评论
打印
【文章预读】
Less well-known coins have also taken wing. Monero ($6bn) and Zcash ($2bn) focus on privacy. Stellar ($9.8bn) has developed a system to transfer funds cheaply that is used by charities, particularly in poor countries. IOTA ($10.1bn) allows connected machines to exchange information and payments securely. And then there is Bitcoin Cash ($46bn), whose founders split from bitcoin in August 2017 because they were unhappy with how it was run.
Might any of these one day replace bitcoin as crypto-land reserve currency, something insiders call the “flippening”? Given bitcoin’s governance problems (another “fork”, or split, may be in the offing) and limited capacity (a transaction now costs nearly $30, on average, in fees), this cannot be excluded. But the others have problems, too. Ethereum’s user fees have soared and the system has again hit technical snags. As for Ripple, some question the extent to which XRPs are actually used.
Come what may, the field will only get more crowded. Kodak, the archetypal victim of digital disruption, wants to jump on the crypto-wagon: on January 9th it announced that it will launch a coin to allow photographers to charge for their works. More ambitious will be the ICO of Telegram, a messaging service with 180m users: it aims to raise $1.2bn and issue a token called Gram that can be used to pay for a range of services from online storage to virtual private networks. Even Facebook has reportedly started looking into creating a token. Should the world’s biggest social network ever make that move, bitcoin’s days as the leading crypto-currency would almost certainly be numbered.
【文章精讲】
Less well-known coins have also taken wing. Monero ($6bn) and Zcash ($2bn) focus on privacy. Stellar ($9.8bn) has developed a system to transfer funds cheaply that is used by charities, particularly in poor countries. IOTA ($10.1bn) allows connected machines to exchange information and payments securely. And then there is Bitcoin Cash ($46bn), whose founders split from bitcoin in August 2017 because they were unhappy with how it was run.
不太知名的代币也趁势而起。门罗币（Monero，市值60亿美元）和Zcash（市值20亿美元）注重保护交易者隐私。恒星币（Stellar，市值98亿美元）研发出以低廉成本转移资金的系统，主要供贫穷国家的慈善机构使用。埃欧塔（IOTA，市值101亿美元）让联网机器安全地交换信息及收付款项。还有比特币现金（Bitcoin Cash ，市值460亿美元），其开发者因不满比特币的运作方式，在2017年8月从比特币中分裂出来。
take wing 起飞
- My career took wing.
split v.分裂，分开
Might any of these one day replace bitcoin as crypto-land reserve currency, something insiders call the “flippening”? Given bitcoin’s governance problems (another “fork”, or split, may be in the offing) and limited capacity (a transaction now costs nearly $30, on average, in fees), this cannot be excluded. But the others have problems, too. Ethereum’s user fees have soared and the system has again hit technical snags. As for Ripple, some question the extent to which XRPs are actually used.
有朝一日，这其中的某种会不会取代比特币成为加密领域的储备货币，也就是出现圈内人所谓的“大反转”（flippening）？鉴于比特币的内部治理问题（说不定很快会再出现一次“分叉”，也就是分裂）及区块容量接近饱和（目前平均每次交易的费用接近30美元），不排除发生“大反转”的可能。但其他加密货币也有问题。以太坊的用户费用飙升，系统也又一次遭遇技术故障。至于瑞波公司，有人质疑瑞波币实际被使用的程度。
reserve v.储备
flippening n.（比特币被）大反转
- flip v.颠覆
In the offing 即将发生
transaction n.交易
exclude v.排除
soar v.暴增
snag n.困难，树枝
extent n.程度
Come what may, the field will only get more crowded. Kodak, the archetypal victim of digital disruption, wants to jump on the crypto-wagon: on January 9th it announced that it will launch a coin to allow photographers to charge for their works. More ambitious will be the ICO of Telegram, a messaging service with 180m users: it aims to raise $1.2bn and issue a token called Gram that can be used to pay for a range of services from online storage to virtual private networks. Even Facebook has reportedly started looking into creating a token. Should the world’s biggest social network ever make that move, bitcoin’s days as the leading crypto-currency would almost certainly be numbered.
不管怎样，数字货币领域只会越来越拥挤。数字革命中的典型牺牲品柯达公司也想赶上加密货币的大潮：1月9日，柯达宣布将推出一款供摄影师收取拍摄费用的代币。拥有1.8亿用户的即时通讯应用Telegram即将发起ICO，目标更加宏伟：融资12亿美元，并发行名为Gram的代币，可用来支付从网上存储到虚拟专用网络等各类服务的费用。据说连Facebook也在研究创设代币。假如这家全球最大的社交网络公司真的采取行动，那么比特币雄霸加密货币领域的时日几乎肯定屈指可数了。
come what may = no matter what happens
- I’ll support you, come what may.
archetypal adj.典型的
- archetype n.原型
victim n.受害者
disruption n.干扰破坏
- disrupt v.破坏
wagon n.车
charge v.收钱ambitious adj.有野心的
a range of 一系列
storage n.存储
virtual adj.虚拟的
reportedly adv.据说
number v.屈指可数
【推荐句式表达】
1. take wing
2. come what may
3. a range of ...
n. 范围，行列，射程，山脉，一系列
v. 排
