经济学人:加密货币 新兴货币(1)

 　　Finance and Economics 财经

　　Crypto-Currencies: New Money 加密货币：新兴货币

　　Bitcoin, its imitators and the risk of a crypto-bubble. 比特币，其仿冒者，以及加密货币泡沫风险。

　　It is hard to predict when bubbles will pop, in particular when they are nested within each other. 很难预测泡沫何时会破裂，尤其是它们互相嵌套的时候。

　　It helps to keep this image in mind when considering one of the biggest surges in asset values of recent years:  当考虑近年来资产价值最大骤增幅度时，它有助于记住这种印象：

　　the market value of all the world's crypto-currencies has trebled since the beginning of the year, and is now worth more than $60bn. 自从今年年初，世界上所有的加密货币的市场价值已经增加了两倍，且现已超过600亿美元。

　　Bitcoin is the best known of these currencies, especially after hackers¹ this month instructed victims to pay ransoms² in the anonymous³ digital cash in order to get their computer files decrypted. 比特币是最有名的货币，特别是在本月黑客指示受害者支付匿名的数字赎金以获得他们计算机文件的解密后。

　　Not that many bitcoins exist: there are about 16.3m of them, with only 1,800 new ones minted every day. 比特币并没有那么多：大约有1630万，一天只发行1800个新币。

　　But growing demand has pushed bitcoin's price to a record recent high of about $1,830, up from $450 a year ago. 但不断增长的需求推动比特币的价格达到了纪录最新高，约为1830美元，高于一年前的450美元。

　　Problems abide⁴. 各种问题仍然存在。

　　Earlier this year some of the biggest exchanges, such as Bitfinex, experienced problems with their correspondent banks and were unable to pay out real-world currencies to account-holders. 今年年初，最大的一笔票据交换业务（如Bitfinex）与其合作的银行出现了一些问题，并且无法向开户人支付真实货币。

　　To get their money out, they had to buy bitcoin and exchange them elsewhere. 为了取出他们的钱，业内人士不得不购买比特币并且在其他地方进行交易。

　　Yet the market is becoming more mature: institutional investors⁵, from family offices to hedge funds, have become more comfortable with crypto-currencies,  然而，市场更加成熟，从家族理财室到避险基金的各类机构投资人都对加密货币更加放心，

　　says Mike Komaransky of Cumberland Mining, which arranges over-the-counter trades. 坎伯兰矿业的场外贸易主任迈克说道，他们安排着场外交易。

　　Other factors driving demand include fluctuations⁶ of China's yuan, the French elections and, in a small way, the ransomware attack 当然，推动需求还有许多其他因素，比如中国人民币的波动，法国大选以及一些小规模勒索软件的攻击。

　　(when The Economist⁷ went to press, only about $80,000 had been sent to the bitcoin accounts held by the hackers). （当《经济学人》在出版的时候，只有8万美元被发送到黑客拥有的比特币账户。）

　　Counter-intuitively, bitcoin's biggest weakness—the system's limited capacity—has also increased demand for crypto-currencies. 反常的是，比特币最大的劣势——系统容量的限制，也促进了对加密货币的需求。

　　Its developers have argued for years about how to expand the system, which can only handle seven transactions per second, compared with thousands on conventional payment services. 它的开发者已经就如何扩展系统容量努力多年，与成千上万的传统支付服务比较，它每秒只能处理七笔交易。

1 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

2 ransoms   

付赎金救人，赎金( ransom的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The kidnappers exacted ransoms for their hostages. 绑匪勒索人质的赎金。
• Hotel:Wealthy captives sleep at the hotel for an increase in their ransoms. 酒店：富有的俘虏们要住在酒店等待足够的赎金以回家。

3 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

4 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

5 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

6 fluctuations   

波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table. 他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• There were so many unpredictable fluctuations on the Stock Exchange. 股票市场瞬息万变。

7 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。