比特币工作原理_什么是比特币，它如何工作？

比特币工作原理

Bitcoin, the digital currency, has been all over the news for years. But because it’s entirely digital and doesn’t necessarily correspond to any existing fiat currency, it’s not easy to understand for the newcomer. Let’s break down the basis of exactly what Bitcoin is, how it works, and its possible future in the global economy.

多年来，数字货币比特币一直是新闻。但是，由于它完全是数字的，并不一定与任何现有的法定货币相对应，因此对于新来者来说，理解起来并不容易。让我们详细解释比特币的基础，它的工作方式以及其在全球经济中的未来。

Editor’s Note: We want to make it very clear right up front that we are not recommending that you invest in Bitcoins. Its value fluctuates quite a bit, and it’s very likely that you may lose money.

编者注：我们想在开始时就很清楚地表明，我们不建议您投资比特币。它的价值波动很大，很可能您会赔钱。

比特币如何运作 (How Bitcoin Works)

In layman’s terms: Bitcoin is a digital currency. That’s a concept that might be more complex than you realize: it isn’t simply an assigned value of money stored in a digital account, like your bank account or credit line. Bitcoin has no corresponding physical element, like coins or paper bills (despite the popular image of an actual coin, above, to illustrate it). The value and verification of individual Bitcoins are provided by a global peer-to-peer network.

用外行的话说 ：比特币是一种数字货币。这个概念可能比您意识到的要复杂：它不仅仅是存储在数字帐户中的指定货币价值，例如您的银行帐户或信贷额度。比特币没有相应的物理元素，例如硬币或纸币(尽管上面有实际硬币的流行图像来说明)。单个比特币的价值和验证由全球对等网络提供。

Bitcoins are blocks of ultra-secure data that are treated like money. Moving this data from one person or place to another and verifying the transaction, i.e. spending the money, requires computing power. Users called “miners” allow their computers to be used by the system to safely verify the individual transactions. Those users are rewarded with new Bitcoins for their contributions. Those users can then spend their new Bitcoins on goods and services, and the process repeats.

比特币是被视为金钱的超安全数据块。将这些数据从一个人或一个地方转移到另一个人并验证交易(即花钱)需要计算能力。被称为“矿工”的用户允许系统使用其计算机来安全地验证各个交易。这些用户将因其贡献而获得新的比特币奖励。然后，这些用户可以将他们的新比特币用于商品和服务，然后重复该过程。

The advanced explanation: Imagine it as BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer network that you definitely didn’t use to download thousands of songs in the early 2000s. Except instead of moving files from one place to another, the Bitcoin network generates and verifies blocks of information that are expressed in the form of a proprietary currency.

进阶的解释 ：想象一下它是BitTorrent ，一种点对点网络，您肯定在2000年代初期没有使用它下载数千首歌曲。除了不是将文件从一个地方移动到另一个地方以外，比特币网络会生成并验证以专有货币形式表示的信息块。

Bitcoin and its many derivatives are known as cryptocurrencies. The system uses cryptography—extremely advanced cryptography called a blockchain—to generate new “coins” and verify the ones that are transferred from one user to another. The cryptographic sequences serve several purposes: making the transactions virtually impossible to fake, making “banks” or “wallets” of coins easily transferable as data, and authenticating the transfer of Bitcoin value from one person to another.

比特币及其许多衍生产品被称为加密货币。该系统使用密码学(一种称为区块链的极其先进的密码学)来生成新的“硬币”，并验证从一个用户转移到另一个用户的硬币。加密序列有几个用途：使交易几乎不可能伪造；使硬币的“银行”或“钱包”易于作为数据进行传输；以及验证比特币从一个人到另一个人的转移。

Before a Bitcoin can be spent, it has to be generated by the system, or “mined.” While a conventional currency needs to be minted or printed by a government, the mining aspect of Bitcoin is designed to make the system self-sustaining: people “mine” Bitcoins by providing processing power from their computers to the distributed network, which generates new blocks of data that contain the distributed global record of all transactions. The encoding and decoding process for these blocks requires an enormous amount of processing power, and the user who successfully generates the new block (or more accurately, the user whose system generated the randomized number that the system accepts as the new block) is rewarded with a number of Bitcoins, or with a portion of transaction fees.

在花费比特币之前，它必须由系统生成或“开采”。虽然常规货币需要由*铸造或印刷，但比特币的采矿方面旨在使系统自我维持：人们通过从其计算机向分布式网络提供处理能力来“开采”比特币，从而产生新的区块包含所有事务的分布式全局记录的数据。这些块的编码和解码过程需要大量的处理能力，并且成功生成新块的用户(或更准确地说，是系统生成了系统接受为新块的随机数的用户)会获得奖励。数量的比特币，或部分交易费用。

In this way, the very process of moving Bitcoins from one user to another creates the demand for more processing power donated to the peer-to-peer network, which generates new Bitcoins that can then be spent. It’s a self-scaling, self-replicating system that generates wealth…or at least, generates cryptographic representations of value that correspond to wealth.

这样，将比特币从一个用户转移到另一个用户的过程就产生了对捐赠给对等网络的更多处理能力的需求，这将产生可用于消费的新比特币。这是一个自我扩展，自我复制的系统，可以产生财富……或者至少可以生成与财富相对应的价值的密码表示。

比特币如何消费？ (How Are Bitcoins Spent?)

In layman’s terms: Imagine you’re buying a Coke at the supermarket with a debit card. The transaction has three elements: your card, corresponding to your bank account and your money, the bank itself that verifies the transaction and the transfer of money, and the store that accepts the money from the bank and finalizes the sale. A Bitcoin transaction has, broadly speaking, the same three components.

用外行的话来说：假设您在超市用借记卡购买可乐。交易包含三个元素：您的卡(对应于您的银行帐户和您的资金)，验证交易和资金转移的银行本身以及从银行接受资金并完成销售的商店。从广义上讲，比特币交易具有相同的三个组成部分。

Each Bitcoin user stores the data that represents his or her amount of coins in a program called a wallet, consisting of a custom password and a connection to the Bitcoin system. The user sends a transaction request to another user, buying or selling, and both users agree. The peer-to-peer Bitcoin system verifies the transaction via the global network, transferring the value from one user to the next and inserting cryptographic checks and verification at many levels. There is no centralized bank or credit system: the peer-to-peer network completes the encrypted transaction with the help of Bitcoin miners.

每个比特币用户都将代表他或她的硬币数量的数据存储在一个名为“钱包”的程序中，该程序包括一个自定义密码和一个与比特币系统的连接。用户向另一个用户发送交易请求(买卖)，并且两个用户都同意。对等比特币系统通过全球网络验证交易，将价值从一个用户转移到另一个用户，并在多个级别插入密码检查和验证。没有集中的银行或信贷系统：对等网络在比特币矿工的帮助下完成加密交易。

The advanced explanation: The technical side of things is a bit more complex. Each new Bitcoin transaction is recorded and verified onto a new block of data in the blockchain. (The two parties in the exchange are represented by randomized numbers that make each transaction essentially anonymous, even as they’re being verified.) Each block in the chain includes cryptological code linking it to and verifying it for the previous block.

高级解释 ：事物的技术方面稍微复杂一些。每个新的比特币交易都被记录并验证到区块链中的新数据块上。 (交换中的两个当事方用随机数表示，即使正在验证它们，每个交易也基本上是匿名的。)链中的每个区块都包含将其链接到并针对上一个区块进行验证的密码。

In the conventional sense, Bitcoin transactions are incredibly secure. Thanks to complex cryptography at every step in the process, which can take quite a lot of time to verify (see below), it’s more or less impossible to fake a transaction from one person or organization to another. However, it is possible to “steal” bitcoins by discovering someone’s digital wallet and the password that they use to access it. If that information is found, via hacking or social engineering, a digital Bitcoin stash can dispensary without any way to trace the thief. Since Bitcoin isn’t regulated or secured in the same way your bank account or credit account is, that money is simply gone.

从传统意义上讲，比特币交易非常安全。由于流程中每个步骤都需要进行复杂的加密，因此可能需要花费大量时间进行验证(请参阅下文)，所以伪造从一个人或一个组织到另一个组织的交易或多或少是不可能的。但是，可以通过发现某人的数字钱包和他们用来访问该钱包的密码来“窃取”比特币。如果通过黑客或社会工程发现了这些信息，那么数字比特币藏匿处就可以分发，而无需任何方式来追踪小偷。由于对比特币的监管或担保方式与您的银行帐户或信贷帐户不同，因此这些钱就没了。

您如何将比特币变成“真实”货币，反之亦然？ (How Do You Turn Bitcoins Into “Real” Money, and Vice-Versa?)

First of all, Bitcoin is real money, in the purely economic sense. It has value and can be traded for goods and services. It’s unlikely that you can pay your bills or buy groceries totally in Bitcoin (though those services do exist and they are growing), but you can buy a surprising amount of online goods with your Bitcoin wallet. At the moment, the biggest companies accepting Bitcoin include online computer hardware retailer Newegg, digital video game seller Steam, the social network Reddit, and even more general retailers like Overstock.com or Subway restaurants. Here’s a list of companies currently accepting Bitcoin payments directly or through gift cards.

首先，从纯粹的经济意义上讲，比特币是真钱。它具有价值，可以用于商品和服务的交易。您不可能完全用比特币支付账单或购买杂货(尽管这些服务确实存在并且正在增长)，但是您可以用比特币钱包购买数量惊人的在线商品。目前，接受比特币的最大公司包括在线计算机硬件零售商Newegg，数字视频游戏销售商Steam，社交网络Reddit以及Overstock.com或Subway restaurant等更一般的零售商。以下是目前直接接受或通过礼品卡接受比特币付款的公司的列表。

But as interesting as it is and as fast as it’s growing, Bitcoin simply can’t replace conventional, government-issued currency right now: your landlord probably won’t take a Bitcoin payment over a rent check. Even if you happen to have dozens of Bitcoins available and you’d like to spend the profit you’ve made on them on a new car, the car dealership probably doesn’t have the infrastructure to accept them as payment (although a private seller might!). So, if you have Bitcoins and you want cash in your country’s currency, or you have currency and you want to convert it to Bitcoin for buying, selling, or investing, you’ll need a conversion service.

但是，尽管如此有趣且发展Swift，但比特币现在根本无法替代传统的，*发行的货币：您的房东可能不会为房租支票支付比特币。即使您碰巧有几十个比特币可用，并且您想将自己从中获得的利润用于购买新车，汽车经销店也可能没有将其作为付款的基础设施(尽管是私人卖方)威力！)。因此，如果您有比特币，并且想要以您所在国家的货币来兑现现金，或者您有货币，并且想要将其转换为用于购买，出售或投资的比特币，则需要转换服务。

Broadly, converting Bitcoin into more standard currencies like US Dollars, British Pounds, Japanese Yen or Euro is very much like converting any of those currencies from one to the other when you’re traveling. You start with one currency, state your desired amount, give the value of the first currency plus a transaction fee, and receive the value in the converted currency in return. But since Bitcoin has no cash component and isn’t available to be accepted by conventional credit or debit transactions, you need to find a dedicated market exchange.

广义上讲，将比特币转换为美元，英镑，日元或欧元等更标准的货币非常像在旅行时将这些货币从一种转换为另一种。您从一种货币开始，陈述所需的金额，给出第一种货币的价值加上交易费用，然后以转换后的货币收取该价值。但是，由于比特币没有现金成分，并且不能被常规的信贷或借记交易接受，因此您需要找到专门的市场交易所。

Coinbase is the most popular market and exchange in the United States. (Note: this is not an endorsement.) It offers buying and selling services for Bitcoin and other, similar cryptocurrencies, and will exchange US dollars and other standard fiat currencies for Bitcoins, as well as buying Bitcoins for USD and 31 other national fiat currencies. The company doesn’t charge for exchanges between cryptocurrencies, but exchanging Bitcoins for dollars deposited to a US bank account will cost the user a 1.49% transfer fee. So, to move $10,000 worth of Bitcoin from your own wallet to your bank account would cost 1.74 Bitcoins for the actual value, plus either $14.9 USD or .00259 Bitcoin for the transfer fee. This is a fairly standard transfer for most of the verified markets and exchanges.

Coinbase是美国最受欢迎的市场和交易所。 (注意：这不是背书。)它提供比特币和其他类似加密货币的买卖服务，并将美元和其他标准法定货币兑换为比特币，以及以美元和其他31种法定货币购买比特币。。该公司不对加密货币之间的交换收取任何费用，但是用比特币兑换存入美国银行账户的美元将向用户收取1.49％的转移费。因此，将价值10,000美元的比特币从您自己的钱包中转移到您的银行帐户中，实际价值为1.74比特币，外加14.9美元或.00259比特币的转让费。对于大多数经过验证的市场和交易所来说，这是相当标准的转让。

There are other options for turning Bitcoin into conventional money. Coinbase and other markets can trade Bitcoin for USD and other currencies deposited directly to single-use debit cards or gift cards, or even into more flexible systems like PayPal, generally for a much higher fee. You can trade Bitcoins directly to another person for cash, though this is much more dangerous than going through an established system. (On the same note, be cautious of individuals wanting to trade Bitcoins directly for cash, goods, and services. The untraceable nature of the system makes it susceptible to fraud—see below.)

还有其他选择可以将比特币变成常规货币。 Coinbase和其他市场可以将比特币与美元和其他直接存入一次性借记卡或礼品卡，甚至甚至更灵活的系统(如PayPal)中的货币进行交易，通常费用要高得多。您可以将比特币直接交易给另一个人以获取现金，尽管这比通过既有系统进行交易要危险得多。 (在同一点上，请谨慎对待要直接将比特币用于现金，商品和服务的交易的人。该系统不可追溯的性质使其容易受到欺诈的影响，请参阅下文。)

比特币采矿的收益递减 (Bitcoin Mining Has Diminishing Returns)

A few years ago when the Bitcoin system was new, individual users “mined” for new Bitcoins at a rapid pace. Bitcoin mining software used local processors, and even extra processors like a computer’s graphics card, to calculate hashes for the next block in the blockchain. While the number of people using and “mining” Bitcoin was low, each user doing the mining would randomly confirm the next block at a higher pace, generating new Bitcoins for his or her account quickly.

几年前，当新的比特币系统出现时，个人用户Swift“寻找”新的比特币。比特币挖掘软件使用本地处理器，甚至使用诸如计算机图形卡之类的额外处理器来计算区块链中下一个区块的哈希值。尽管使用和“挖掘”比特币的人数很少，但每个进行挖掘的用户都会以更高的速度随机确认下一个区块，从而Swift为其帐户生成新的比特币。

But this boom in generation couldn’t last. The Bitcoin system is designed to make each new block more difficult to find than the last one, reducing the amount of randomized Bitcoins that are generated and distributed. That means that as time goes on, each individual mining for them has to work harder and harder (in a figurative sense—it’s the computer that’s working harder and using more electricity, and thus, costing more conventional money). As the number of individual Bitcoins grows, the amount of Bitcoins rewarded for a successfully completed hash is diminished. In fact, “whole” Bitcoins are no longer generated by a single user all at once, they’re rewarded with fractions of Bitcoins (which are still quite valuable).

但是这一代人的繁荣不会持续下去。比特币系统旨在使每个新区块都比上一个更难找到，从而减少了生成和分发的随机比特币的数量。这意味着随着时间的流逝，他们的每个采矿工作都必须越来越努力(从象征意义上讲，这是计算机在努力工作，消耗更多的电力，因此花费了更多的常规资金)。随着单个比特币数量的增加，成功完成哈希所奖励的比特币数量将减少。实际上，“整个”比特币不再是由单个用户一次生成的，而是获得了一部分比特币的奖励(这些比特币仍然很有价值)。

Initially, users created customized “mining rigs” that used relatively cheap clusters of off-the-shelf CPUs and GPUs to increase their chances of generating Bitcoin. Now the system is so popular and so distributed that an individual user can no longer simply buy a screamin’ fast GPU and expect to make back enough Bitcoin to cover its value in conventional money. Custom-designed “miners” are now sold for this purpose, with software and hardware designed for the sole purpose of supplying the maximum amount of computational power to the peer-to-peer system, and thus creating better odds of completing blocks. More processing power, more hardware, more chances of getting that payout…but at the same time, you’re spending more and more of your actual resources on hardware and electricity.

最初，用户创建了定制的“采矿设备”，这些设备使用相对便宜的现成CPU和GPU集群来增加产生比特币的机会。现在，该系统如此流行且分布如此之广，以至于单个用户不再能够简单地购买尖叫快速的GPU并期望赚回足够的比特币以支付其传统货币的价值。现在已为此目的出售了定制设计的“矿工” ，其软件和硬件的唯一目的是为对等系统提供最大的计算能力，从而提高了完成区块的几率。更多的处理能力，更多的硬件，更多的机会获得支付……但是，与此同时，您将越来越多的实际资源花费在硬件和电力上。

As a result, those hoping to earn conventional wealth via Bitcoin would be better off trading for it or selling goods and services rather than trying to make a mining system and run it constantly.

结果，那些希望通过比特币赚取传统财富的人，与其进行交易或出售商品和服务，不如尝试建立一个采矿系统并持续运行，这会更好。

At the moment, there are between twelve and thirteen million Bitcoins in existence. They’ll become harder and harder to mine as more are generated. The system has an upper limit: after 21 million Bitcoins are generated, no more can be mined. Based on current trends, the last whole Bitcoin will be mined sometime in the 2040s, with the final portion of fractional coin rewards continuing for about 100 years. Once the upper limit is reached, the value of the currency will fluctuate almost entirely on supply and demand, though “miners” will still be able to earn Bitcoins by lending their processing power to the transaction system and receiving transaction fees.

目前，存在的比特币数量在1200万至1300万之间。随着产生更多的东西，它们将变得越来越难开采。该系统有一个上限：生成2100万个比特币后，就无法再开采了。根据目前的趋势，最后一个完整的比特币将在2040年代的某个时候开采，部分硬币奖励的最后一部分将持续约100年。一旦达到上限，货币的价值将几乎完全根据供需而波动，尽管“矿工”仍然可以通过将其处理能力借给交易系统并收取交易费用来赚取比特币。

比特币的价格波动超过标准货币 (Bitcoin’s Value Fluctuates More Than Standard Money)

If you’re reading this guide, it’s probably because you’ve heard that Bitcoin is valuable. And it is. But that value changes rapidly, much more rapidly than any currency from a stable economy or even most stocks and bonds. The shifts in the value of Bitcoin can be huge, too: as a function of its total value, Bitcoin fluctuates more than ten times faster than the US dollar.

如果您正在阅读本指南，则可能是因为您听说过比特币很有价值。是的。但是这种价值变化Swift，比稳定经济乃至大多数股票和债券中的任何货币都快得多。比特币价值的变化也可能是巨大的：作为其总价值的函数，比特币的波动速度是美元的十倍以上。

In 2010, each whole Bitcoin was worth less than a 25 cents in USD. In late November of 2017, each Bitcoin was valued at over $11,000 (before dramatically spiking downward to $9,000 almost immediately). Obviously that’s a huge rate of growth and a massive opportunity for anyone who got on board early—initial Bitcoin miners might be millionaires now if they’ve held on to their Bitcoins long enough. But those two points of data don’t tell the whole story: Bitcoin has gone through various dips and “crashes,” initially in a volatile period in late 2013 and early 2014. Each time the value recovered, but there’s no assurance that the current climb will continue, or that the entire cryptocurrency market won’t collapse.

在2010年，每个完整的比特币的价值不足25美分。在2017年11月下旬，每个比特币的价值均超过11,000美元(之后几乎立即急剧下降至9,000美元)。显然，对于任何早期加入的人来说，这都是巨大的增长速度和巨大的机会-如果最初的比特币矿工坚持使用比特币的时间足够长，那么他们现在可能是百万富翁。但是，这两点数据并不能说明全部问题：比特币经历了多次下跌和“崩溃”，最初是在2013年底和2014年初的动荡时期。每次价值回升，但无法保证当前攀升将继续下去，否则整个加密货币市场不会崩溃。

This makes Bitcoin a questionable method for investment. While it’s true that many people have made huge amounts of conventional wealth by mining and trading in Bitcoin, that wealth is just as volatile as the market itself, unless it’s transferred to more stable currencies or investments. The ups and downs of the Bitcoin market appear to be coming much faster and more frequently than fluctuations in major stock markets and exchanges. The current high price of Bitcoin might be just the start before an even larger boom, or it might be a temporary “bubble” with an upcoming crash followed by a recovery…or the entire Bitcoin market could implode tomorrow, leaving millions of people with nothing but worthless cryptographic sequences. There’s no way to know.

这使得比特币成为一种可疑的投资方法。的确，许多人通过比特币的开采和交易赚了许多常规财富，但除非将其转移到更稳定的货币或投资上，否则这些财富的波动性与市场本身一样波动。比特币市场的起伏似乎要比主要股票市场和交易所的波动更快，更频繁。当前比特币的高价格可能只是更大繁荣之前的开始，或者可能是暂时的“泡沫”，即将到来的崩溃随后是复苏……或者整个比特币市场可能在明天暴跌，使数以百万计的人一无所有但毫无价值的加密序列。没有办法知道。

比特币的优势 (Bitcoin’s Strengths)

That doesn’t mean Bitcoin won’t have its place in the future, however. Let’s talk about some advantages and disadvantages to Bitcoin over traditional currency.

但是，这并不意味着比特币在未来将不再占有一席之地。让我们谈谈比特币相对于传统货币的一些优缺点。

Anonymity and Privacy

匿名与隐私

Bitcoin purchases between individual users are entirely private: it’s possible for two people to exchange Bitcoins or fractions of coins between wallets simply by exchanging hashes, with no names, email addresses, or any other information. And because the peer-to-peer network uses a new hash for each transaction, it’s more or less impossible to link concurrent purchases to a single user. The nature of the peer-to-peer encrypted network makes it secure from the outside, as well: no one else can see your personal purchases or receipts without first getting access to your wallet.

个人用户之间的比特币购买完全是私人的：两个人可以在钱包之间交换比特币或零碎的硬币，而无需交换名称，电子邮件地址或任何其他信息，这是可能的。而且由于对等网络为每个交易使用新的哈希，因此将并发购买链接到单个用户或多或少是不可能的。对等加密网络的性质也使其从外部受到保护：在没有首先访问您的钱包的情况下，没有其他人可以看到您的个人购买或收据。

No Required Transaction Fees (For Now)

无需交易费(暂时)

Conventional non-cash purchases include transaction fees: pay with a Visa credit card, and Visa will charge the merchant a few cents to verify the transaction. And of course, the cost of that charge is passed on to you in the form of higher prices for goods and services.

常规的非现金购买包括交易费用：使用Visa信用卡付款，Visa将向商家收取几美分的费用以验证交易。当然，这笔费用的成本会以商品和服务的较高价格形式转嫁给您。

At the moment, there are no mandatory transaction fees for Bitcoin. Individual users and merchants can submit their purchases to the peer-to-peer network and simply wait for it to be verified on the next block. However, this process can take time (and it takes more time the more the network is used). So to speed up transactions, many merchants and users add a transaction fee to increase the priority of the transaction in the block, rewarding users on the peer-to-peer network for completing the verification process faster.

目前，比特币没有强制性交易费。单个用户和商家可以将其购买的商品提交到对等网络，并仅等待在下一个区块中对其进行验证。但是，此过程可能会花费一些时间(并且使用的网络越多，花费的时间就越多)。因此，为了加快交易速度，许多商家和用户增加了交易费用以增加区块中交易的优先级，从而奖励点对点网络上的用户以更快地完成验证过程。

As the global supply of Bitcoins reaches its 21 million coin limit, transaction fees will become the primary method for miners to earn Bitcoins. At this point, presumably most transactions will include a small fee simply as a function of completing the purchase quickly.

随着全球比特币供应量达到2100万枚硬币限额，交易费将成为矿工赚取比特币的主要方法。在这一点上，大概大多数交易只是为了快速完成购买而包含一小笔费用。

No Central Governing Authority or Taxes

没有*管理机构或税收

Because Bitcoin isn’t recognized as an official currency by any country, buying and selling Bitcoins themselves and using them to purchase goods and services isn’t regulated. So anything you buy with Bitcoins is not subject to a standard sales tax, or any other tax that’s normally applied to that item or service. This can be huge economic boon if you’re wealthy enough and interested enough to do a lot of business exclusively in Bitcoin.

因为任何国家都不承认比特币为官方货币，所以不对自己买卖比特币以及使用它们购买商品和服务进行监管。因此，您用比特币购买的任何物品都无需缴纳标准销售税或通常适用于该商品或服务的任何其他税种。如果您足够富有并且有足够的兴趣专门从事比特币业务，那么这可能是巨大的经济利益。

Without being subject to most monetary laws, Bitcoin is effectively a barter system. Imagine your current supply of Bitcoins as a gigantic stack of potatoes: if you trade ten thousand potatoes for a new TV, the government won’t ask for a sales tax in the form of eight hundred potatoes. It simply isn’t equipped to handle any transactions not performed in its own currency.

不受大多数货币法律的约束，比特币实际上是一种易货系统。想象一下，您当前的比特币供应是一大堆土豆：如果您用一万个土豆换购一台新电视，*将不会以八百个土豆的形式征收营业税。它根本无法处理未使用其本币进行的任何交易。

However, you should be aware that any conventional earnings you receive from dealing in Bitcoin will be treated in the usual way. So if you transfer $10,000 worth of Bitcoins to your bank account via a Bitcoin market, you will need to report it as income on your taxes. Dealing in Bitcoin doesn’t nullify other standard requirements for taxation, either: even if you purchase a new car via Bitcoin from a private seller, you’ll still have to register that car with the government and pay taxes based on its market value.

但是，您应该知道，您从比特币交易中获得的任何常规收入都将以通常的方式处理。因此，如果您通过比特币市场将价值10,000美元的比特币转移到您的银行帐户，则需要将其报告为税收收入。交易比特币也不会使其他标准税收要求无效：即使您通过比特币从私人卖家那里购买了新车，您仍然必须向*注册该车并根据其市值纳税。

比特币的弱点 (Bitcoin Weaknesses)

So if Bitcoin is so great, why isn’t everyone using it? Well, obviously, it has some drawbacks too, especially at the current time.

因此，如果比特币是如此之好，为什么每个人都没有使用它？好吧，显然，它也有一些缺点，尤其是在当前时间。

Possible Government Interference

可能的*干预

Any time something new comes around and challenges the status quo, the government is going to get involved to make sure that things remain the way they are supposed to be. The fact is that the US government, and other governments, are looking into Bitcoin for a variety of reasons. Just in the last few days, the US government has started seizing some accounts from the biggest Bitcoin exchange. More is likely to come in the future.

任何时候，一些新的东西，恶有恶报和挑战现状，*要参与，以确保事情保持他们应该是的方式。事实是，美国*和其他*出于各种原因正在研究比特币。就在最近几天，美国*已开始从最大的比特币交易所扣押一些账户。将来可能还会有更多。

No Monetary Sovereignty

没有货币主权

Perhaps the biggest weakness of bitcoin is that it is not a “recognized” sovereign currency—that is, it is not backed by the full faith of any governing body. While this could be seen as strength, the fact that Bitcoin is a fiat currency which is accepted only on the perceived value of other bitcoin users makes it highly vulnerable to destabilization. Simply put, if one day a large number of merchants who accept bitcoin as a form of payment stop doing so, then the value of bitcoin would fall drastically.

也许比特币的最大弱点是它不是一种“公认的”主权货币，也就是说，它不受任何理事机构的全力支持。虽然这可以看作是力量，但事实上，比特币是一种法定货币，仅在其他比特币用户的感知价值上才被接受，这使其很容易受到不稳定因素的影响。简而言之，如果有一天有大量接受比特币作为付款方式的商人停止这样做，那么比特币的价值将急剧下降。

The current high value of Bitcoin is a function of both the relative scarcity of Bitcoins themselves and its popularity as a means of investment and wealth generation. If confidence in the Bitcoin market is suddenly and drastically reduced—for example, if a major government declared Bitcoin use illegal, or one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges was hacked and lost all of its stored value—the value of the currency will crash and investors will lose huge amounts of money.

比特币当前的高价值既取决于比特币本身的相对稀缺性，又取决于其作为投资和财富产生手段的受欢迎程度。如果对比特币市场的信心突然而急剧下降，例如，如果一个主要*宣布使用比特币是非法的，或者最大的比特币交易所之一被黑客入侵并失去了全部储值，那么该货币的价值将崩溃，投资者将损失大量金钱。

The United States Treasury does not recognize bitcoin as a conventional currency, but does recognize its status as a commodity, like stocks and bonds. Similarly, the US Internal Revenue Service considers bitcoins property and taxes them as such if they are declared. No other country has declared bitcoin to be a recognized currency, but engagement with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies varies from place to place. Some countries are investigating bitcoin as a growing commodity market, some take the same stance as the US declaring them assets, and some have explicitly banned their use for transfer of goods or services (though the means of enforcing those bans are limited).

美国财政部不承认比特币为常规货币，但承认其作为商品的地位，例如股票和债券。同样，美国国税局(US Internal Revenue Service)会考虑比特币的财产，并在对其进行申报时对它们进行征税。没有其他国家宣布比特币是公认的货币，但是与比特币和其他加密货币的互动因地而异。一些国家正在调查比特币作为一个增长中的商品市场，一些国家的立场与美国宣布其资产相同，有些国家明确禁止将其用于商品或服务的转让(尽管执行这些禁令的手段有限)。

Lack of Protections

缺乏保护

The Bitcoin network has no built-in protection mechanisms when it comes to accidental loss or theft. For instance, if you lose the hard drive where your Bitcoin wallet file is stored (think corruption or drive failure with no backup), the Bitcoins held in that wallet are lost forever to the entire economy. Interestingly, this is an aspect which further exacerbates the limited supply of Bitcoins.

涉及意外丢失或盗窃时，比特币网络没有内置的保护机制。例如，如果您丢失了存储您的比特币钱包文件的硬盘驱动器(考虑损坏或没有备份的驱动器故障)，则该钱包中持有的比特币将永久丢失给整个经济。有趣的是，这一方面进一步加剧了比特币的有限供应。

Additionally, if your wallet file is stolen or compromised and the Bitcoins contained within it are spent by the thief before the rightful owner, the double spending protection mechanism built into the network means the rightful owner has no recourse. Unlike if, for example, your credit card is stolen, you can call the bank and cancel the card, bitcoin has no such authority. The Bitcoin network only knows that the bitcoins in the compromised wallet file are valid and processes them accordingly. In fact, there is already malware out there which is designed specifically to steal Bitcoins.

此外，如果您的钱包文件被盗或被盗，并且其中的比特币是由小偷在合法拥有者之前使用的，则网络中内置的双重支出保护机制意味着合法拥有者无法追索。例如，与您的信用卡被盗不同，您可以致电银行并取消该卡，而比特币则无此权限。比特币网络仅知道受感染的钱包文件中的比特币是有效的，并进行相应处理。实际上，已经有专门用于窃取比特币的恶意软件。

Bitcoin markets are vulnerable to attack or fraud. Major exchanges like GBH and Cryptsy have been shut down with all the Bitcoin entrusted to their care presumably stolen by the operators. Japan-based Mt. Gox, formerly the handler of over half the Bitcoin transactions on the planet, was shuttered after a theft of hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins. The 2014 incident caused a huge (but temporary) drop in the value of Bitcoin worldwide.

比特币市场容易受到攻击或欺诈。像GBH和Cryptsy这样的主要交易所已经被关闭，所有托管给他们的比特币都可能被运营商窃取了。日本的富士山 Gox以前是地球上一半以上的比特币交易的处理者，在数十万比特币被盗后被关闭。 2014年的事件导致全球比特币的价值大幅(但暂时)下降。

有限的并发交易 (Limited Concurrent Transactions)

The Bitcoin block system requires connection and confirmation from the peer-to-peer network to be verified. Because each block contains a limited record of transactions and an upper limit to the amount of new transactions that can be written, there’s a limit to how many people can buy and sell with the system at any given time. As more and more vendors and individuals use Bitcoin to do business, the number of transactions per second increase, and the peer-to-peer network is becoming congested, with some operations without transaction fees taking hours to clear. Whereas conventional payment systems like credit cards can simply expand their connections and processing power to speed up processing, the isolated peer-to-peer nature of bitcoin doesn’t allow it to scale with the global financial system.

比特币区块系统需要对等网络的连接和确认才能进行验证。由于每个区块都包含有限的交易记录和可写入的新交易数量的上限，因此在任何给定时间可以使用该系统买卖的人数是有限制的。随着越来越多的供应商和个人使用比特币开展业务，每秒的交易数量增加，对等网络变得拥挤，一些没有交易费用的操作需要数小时才能清除。传统的支付系统(例如信用卡)可以简单地扩展其连接和处理能力以加快处理速度，而比特币的点对点隔离性使其无法与全球金融系统一起扩展。

Black Market Appeal

黑市上诉

A central principle to the design of the Bitcoin system is that there is no single transactional processing authority. As a result, no single user can be locked out of the system. Combine this with the inherent anonymity of transactions, and you have an ideal medium of exchange for nefarious purposes.

比特币系统设计的中心原则是没有单一的交易处理机构。结果，无法将单个用户锁定在系统之外。将其与固有的交易匿名性结合在一起，您便可以作为邪恶目的的理想交换媒介。

Bitcoin has become an ideal means for commerce in illicit goods and services. The quintessential case is the Silk Road, a dark web site that allowed users to anonymously trade items like drugs and fake identification, all bought with Bitcoin thanks to its untraceable nature. The story of Silk Road’s illegal trade didn’t even stop after the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Department of Justice shut down the site and seized its digital holdings in 2013. A Secret Service agent was charged with stealing over $800,000 of bitcoin from the investigators, who had held the seized digital currency to be auctioned off for the benefit of the law enforcement agencies.

比特币已成为非法商品和服务贸易的理想手段。最典型的案例是“ 丝绸之路” ，这是一个黑暗的网站，允许用户匿名交易诸如毒品和假冒身份之类的物品，这些物品由于其不可追踪的性质而全部用比特币购买。在美国毒品执法机构和司法部于2013年关闭该网站并没收其数字资产之后，丝路的非法交易的故事甚至没有停止。一个特勤局特工被指控从调查人员窃取了超过80万美元的比特币，持有被扣押的数字货币的人为了执法机构的利益被拍卖。

While this is not exactly a weakness in Bitcoin (after all, drug dealers using cash doesn’t undermine the value of the currency itself), the unintended consequence of its usage for dubious purposes could be considered one. In fact, the US Treasury Department recently applied money laundering rules to bitcoin exchanges.

尽管这并不是比特币的弱点(毕竟，使用现金的毒贩不会破坏货币本身的价值)，但将其用于可疑目的的意外后果可以认为是其中之一。实际上，美国财政部最近将洗钱规则应用于比特币交易所。

辩论与争议的话题 (Subjects of Debate and Controversy)

Lastly, let’s indulge a bit of controversy surrounding Bitcoin. While these topics of conversation are interesting, most everything in this section is conjecture and should be taken with a grain of salt—we just think they’re worth noting to get a full picture of the Bitcoin story.

最后，让我们纵容有关比特币的一些争议。尽管这些对话话题很有趣，但本节中的大多数内容都是猜测，应该带点盐味-我们认为它们值得一提，以全面了解比特币的故事。

Enigmatic Developer

神秘的开发者

The primary designer of the bitcoin specification is a “person” named Satoshi Nakamoto. Person is put in quotes here because Nakamoto has not connected “his” identity with a publicly known person. Satoshi Nakamoto could be an individual man or woman, an internet handle, or a group of people, but nobody actually knows. Once their work of designing the Bitcoin network was complete, this person or persons essentially disappeared.

比特币规范的主要设计者是一个名为“中本聪 ”的人。由于Nakamoto并未将“他的”身份与公开的知名人士联系在一起，因此在此处将个人加引号。中本聪(Satoshi Nakamoto)可以是个人，也可以是互联网用户，也可以是一群人，但实际上没人知道。一旦设计比特币网络的工作完成，这个人或多个人就基本消失了。

Multiple individual people and teams of developers have been theorized to be the “real” Satoshi Nakamoto, with no conclusive proof for any one of them at the time of writing. Whoever he, she, or they are, Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to be in possession of billions of US dollars worth of Bitcoin at current market rates.

理论上，多个个人和开发人员团队是“真正的”中本聪，在撰写本文时，他们中的任何一个都没有定论。无论是他，她还是他们，无论是中本聪(Satoshi Nakamoto)，按照目前的市场汇率，估计都拥有价值数十亿美元的比特币。

Resistance From Conventional Investors

来自传统投资者的抵制

Many experts in standard money markets and investments consider Bitcoin a poor choice for investing money. The extreme volatility of Bitcoin versus investments like stocks, bonds, and standard commodities makes larger and older institutions wary. In addition, some investors and investigators consider Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be either a passing fad (an economic bubble) and thus an extremely risky means of investment, or a fraud in and of itself, a “Ponzi scheme” for the benefit of Satoshi Nakamoto and other early investors.

标准货币市场和投资领域的许多专家认为，比特币是投资货币的不佳选择。相对于股票，债券和标准商品等投资，比特币的极端波动性使得规模较大的机构更加警惕。此外，一些投资者和调查人员认为比特币和其他加密货币要么是一种过时的风尚(经济泡沫)，因而是一种极具风险的投资手段，要么本身就是欺诈，这是中本聪的“庞氏骗局”。中本聪和其他早期投资者。

On the other hand, it’s possible that some of these statements are made specifically to manipulate the value of Bitcoin: JP Morgan Chase has been accused of publicly calling the worth of Bitcoin into question via CEO statements while investing in it at the same time. As stated above, use caution when dealing in Bitcoin either as a means of purchasing goods or services or investing.

另一方面，这些声明中有一些是专门为操纵比特币的价值而做出的：JP Morgan Chase被指控在同时进行投资的同时通过CEO声明公开质疑比特币的价值。如上所述，在以交易方式购买商品或服务或投资比特币时要格外小心。

比特币现金叉和其他加密货币 (Bitcoin Cash Fork and Other Cryptocurrencies)

On August 1st, 2017, long debates between bitcoin proponents and disagreements on how to solve its problems resulted in a currency split. The Bitcoin standard was broken in two, with the original system unaffected and the new Bitcoin Cash standard added. This was less like a stock market split and more like a software fork. Every person or organization who owned Bitcoin in any amount immediately owned an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash, with sales and transfers of both currencies occurring normally after the split. Like the original Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash is entirely digital and has no real-world physical component (despite the name).

2017年8月1日，比特币支持者之间长期的辩论以及关于如何解决其问题的分歧导致了货币分裂。比特币标准被一分为二，原始系统不受影响，并增加了新的比特币现金标准。这不像股票市场分裂，而更像软件分支。每个拥有任何数量的比特币的个人或组织都立即拥有相同数量的比特币现金，两种货币的销售和转移通常在拆分后发生。像原始的比特币一样，比特币现金完全是数字的，没有现实世界的物理成分(尽管有名称)。

The split is a hard fork in software terms. The separate Bitcoin Cash peer-to-peer system allows for eight times more transactions per block, making it a better (but not necessarily equal) competitor to credit and debit cards for constant online and in-person sales. The operators of Bitcoin Cash hope that it will become a more widely-accepted currency for standard purchases, like coffee shops or supermarkets.

从软件的角度来看，这种分裂是硬分叉。单独的比特币现金点对点系统允许每个区块进行八倍的交易，从而使其成为信用卡和借记卡更好(但不一定相等)的竞争对手，从而实现了持续的在线和亲自销售。比特币现金的运营商希望，它将成为标准购买的一种更广泛接受的货币，例如咖啡店或超市。

Because of the newer system, Bitcoin Cash has not benefited from the explosive growth of value that the original Bitcoin Cash has experienced. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is trading at approximately $325 per unit, less than 10% of the value of the original Bitcoin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the new standard: a currency with a smaller range of market fluctuation and a slower, more steady growth rate may be appealing to businesses. But at the moment, Bitcoin Cash transactions aren’t supported by any notable merchants, aside from existing cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.

由于采用了更新的系统，比特币现金并未从原始比特币现金经历的价值爆炸性增长中受益。在撰写本文时，比特币现金(BCH)的交易价格约为每单位325美元，不到原始比特币价值的10％。对于新标准而言，这不一定是一件坏事：市场波动范围较小且增长率较慢，更稳定的货币可能会吸引企业。但是目前，除了现有的加密货币交易所和钱包之外，任何著名的商人都不支持比特币现金交易。

Without major support from large online or physical retailers, Bitcoin Cash seems unlikely to become as successful as the original Bitcoin. It’s more likely that the forked standard will join the ever-expanding list of competing cryptocurrencies without any notable application beyond the cryptocurrency market itself. These competing currencies use peer-to-peer systems similar to the original Bitcoin, but with significant changes in cryptographic methods and terms. Examples include Litecoin, Ethereum, and Zcash.

没有大型在线或实体零售商的大力支持，比特币现金似乎不可能像原始比特币那样成功。分叉的标准很有可能会加入到不断扩大的竞争性加密货币列表中，而没有超出加密货币市场本身的任何显着应用。这些竞争性货币使用的点对点系统与原始比特币类似，但是加密方法和术语发生了重大变化。示例包括莱特币，以太坊和Zcash。

None of the competitors to Bitcoin has reached any notable fraction of its current value, and support from retailers outside of the growing and somewhat speculative niche of cryptocurrency exchanges is minimal.

比特币的竞争对手都没有达到其现值的任何显着比例，并且在加密货币交易所的发展和投机性利基市场之外，零售商的支持微乎其微。

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are fascinating developments, a mark of the desire for participants in the information age to lessen their dependency on the economic and legal systems that prop up institutions from before the 21st century. It’s certainly made plenty of fortunes in its brief existence…and lost more than a few as well. The long-term viability of Bitcoin as a medium for wealth has yet to be determined.

比特币和加密货币的发展令人着迷，这标志着信息时代参与者希望减少对21世纪之前支撑机构的经济和法律体系的依赖。它的短暂存在无疑带来了很多财富……而且损失了不少。比特币作为财富的媒介的长期生存能力尚未确定。

If you’d like to get involved in Bitcoin or any of its competitors, make sure to do your research and use caution. Bitcoin can be a lucrative hobby and an exciting investment, but as with any other kind of investing, it’s always best to diversify for safety. If you’d like to read more about Bitcoin, we recommend checking out Bitcoin.org, the Bitcoin Wiki, and the Bitcoin Wikipedia page.

如果您想参与比特币或其任何竞争对手，请务必进行研究并谨慎使用。比特币可能是一种有利可图的爱好，也是一项令人振奋的投资，但是与其他任何类型的投资一样，为了安全起见，进行多元化始终是最好的选择。如果您想了解有关比特币的更多信息，我们建议您查看Bitcoin.org ，比特币Wiki和比特币Wikipedia页面。

Image credit: Zack Copley, Mirko Tobias Schaefer

图片来源： Zack Copley ， Mirko Tobias Schaefer

翻译自: https://www.howtogeek.com/141374/htg-explains-what-is-bitcoin-and-how-does-it-work/