2021年经济学人 NFT引爆币圈,难道是下一个风口?(2)

The bumper¹ Beeple sale, plus the arrival of ever more creators, means a mania² that has been largely confined to crypto and techie circles could move mainstream³. The global NFT market grew from a few tens of millions of dollars in annual sales a few years ago to over $300m in the past month alone, according to Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital firm. NFTS mesh⁴ with the massive network effects of social media and meme culture, notes Sam Hart of the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss backer of blockchain infrastructure⁵. There has been little time to educate buyers, he says.

Beeple的超级大拍卖，加上越来越多的创造者横空出世，这意味着一种主要局限于加密和技术圈的狂热可能会转向主流。风险投资公司安德森·霍洛维茨基金的数据显示，全球非功能性金融产品市场的年销售额从几年前的几千万美元增长到了过去一个月的3亿美元以上。山姆·哈特来自瑞士的一家区块链基础设施支持者Interchain Foundation，他指出，NFTS融合了社交媒体和meme文化的大规模网络效应。连教育买家的时间都没有，他说。

The pitfalls⁶ are being called out by a few crypto experts. One worry is that broad crypto-enthusiasm may be what is really behind soaring NFT values. It has not gone unnoticed that the buyer of Beeple's "Everydays" is Metakovan, a professional crypto investor⁷. Christie's got its $69.3m in Ether, a cryptocurrency.

加密专家们道出了一些隐患。一种担忧是，广泛的加密热情可能是NFT价值飙升背后的真正原因。值得注意的是，Beeple的《每天》的买家是专业加密货币投资者Metakovan。佳士得以以太币(一种加密货币)的形式拿到了6930万美元。

Some compare the NFT craze to the boom in initial coin offerings, a form of crowdfunding in which firms issue digital "coins" in return for a payment, in 2017-18, which turned to bust⁸ soon after. The soaring prices of many NFTS, reliant on ephemeral buzziness in places like Clubhouse, a hot new audio app, could quickly collapse⁹. Celebrities¹⁰ including Lindsay Lohan jumping on a trend that was meant to be about helping¹¹ penniless artists is, some reckon, another ominous¹² sign. The upfront costs of "minting" NFTS are low, meanwhile, meaning potentially unlimited¹³ supply. (For now NFTS' huge carbon footprint, owing to energy-intensive blockchain transactions, is not transparently¹⁴ recorded.)

一些人将NFT热潮与2017-18年“首次代币发行”(一种众筹形式，公司发行数字“硬币”以换取支付)的热潮进行了比较，但不久代币发行便陷入萧条。依赖于俱乐部会所等热门音频应用程序的许多NFTS飙升的价格可能很快就会崩溃。一些人认为，包括林赛·罗韩在内的名人加入这股旨在帮助身无分文的艺术家的潮流是另一个不祥的征兆。与此同时，NFTS的前期“制造”成本很低，这意味着潜在的无限供应。(目前，由于区块链交易的高耗能，NFTS巨大的碳足迹并没有被透明地记录下来。)

A final uncertainty¹⁵ around NFTS' value is that they can in practice be separated from the digital good to which they are tied, undermining their worth. A creator can change the image even after sale. One crypto artist recently "pulled the rug" on some NFTS to highlight the flaw. A series of colourful digital portraits suddenly metamorphosed into pictures of antique carpets. But the art market has always been prone¹⁶ to dodgy dealing¹⁷. Picking NFTS looks akin¹⁸ to sorting real Rembrandts from those daubed by mere¹⁹ followers²⁰.

围绕NFTS价值的一个最终不确定性是，它们在实践中可能会与与之捆绑在一起的数字商品分离，从而削弱它们的价值。创作者甚至可以在出售后改变图像。最近，一位加密艺术家在一些NFTS上“搞破坏”以突出这一缺点：一系列五颜六色的数字肖像突然变成了古董地毯的图片。不过，艺术品市场发生不正当交易一直是家常便饭，挑选NFTS就像是将真正的伦勃朗作品与那些仅仅是追随者随意涂抹的画作分门别类。

1 bumper   

n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的

参考例句：

• The painting represents the scene of a bumper harvest.这幅画描绘了丰收的景象。
• This year we have a bumper harvest in grain.今年我们谷物丰收。

2 mania   

n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好

参考例句：

• Football mania is sweeping the country.足球热正风靡全国。
• Collecting small items can easily become a mania.收藏零星物品往往容易变成一种癖好。

3 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

4 mesh   

n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络

参考例句：

• Their characters just don't mesh.他们的性格就是合不来。
• This is the net having half inch mesh.这是有半英寸网眼的网。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。

7 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

8 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

9 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

10 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

11 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

12 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

13 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

14 transparently   

明亮地，显然地，易觉察地

参考例句：

• "Clearly plots,'said Jacques Three. "Transparently!" “显然是搞阴谋，”雅克三号说，“再清楚不过了。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• All design transparently, convenient for the file identification inside the bag. 全透明设计，方便袋内文件识别。

15 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

16 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

17 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

18 akin   

adj.同族的，类似的

参考例句：

• She painted flowers and birds pictures akin to those of earlier feminine painters.她画一些同早期女画家类似的花鸟画。
• Listening to his life story is akin to reading a good adventure novel.听他的人生故事犹如阅读一本精彩的冒险小说。

19 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

20 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。