加密竞技：数字货币如何捕获美国政治

不用担心 - 我今天不会尝试解释。但是您应该知道，它的助推器及其精力充沛的超级计算机已经抓住了美国政治

Cryptocurrency boosters and their energy-consuming supercomputers have captured American politics, hoping their industry will grow over the next four years.

加密货币助推器及其精力充沛的超级计算机已经抓住了美国政治，希望他们的行业在未来四年内发展。

In fact, these crypto-bros were perhaps the biggest contributors to the 2024 presidential election. The crypto industry pumped more than $200 million in direct donations and hundreds of millions more into industry Super PACs. Like any big donor group, they’re now expecting massive returns on their investments.

实际上，这些加密植物也许是2024年总统大选的最大贡献者。加密货币行业将超过2亿美元的直接捐款投入到行业超级PAC中。像任何大捐助者团体一样，他们现在预计投资会带来巨大的回报。

Their biggest libertarian dream is not only for the industry to expand, but for the US government to step in and subsidise their speculative investments by trading US gold reserves to buy a national reserve of billions of bitcoins.

他们最大的自由主义者的梦想不仅是该行业扩大，而且要使美国政府通过交易美国黄金储备购买国家的数十亿比特币储备，介入并补贴投机性投资。

You should also know that because these digital crypto-currencies require massive amounts of inter-connected computer power to perform thousands of complex calculations every time they want to “mine” a new “coin”, they soak up electricity like a sponge. Admittedly, some are better than others. But just like any type of unregulated mining, the industry in general is an environmental disaster.

您还应该知道，由于这些数字加密货币需要大量相互连接的计算机功率，每次想“挖掘”新的“硬币”时，它们都会执行数千个复杂的计算，因此它们像海绵一样吸收电力。诚然，有些人比其他更好。但是，就像任何类型的不受管制的采矿一样，整个行业都是环境灾难。

Right now, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance projects that without any further growth, the electricity demand of all these computers mining and trading bitcoins alone could already reach 172 terawatt hours this year – that’s greater than the annual electricity demand of Poland. And that is assuming no further growth or taking account of any of the hundreds of other cryptocurrencies online.

目前，剑桥替代金融项目中心没有任何进一步的增长，仅所有这些计算机开采和交易比特币的电力需求就已经达到了今年的172 Terawatt小时 - 这比波兰的年度电力需求大。这是假设没有进一步的增长或在线考虑其他数百个加密货币中的任何一个。

Since 2021, a lion’s share of this complex computing has been happening in the USA, especially in Texas. The Energy Information Agency believes it’s putting a massive strain on local power grids, especially at peak times, and estimates that it could represent up to 2.3 per cent of national electricity consumption.

自2021年以来，这项复杂计算的狮子份额一直在美国，尤其是在德克萨斯州发生。能源信息局认为，它对当地电网造成了巨大压力，尤其是在高峰时段，并且估计它可以占国家用电量的2.3％。

As crypto-mania grows, so too will this terrible energy bill. And so too, it seems, will its political promoters.

随着加密杂志的增长，这项可怕的能源法案也会增长。似乎也是它的政治推动者。

If you didn’t watch Trump’s two-part inauguration, you might have missed “Paster Zo”, more formally known as Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who launched his very own cryptocurrency – quite literally from church – that rocketed to anestimated value of $4.5 million, but crashed and disappeared four hours later. It has now lost 93 per cent of its value, as have many of its everyday investors, with some estimates that individual investors may have lost tens of thousands of dollars each.

如果您不看特朗普的两部分就职典礼，那么您可能会错过“ Paster Zo”（更正式地称为Lorenzo Sewell牧师），后者发起了自己的加密货币（从字面上看，这是来自教会的，它都散发出了450万美元的刺激性价值，但是四个小时后坠毁并消失了。现在，它已经损失了其价值的93％，其许多日常投资者也损失了，一些估计单个投资者可能损失了数万美元。

This came only days after the $Trump meme-coin launched, which could become one of his most successful money makers. The coin was launched last week while Trump’s inner circle attended an invite-only crypto ball in DC. Soon after, many of the party-goers were boosting the coin online, as were his family and the president himself. Trump launched the meme coin by inviting his followers on X to “join my very special Trump Community”.

这是在$ trump Meme-Coin推出的几天之后，这可能成为他最成功的赚钱者之一。该硬币是上周推出的，而特朗普的内心圈子参加了DC的仅邀请加密球。不久之后，许多聚会者以及他的家人和总统本人都在网上促进硬币。特朗普通过邀请他的追随者在X上启动模因硬币，以“加入我非常特殊的特朗普社区”。

The meme-coin, which is 80 per cent owned by two of Trump’s shell companies, rose by more than 600 per cent in its first day. It kept climbing as average Americans joined the weekend pile-on. By Sunday night, the price of a single coin had risen from under $10 when it opened to just under $75, reaching a market capitalisation of more than $15 billion.

该模因属于特朗普两家壳牌公司拥有的80％，在第一天就增长了600％以上。随着美国人的普通加入周末的堆积，它不断攀登。到周日晚上，一枚硬币的价格从10美元不到10美元上涨，至75美元不到75美元，达到了超过150亿美元的市值。

Due to his shell company’s 80 per cent share, Axios analysts estimated that the meme-coin could account for almost 90 per cent of Trump’s net worth. Over the course of a weekend, a slew of crypto-boosters and everyday fans had made him an instant blockchain billionaire.

由于他的Shell公司的80％份额，Axios分析师估计，模因可占特朗普净资产的近90％。在一个周末的过程中，一系列加密助推器和每天的粉丝使他成为了即时的区块链亿万富翁。

That is, until the price dropped dramatically. Late on Sunday night, the meme-coin lost half of its market value within an hour. A wave of major investors sold all at the same time, while the Trump family welcomed the newest family meme-coin, $Melania. Those who knew about the coin’s launch, who invested early and calculated when to time their exit correctly, may have made millions in profits.

也就是说，直到价格急剧下降。在周日晚上，模因在一个小时内失去了其市场价值的一半。一波主要的投资者同时出售，而特朗普一家则欢迎最新的家庭模因$ Melania。那些知道硬币发射的人，他们提早投资并计算出何时正确退出，可能会赚取数百万美元的利润。

Analysis of the Solana blockchain suggests this to be the case, and that many others, especially the everyday traders following on Twitter or Truth Social, may have lost millions as well.

对Solana区块链的分析表明，情况如此，许多其他人，尤其是在Twitter或Truth Social上关注的日常交易者，也可能损失了数百万。

As such, in just the first week of his presidency, Trump and his inner circle of bitcoin bulls had just tried and tested a new and potentially far more lucrative form of energy-hungry political extraction.

因此，在总统任期的第一周，特朗普和他内心的比特币公牛圈刚刚尝试并测试了一种新的且潜在的渴望能源的政治提取形式。

What we do know is that the public explosion of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies globally is already destabilising local power grids, and will likely expand its already gargantuan environmental footprint.

我们所知道的是，全球比特币和加密货币的公众爆炸已经破坏了当地电网的稳定，并且很可能会扩大其已经狂欢的环境足迹。

What we don’t know is whether or not it may also become a destabilising force for national sovereignty – as well as the climate.

我们不知道的是，它是否也可能成为国家主权和气候的不稳定力量。