比特幣和美國夢有什麼共同點

比特幣和美國對不同的人來說意味著不同的東西。兩者可能都被企業利益所俘虜。兩者都與自由有關。

Bitcoin and America are two sides of the same coin. Both are full of promise and potential, but both have also been captured by corporate interests. Despite this, both Bitcoin and America are still all about freedom.

比特幣和美國是同一枚硬幣的兩面。兩者都充滿希望和潛力，但也都被企業利益所俘虜。儘管如此，比特幣和美國仍然是自由的。

The United States of America says, after Walt Whitman: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” It's also full of platitudes: Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, A Shining City on a Hill. They've become platitudes as time has passed and the country (and the people who make it up) have changed. Changed just as its national motto has, from a fitting e pluribus unum ("from many, one") to a frankly puzzling “In God We Trust.”

美利堅合眾國效仿沃爾特·惠特曼的說法：“我很大，我包容眾多。”它也充滿了陳腔濫調：自由之地、勇者之家、山上的光輝之城。隨著時間的流逝和國家（以及組成國家的人民）的變化，它們已經成為陳腔濫調。就像它的國家座右銘一樣，從合適的 e pluribus unum（“來自許多，一個”）變成了坦白令人費解的“我們相信上帝”。

What hasn’t changed, at least in name, is the U.S.’s animating myth: The American Dream. The idea that anyone can achieve success through sacrifice, talent, hard work, and grit, rather than just plain old luck.

至少在名義上沒有改變的是美國的動畫神話：美國夢。任何人都可以透過犧牲、天賦、勤奮和毅力取得成功，而不僅僅是靠運氣。

The American Dream means different things to different people, though. I am a first-generation Greek-American, so to me, the American Dream means taking advantage of the opportunities I had because of a sacrifice my grandparents made by leaving their home country with their children. Does the American Dream mean the same thing to those whose families came from England ten generations ago? Or five generations ago from Ireland? Or Italy? What about those whose ancestors came here on slave ships?

不過，美國夢對不同的人來說意味著不同的事情。我是第一代希臘裔美國人，所以對我來說，美國夢意味著利用我所擁有的機會，因為我的祖父母帶著孩子離開祖國做出了犧牲。對於那些十代以前來自英國的家庭來說，美國夢是否意味著同樣的事情？還是五代以前的愛爾蘭人？還是義大利？那些祖先乘坐奴隸船來到這裡的人又怎樣呢？

Probably not.

可能不會。

This ambiguity isn’t necessarily a problem. It’s true of many big, important ideas: democracy, for an easy example. Just because there isn’t broad, ubiquitous agreement on what an idea means doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to glean from it. There are guiding principles embedded in these ideas. At risk of sounding full of non-sequiturs, it’s in this way that Bitcoin and the American Dream fit together.

這種歧義不一定是問題。對於許多重大的、重要的想法都是如此：舉個簡單的例子，民主。僅僅因為對於一個想法的含義沒有廣泛、普遍的共識，並不意味著沒有任何東西可以從中收集。這些想法中蘊含著指導原則。儘管聽起來充滿了不合邏輯的風險，但比特幣和美國夢正是透過這種方式結合在一起的。

Bitcoin and its multitudes and platitudes

比特幣及其眾多的陳腔濫調

Yeah, I know. Bitcoin!

是的，我知道。比特幣！

Platitudes include: Bitcoin Fixes This, Bitcoin is [Synonym for Hope], You Wouldn’t Get It, Number Go Up, Have Fun Staying Poor.

陳腔濫調包括：比特幣解決了這個問題，比特幣是[希望的同義詞]，你不會得到它，數字上升，享受貧窮的樂趣。

It might seem trite to compare Bitcoin to the American Dream, but from my vantage point the commonalities are painfully obvious.

將比特幣與美國夢進行比較似乎有些老生常談，但從我的角度來看，它們的共同點是非常明顯的。

At the surface level Bitcoin and the American Dream are a decent match. Success through “hard work”? That’s exactly how bitcoin mining works: the more work you put in, the more you’re rewarded. We can ask more questions.

從表面上看，比特幣和美國夢是非常匹配的。成功是靠「努力」嗎？這正是比特幣挖礦的工作原理：您投入的工作越多，獲得的獎勵就越多。我們可以提出更多問題。

Is bitcoin peer-to-peer, electronic cash? Is bitcoin digital gold? Is bitcoin a store of value? Will Bitcoin enable a clean energy transition? Will Bitcoin use all our water? Can the Bitcoin protocol supercharge ransomware? Can Bitcoin empower the individual in oppressive regimes? Will Bitcoin cripple the Federal Reserve? Will Bitcoin bankrupt you? Will Bitcoin make you rich? Is Bitcoin Resistance Money? Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?

比特幣是點對點的電子現金嗎？比特幣是數位黃金嗎？比特幣是一種價值儲存手段嗎？比特幣能否實現清潔能源轉型？比特幣會用掉我們所有的水嗎？比特幣協議可以增強勒索軟體的威力嗎？比特幣能否在壓迫政權下賦予個人權力？比特幣會削弱聯準會嗎？比特幣會讓你破產嗎？比特幣會讓你變得富有嗎？比特幣是抵抗貨幣嗎？比特幣是龐氏騙局嗎？

The answers to these questions depend on whom you ask. For this reason, Bitcoin and the American Dream are even more alike that they appear.

這些問題的答案取決於你問的對象。因此，比特幣和美國夢看起來更相似。

Bitcoin means something different to me, a fully banked American citizen with access to basically any financial product I can dream up and to a relatively stable local currency, than it does to Roya Mahboob, an Afghani woman who uses Bitcoin (among other technologies) to help girls in Afghanistan overcome gender inequality and get an education. It means something different yet to Argentinians and Venezuelans facing hyperinflation.

比特幣對我來說意味著不同的東西，我是一個銀行帳戶齊全的美國公民，基本上可以使用我能想到的任何金融產品，也可以使用相對穩定的當地貨幣，而對Roya Mahboob 來說，它的意義是不同的，Roya Mahboob 是一位阿富汗婦女，她使用比特幣（以及其他技術）來幫助阿富汗女孩克服性別不平等並接受教育。對於面臨惡性通貨膨脹的阿根廷人和委內瑞拉人來說，這意味著一些不同的東西。

All these meanings of Bitcoin can be and are true. Bitcoin is large, it contains multitudes. Freeing those multitudes to transact without permission is the ethos of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer, electronic cash system.

比特幣的所有這些含義都可以而且確實是真實的。比特幣很大，包含眾多。比特幣作為一種點對點電子現金系統的精神就是讓這些人在未經許可的情況下進行交易。

Bitcoiners can agree that Bitcoin can be many things in the same way that Americans can agree that the American Dream (and America, for that matter) can be many things. One thing is for sure: as Americans are tied together by the American Dream, there is an ethos of Bitcoin, the freedom to transact, which ties bitcoiners together.

比特幣支持者可以同意比特幣可以有很多東西，就像美國人可以同意美國夢（就此而言，美國）可以有很多東西一樣。有一點是肯定的：隨著美國人被美國夢聯繫在一起，比特幣的一種精神，即交易自由，將比特幣愛好者聯繫在一起。

A supersized side of cynicism…

憤世嫉俗的巨大一面…

I intentionally sidestepped a question above because it is top-of-mind right now for both America and Bitcoin.

我故意迴避了上面的一個問題，因為這是美國和比特幣現在最關心的問題。

Is America captured by corporate interests? Is Bitcoin?

美國是否被企業利益所俘獲？是比特幣嗎？

George Carlin famously said in a stand-up comedy routine that “it’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” To his mind, the country had long been co-opted by profiteers. In a way, I share some of that cynicism. Consumerism and the obsession with acquiring things embarrass me as an American.

喬治·卡林在一場單口喜劇節目中說過一句名言：“這被稱為美國夢，因為你必須在睡覺時才能相信它。”在他看來，這個國家早已被奸商所利用。某種程度上，我也有一些憤世嫉俗的想法。消費主義和對獲取事物的痴迷讓我作為一個美國人感到尷尬。

This cynicism is echoed by the father of gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson, in his acclaimed book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. The title conveys the point: Las Vegas, as an epicenter of gambling and entertainment, is a caricature of American excess and consumerism, both of which (along with the drugs that feature prominently in

奇聞趣事新聞之父亨特·S·湯普森（Hunter S. Thompson）在他廣受好評的著作《拉斯維加斯的恐懼與厭惡：通往美國夢之心的野蠻之旅》中呼應了這種憤世嫉俗的觀點。標題傳達了這樣的觀點：拉斯維加斯作為賭博和娛樂的中心，是美國放縱和消費主義的諷刺，這兩者（以及在