使用它或失去它：比特币的长期前景取决于其用户

每当围绕比特币长期前景走向负面方向的担忧浮出水面时，常见的拒绝态度就是“好吧，告诉我们接下来该怎么做。”

Whenever concerns about Bitcoin’s long-term prospects’ going in a negative direction, a common refrain of dismissal is “Well tell us what to do about it then.” This is used to dismiss all concerns of regulation leading to regulatory capture, deeper involvement of certain entities leading to higher risks to the consensus process, of any type of failure mode that involves Bitcoin’s censorship resistance and ability to enable freedom eroding really.

每当担心比特币的长期前景走向负面方向时，常见的拒绝态度就是“好吧，告诉我们接下来该怎么做。”这被用来消除所有对监管导致监管捕获的担忧，某些实体的更深层次参与导致共识过程的更高风险，以及涉及比特币审查制度阻力和真正使自由受到侵蚀的能力的任何类型的失败模式。

“Well what’s your plan?”

“那你有什么计划吗？”

Use Bitcoin. Bitcoin consensus orbits around two important variables, economic actors and miners. Economic actors decide whether a set of consensus rules has value by deciding whether to honor their side of a transaction based on whether it is valid according to their consensus rules. Miners decide which set of consensus rules they will mine within, choosing the one that presents the highest value to them.

使用比特币。比特币共识围绕两个重要变量：经济参与者和矿工。经济参与者通过根据交易是否有效来决定是否尊重自己的交易，从而决定一组共识规则是否有价值。矿工决定他们将在哪一套共识规则中进行挖矿，选择对他们来说价值最高的一个。

Users who actually use Bitcoin, that is to transact and operate businesses, services, and other protocols to make use of blockspace, gain an influence through both mechanisms. A set of consensus rules needs two things, users who will value it, and miners who will mine it. Users buying blockspace attract miners with more revenue beyond what the block subsidy creates. To the degree that fees make up miners' revenue, users who generate those fees have that much proportionate “power” of a sort over miners. They decide in the event of a disagreement over consensus rules which side to give that revenue to, meaning miners would have to follow those rules to earn it.

实际使用比特币的用户，即交易和运营业务、服务和其他协议以利用区块空间的用户，通过这两种机制获得影响力。一套共识规则需要两件事，一是重视它的用户，二是会挖掘它的矿工。购买区块空间的用户吸引矿工的收入超出了区块补贴所创造的收入。就费用构成矿工收入的程度而言，产生这些费用的用户对矿工拥有相当大的“权力”。如果对共识规则存在分歧，他们决定将收入分配给哪一方，这意味着矿工必须遵守这些规则才能获得收入。

The threat of institutional adoption and regulatory encroachment very much do present a risk to Bitcoin in the long term if people simply stop doing anything with bitcoin but hold it. In that type of environment, regulations can come down on miners and brokers and very much influence events around consensus changes. They can attempt to veto useful and valuable changes, and try to push useless or damaging ones.

从长远来看，如果人们停止使用比特币做任何事情而是持有比特币，机构采用和监管侵犯的威胁确实会给比特币带来风险。在这种环境下，监管可能会针对矿工和经纪商，并对围绕共识变化的事件产生很大影响。他们可以尝试否决有用且有价值的变革，并尝试推动无用或有害的变革。

So what do we do to counteract that? We actually use Bitcoin for more than holding and investing. That is why scalability is so important. Because it allows more people to directly interact with the system in that way, to directly exert their influence. The more we actually use Bitcoin, the more influence users collectively have to exert in the future over consensus.

那么我们该如何应对呢？实际上，我们使用比特币的目的不仅仅是持有和投资。这就是为什么可扩展性如此重要。因为它可以让更多的人通过这种方式直接与系统交互，直接发挥他们的影响力。我们实际使用比特币的次数越多，用户在未来对共识施加的集体影响力就越大。

If Bitcoiners relegate bitcoin to nothing more than an asset to hold, something to let sit idle, then we will eventually lose it. We will lose our say and influence in the markets bitcoin facilitates, we will lose our influence over the consensus rules that miners choose to mine, we will lose it all.

如果比特币支持者将比特币仅仅视为一种可以持有的资产，一种可以闲置的资产，那么我们最终将失去它。我们将失去对比特币所促进的市场的发言权和影响力，我们将失去对矿工选择挖矿的共识规则的影响力，我们将失去一切。

Bitcoiners need to be active, not passive. We need to transact, we need to build more businesses, consume more blockspace. With payment networks like Lightning or Ark, uncensorable derivatives markets using DLCs, even dumb things like Ordinals and Inscriptions. The demand for blockspace needs to come from distributed and diverse sources, not just massive institutions and companies easily subjectable to regulatory and government influence.

比特币持有者需要主动，而不是被动。我们需要交易，我们需要建立更多的业务，消耗更多的区块空间。有了像 Lightning 或 Ark 这样的支付网络，使用 DLC 的不受审查的衍生品市场，甚至像 Ordinals 和 Inscriptions 这样愚蠢的东西。对区块空间的需求需要来自分布式和多样化的来源，而不仅仅是容易受到监管和政府影响的大型机构和公司。

Bitcoin is very much a “use it or lose it” thing. I’d rather not see it lost to people who actually care about freedom due to apathy.

比特币在很大程度上是一个“使用它或失去它”的东西。我不想看到它因为冷漠而被那些真正关心自由的人所失去。