我的加密十年：从比特币新手到 HODLer

r's Day，我尝试做一些我以前没有做过的事情。不同的散步或酒吧通常会满足我的需求，但在蒂姆谈论比特币之后（我并不完全理解比特币，尽管我喜欢关于房子的一点），我决定尝试买一个。经过大量谷歌搜索，并探索了购买平台和数字钱包的新世界，我找到了交易平台 Bittylicious，我选择它是因为我喜欢这个名字（我仍然喜欢）。它是更负责任的交易所之一，只交易最受欢迎的、成熟的代币。在这里我发现了我的新的、极其不可思议的爱好。

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”.

自从一位名叫蒂姆的朋友一天晚上在晚餐时试图向我解释比特币以来，我多年来一直对加密货币产生了兴趣。我说“尝试过”是因为除了用这笔钱在伦敦买房子的那句话之外，我真的听不懂他说的任何一个词。然而，这确实激起了我的兴趣。我把这次谈话归档在“我不明白但有一天可能会进一步调查的事情”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.

快进到 2018 年元旦，我坐在家里，一边缓解宿醉的影响，一边努力想一些我以前从未做过的事情来纪念这一时刻。我通常会去不同的地方散步或尝试一家新酒吧，但今年我想做一些更有趣的事情。我想起了蒂姆的比特币故事，并决定今年我终于要尝试了解加密货币。

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.

经过大量谷歌搜索后，我发现了交易平台 Bittylicious，我选择它是因为我喜欢这个名字（我仍然喜欢）。它是更负责任的交易所之一，只交易最受欢迎的、成熟的代币。我开始和一个我认为是 BitMum 的人聊天。她提到，她在比特币价格约为 10 英镑时购买了比特币，这使她成为了加密货币版税。我偶尔会通过购买其他代币来增加我的加密货币持有量，包括以太坊、瑞波币和莱特币，尽管其数量会让技术兄弟嗤之以鼻。但我将总支出限制在 700 英镑，因为这是我可能在短暂休息时花费的金额。

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.

在过去的十年里，比特币已经从一种货币形式转变为一种主要的价值储存手段，就像黄金一样——但不太漂亮。它经历了狂野的高峰和低谷，而我购买的其他硬币则表现迟缓，但现在正显示出生命的迹象——这意味着我必须开始正确存储它们。

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，这是一个早期的比特币存储系统，其无休止的安全更新意味着我的入门级 MacBook Air 开始失去活力。我的数据科学家邻居韦恩花了两周时间才完成必要的更新，以便我可以检索它。

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.

我现在将我的加密货币存储在一个外部纳米分类账上，它看起来像一个闪存驱动器，但有无数的安全环需要跳过——并且附带一个单独的计算机生成的单词集合，如果我丢失了，这些单词可以让我访问我的比特币纳米。

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.

有的朋友提出批评。人们说：“洗钱和犯罪交易。” “你钱包里那张浸透了可乐的 20 英镑纸币，不是吗？”我现在回复。 “但它是一种随机的价值​​存储，”其他人会说。而黄金，尽管可以用它制成珠宝，不是吗？采矿过程中消耗的能源也大量增加。对此我没有一个很好的答案。

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，我告诉我的侄女和侄子（有四个人），我给了他们全部 0.005 比特币（当时价值约 30 英镑，现在价值 400 英镑），因为青少年买东西简直是一场噩梦，我感觉有点破产了，我想被视为一个很酷的阿姨。我问一位侄女（当时是六年级，在乐队中，过着最美好的生活）是否对加密货币感兴趣。 “事实上，我是，”她说。 “几年前，学校里的这个男孩从一个想用比特币支付的人那里买了一个假身份证，他懒得把剩下的钱换回来。他现在有2万英镑了。我问他今年夏天是否想来搭乘火车，但他说他要买一辆跑车。”就在那时我意识到我永远不会成为一个很酷的比特币持有者。据我估计，他的比特币现在价值约 15 万英镑。

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.

十年过去了，我的心情很复杂。共识是，比特币目前的上涨很大程度上得益于特朗普的背书。它可能会重新归于虚无，或者在某个时候，它可能会让我的退休生活变得更加舒适。我也希望我买了不止一件。热衷骑自行车的人开玩笑说，拥有自行车的完美数量是 N 加一，其中 N 是您开始的数字。对于我来说，比特币也是如此——这是我能理解的数学。但现在我很乐意持有。