住在另一個房間的一對夫婦的傷害，她解釋說，這對夫婦是邪教的成員。

這次有爭議的會議一個月後，皮爾斯起訴利普西，指控他欺詐和盜竊，試圖重新獲得 W 酒店的控制權。

法官駁回了皮爾斯提出的禁令請求，該禁令將在案件審理期間恢復他對 W 酒店的所有權。皮爾斯和利普西一直保持聯繫，討論可能的和解方案。但他們的友誼已經結束了。

Lipsey did not speak publicly about the dispute until July, when he discussed it for two hours via WhatsApp with a New York Times reporter. With a cigarette dangling from his lips, Lipsey virtually toured his Tennessee home. Inside the house, where he lives part of the year, he turns on his camera to show off his unusual art collection. On one wall hangs a canvas with two spots of red paint. It’s his son’s daughter’s, Lipsey explains. Friends work.

利普西稱皮爾斯不是一個好人，也是一個糟糕的商人。他搬到波多黎各所做的一切以及他承諾的一切，他都沒有做到。

他對皮爾斯說了同樣的話。利普西說，在一次激烈的交流中，他稱皮爾斯讓你媽媽非常失望。

無憂無慮的信心

On a June morning, Pierce strolled through Old San Juan, pointing out his favorite spots as he meandered along narrow sidewalks. Despite the heat, he was dressed in black. Every day, there’s no need to worry about time-consuming outfit choices. “People like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs wore the same thing every day,” Pierce explains.

He stopped outside Carlys, an upscale jazz bar owned by the Puerto Rican pianist Muñoz. Pierce said Muñoz had written a song just for him and Ms. Rose. He smiled at the thought. The song is called ‘Superhero,’ ” Pierce said. (The song’s actual title is “Super Power.”)

Even through all the setbacks, Pierce remained confident that he could be a force for progress in Puerto Rico. But his confidence masked a continuing turmoil in his business affairs. The conflict between Pierce and Lipsey was evident in his friend’s Robert Anderson, a cryptocurrency enthusiast living in Puerto Rico who is friendly with Lipsey, said they acted “like kids.”

Friends and associates of Pierce said he appeared to be running out of money. Lipsey’s lawyers argued in court that Pierce lacked the “money or resources” to develop the W Hotel. This summer, Puerto Rico’s basketball team was forced to resign, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. A representative of the Mets de Guaynabo team emailed Pierce to complain that he had failed to pay more than $25,000 in sponsorship fees owed to the team.

皮爾斯一身黑衣， 戴著黑色帽子，坐在白色房間的凳子上

皮爾斯也對他在波多黎各的安全表示擔憂。據兩名接近皮爾斯的人士透露，他私下討論了在別克斯島上建造彈藥庫的計劃。他說，如果當地人起來反對他，可以使用這個倉庫。將提供一定程度的保護。

在一份長達 17 頁的聲明中，皮爾斯否認了他提出的阿森納提議，並表示他仍然很富有，駁斥了有關他經濟拮据的說法。他表示，Mets de Guaynabo 的投訴是一個誤會，由於對贊助條款的誤解，他現在已同意支付費用。

However, just as the New York Times was finishing its story, a publicist for Pierce mistakenly sent a message to a group chat that included New York Times reporters and Ms. Wesselman, Pierce’s adviser: “We haven’t been paid yet.” I guess you dont have the money to pay us, or you would have already paid us, Wesselman said, laughing off the message, calling the PR person totally teasing us. Later, the publicist said Pierce always paid on time.

Pierce defended his work in Puerto Rico. He said he had made charitable donations, including a six-figure gift to support Covid relief efforts in the region. “Transformative projects take time,” Pierce said. While some initiatives have faced challenges, others have achieved significant success.

Among his many accomplishments, Pierce mentioned a hospital in Humacao that he purchased in late 2023 — an investment he pitched to Lipsey. He said he worked with Puerto Rican radiologist Josué Vázquez Delgado to make the hospital It emerged from bankruptcy and retained more than 90% of its employees.

但在接受採訪時，該醫院一位不願透露姓名的醫生表示，皮爾斯欠他數萬美元的薪水。這位醫生表示，醫院一直拖欠供應商的款項，一些外科醫生的設備已經用完。他說他的團隊已經解決了這些問題並顯著改善了醫院的運作。

Last month, Pierce tried to put his success in Puerto Rico on a visual tour of San Juan. He led two New York Times reporters to a building he bought in 2019 that was sparsely furnished with an extra television screen. The building, he claims, houses the world’s first NFT art gallery. “You might not expect Puerto Rico to be the first place in the world to pioneer technology,” he says. Images from the exhibition They include a fluorescent dinosaur nestled in a forest of giant cacti, which Pierce said his 5-year-old daughter designed using artificial intelligence tools.

What he failed to mention was that a luxury real estate company had posted a notice for the building’s sale and was holding an open house. Confronted with this fact, Pierce admitted that he had recently tried to sell the gallery. He explained that it It never quite opened up, and he was always struggling to make money.

原文連結

本文來自網路：《紐約時報》：Tether 聯合創辦人與他破碎的加密貨幣夢想

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一、專案背景及簡介 作為最大的加密貨幣，比特幣不斷獲得採用和認可。然而，它的成功也暴露了一些限制和挑戰，特別是在可擴展性方面。例如，在 Segwit 升級之後，比特幣區塊鏈將區塊大小限制為 4 MB，這限制了在給定時間內可以處理的交易數量。隨著網路的發展，這種限制會導致更長的確認時間和更高的交易費用，使得比特幣在處理大交易量時效率較低。與其他區塊鏈相比，比特幣腳本語言目前除了價值轉移之外還缺乏開發複雜智能合約所需的靈活性和表現力。為了解決這些限制，人們提出了各種第 2 層 (L2) 解決方案，例如支付通道、側鏈…