我的加密十年：從比特幣新手到 HODLer

r's Day，我嘗試做一些我以前沒有做過的事情。不同的散步或酒吧通常會滿足我的需求，但在蒂姆談論比特幣之後（我並不完全理解比特幣，儘管我喜歡關於房子的一點），我決定嘗試買一個。經過大量谷歌搜索，並探索了購買平台和數位錢包的新世界，我找到了交易平台 Bittylicious，我選擇它是因為我喜歡這個名字（我仍然喜歡）。它是較負責任的交易所之一，只交易最受歡迎的、成熟的代幣。在這裡我發現了我的新的、極其不可思議的愛好。

I've had a passing interest in cryptocurrency for a number of years, ever since a friend called Tim tried to explain bitcoin to me over dinner one night. I say “tried” because I didn't really understand a word he said, apart from the bit about buying a house in London with the proceeds. That did pique my interest, however. I filed the conversation away under “Things I Don’t Understand But Might Investigate Further One Day”.

自從一位名叫蒂姆的朋友一天晚上在晚餐時試圖向我解釋比特幣以來，我多年來一直對加密貨幣產生了興趣。我說「嘗試過」是因為除了用這筆錢在倫敦買房子的那句話之外，我真的聽不懂他說的任何一個字。然而，這確實激起了我的興趣。我把這次談話歸檔在「我不明白但有一天可能會進一步調查的事情」下。

Fast-forward to New Year’s Day 2018 and I was sitting at home, nursing a hangover and trying to think of something I’d never done before to mark the occasion. I usually go for a different walk or try out a new pub, but this year I wanted to do something a bit more interesting. I remembered Tim's bitcoin story and decided that this was the year I would finally try to understand cryptocurrency.

快轉到 2018 年元旦，我坐在家裡，一邊緩解宿醉的影響，一邊努力想一些我從未做過的事情來紀念這一時刻。我通常會去不同的地方散步或嘗試新酒吧，但今年我想做一些更有趣的事情。我想起了提姆的比特幣故事，並決定今年我終於要嘗試了解加密貨幣。

After a lot of googling, I discovered the trading platform Bittylicious, which I chose because I liked the name (I still do). It’s one of the more responsible exchanges, only trading in the most popular, established coins. I started chatting with someone I came to think of as BitMum. She mentioned that she’d bought her bitcoins when they were about £10, making her crypto royalty. I have occasionally added to my crypto holdings by buying other coins, including ethereum, ripple and litecoin, albeit in amounts that would make a tech bro snort with derision. But I capped my total spend at £700 on the basis that it’s the amount I might spend on a mini-break.

經過大量谷歌搜尋後，我發現了交易平台 Bittylicious，我選擇它是因為我喜歡這個名字（我仍然喜歡）。它是較負責任的交易所之一，只交易最受歡迎的、成熟的代幣。我開始和一個我認為是 BitMum 的人聊天。她提到，她在比特幣價格約為 10 英鎊時購買了比特幣，這使她成為了加密貨幣版稅。我偶爾會透過購買其他代幣來增加我的加密貨幣持有量，包括以太幣、瑞波幣和萊特幣，儘管其數量會讓技術兄弟嗤之以鼻。但我將總支出限制在 700 英鎊，因為這是我可能在短暫休息時花費的金額。

Over the past decade, bitcoin has shifted from being a form of currency to primarily becoming a store of value, much like gold — but less pretty. It has experienced wild peaks and troughs, while the other coins I bought have been much more sluggish but are now showing signs of life — which means I’ll have to start storing them properly.

在過去的十年裡，比特幣已經從一種貨幣形式轉變為主要的價值儲存手段，就像黃金一樣——但不太漂亮。它經歷了狂野的高峰和低谷，而我購買的其他硬幣則表現遲緩，但現在正顯示出生命的跡象——這意味著我必須開始正確存放它們。

I initially tucked mine away in Armory, an early bitcoin storage system whose endless security updates meant that my entry-level MacBook Air started to give up the ghost. It took two weeks for my data scientist neighbour, Wayne, to coax the necessary updates through so I could retrieve it.

我最初把它藏在 Armoury 中，這是一個早期的比特幣儲存系統，其無休止的安全性更新意味著我的入門級 MacBook Air 開始失去活力。我的資料科學家鄰居韋恩花了兩週時間完成必要的更新，以便我可以檢索它。

I now store my crypto on an external Nano ledger, which looks like a flash drive but has endless security hoops to jump through — and comes with a separate collection of computer-generated words that would grant me access to my bitcoin if I were to lose the Nano.

我現在將我的加密貨幣存儲在一個外部奈米分類帳上，它看起來像一個閃存驅動器，但有無數的安全環需要跳過——並且附帶一個單獨的計算機生成的單詞集合，如果我丟失了，這些單字可以讓我訪問我的比特幣納米。

Some friends are critical. “Money-laundering and criminal transactions,” people have said. “And that coke-soaked £20 note in your wallet, isn’t?” I now reply. “But it’s a random store of worth,” others will say. And gold, despite the jewellery that can be made from it, isn’t? The amount of energy used during the mining process comes up a lot, too. I don’t have a great answer for that.

有的朋友提出批評。人們說：“洗錢和犯罪交易。” “你錢包裡那張浸透了可樂的 20 英鎊紙幣，不是嗎？”我現在回覆。 「但它是一種隨機的價值存儲，」其他人會說。而黃金，儘管可以用它製成珠寶，不是嗎？採礦過程中消耗的能源也大量增加。對此我沒有一個很好的答案。

In December 2017, I told my nieces and nephews (there are four of them) that I was giving them all 0.005 of bitcoin (worth about £30 then, now £400) because, well, teenagers are a nightmare to buy things for, I was feeling a bit broke and I wanted to be seen as a cool aunt. I asked one niece (in sixth form at the time, in a band, living her best life) if she was interested in crypto. “I am, actually,” she said. “This boy at school bought a fake ID a few years ago from someone who wanted to be paid in bitcoin and he didn’t bother changing back the rest. He’s got £20,000 now. I asked him if he wanted to come interrailing this summer but he said he’s going to buy a sports car.” That’s when I realised I would never be a cool bitcoiner. By my reckoning, his bitcoin would be worth around £150,000 now.

2017 年 12 月，我告訴我的姪子和姪女（有四個人），我給了他們全部 0.005 比特幣（當時價值約 30 英鎊，現在價值 400 英鎊），因為青少年買東西簡直是一場噩夢，我感覺有點破產了，我想被視為一個很酷的阿姨。我問一位姪女（當時是六年級，在樂團中，過著最美好的生活）是否對加密貨幣感興趣。 “事實上，我是，”她說。 「幾年前，學校裡的男孩從一個想用比特幣支付的人那裡買了一個假身分證，他懶得把剩下的錢換回來。他現在有2萬英鎊了。我問他今年夏天是否想來搭火車，但他說他要買一輛跑車。就在那時我意識到我永遠不會成為一個很酷的比特幣持有者。據我估計，他的比特幣現在價值約 15 萬英鎊。

Ten years on, I have mixed feelings. The consensus is that bitcoin’s current rise is largely due to Trump’s endorsement. It could sink back into nothingness or it may, at some point, make my retirement significantly more comfortable. I also wish I’d bought more than one. Keen cyclists joke that the perfect number of bikes to own is N plus one, where N is the number you start with. It’s the same for me with bitcoin — that’s maths I can understand. But for now I’m just happy to HODL.

十年過去了，我的心情很複雜。共識是，比特幣目前的上漲很大程度上得益於川普的背書。它可能會重新歸於虛無，或者在某個時候，它可能會讓我的退休生活變得更加舒適。我也希望我買了不只一件。熱衷騎自行車的人開玩笑說，擁有自行車的完美數量是 N 加一，其中 N 是您開始的數字。對我來說，比特幣也是如此——這是我能理解的數學。但現在我很樂意持有。