無意義的術語「加密貨幣」應該被淘汰

早在 2011 年，加密貨幣就已經是一個可用的類別，當時只有一種加密貨幣——比特幣。如今，它不再是一個有意義的術語，而且，如果有的話，它會導致理解上的倒退。

Back in 2011, when there was only one cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), the category “Crypto” made sense. But today, it’s no longer a meaningful term and can lead to a regression in understanding.

早在 2011 年，當只有一種加密貨幣（比特幣）時，「加密貨幣」類別就有意義了。但今天，它不再是一個有意義的術語，並且可能導致理解上的倒退。

For example, Fidelity’s chart above advises clients to conservatively invest 40% of their wealth in “equities,” 59% in “fixed income,” and the remaining 1% in “Crypto.”

例如，上面的富達圖表建議客戶保守地將 40% 的財富投資於“股票”，59% 投資於“固定收益”，剩下的 1% 投資於“加密貨幣”。

But these categories are meaningless because, in most cases, Crypto “is” a stock; in other cases, Crypto “is” fixed income.

但這些類別毫無意義，因為在大多數情況下，加密貨幣「是」股票；在其他情況下，加密貨幣「是」固定收益。

For instance, the MKR token is based on the Ethereum network and is among the top 100 Crypto assets by total market capitalization on CoinGecko. As a MKR holder, you’re entitled to receive MakerDAO’s income. But MakerDAO is an offshore bank, and MKR holders have rights such as buybacks, voting, and a claim on the remaining assets after paying creditors in bankruptcy, which is essentially equity. So buying MKR is the economic equivalent of buying stock in Bank of America.

例如，MKR 代幣基於以太坊網絡，是 CoinGecko 上總市值排名前 100 名的加密資產之一。作為 MKR 持有者，您有權獲得 MakerDAO 的收入。但 MakerDAO 是一家離岸銀行，MKR 持有者擁有回購、投票以及對破產債權人償付後剩餘資產的債權等權利，本質上是股權。因此，購買 MKR 在經濟上相當於購買美國銀行的股票。

Similarly, DAI tokens, a payment instrument (aka stablecoin) issued by MakerDAO on Ethereum, are the 25th most valuable asset on CoinGecko by total market capitalization. Again, it sounds like Crypto, doesn’t it? But DAI pays 5% interest on top of its dollar peg. That puts it indisputably in the fixed-income category, like Bank of America’s uninsured interest-bearing accounts.

同樣，DAI 代幣是 MakerDAO 在以太坊上發行的一種支付工具（又稱穩定幣），按總市值計算，在 CoinGecko 上排名第 25 位最有價值的資產。再說一遍，這聽起來像是加密貨幣，不是嗎？但 DAI 在與美元掛鉤的基礎上還要支付 5% 的利息。這毫無疑問地將其歸入固定收益類別，就像美國銀行的無保險生息帳戶一樣。

So what exactly is Crypto?

那麼加密貨幣到底是什麼呢？

The term “Crypto” describes a database technology, not an asset class. Various asset classes such as stocks, bonds, options, and savings accounts (or various combinations of them) can be recorded and stored in Crypto databases, just as MKR is issued on Ethereum, one of the most popular Crypto databases. These Crypto databases are in the same category as Azure SQL databases or Oracle databases, both of which record assets, but neither is an asset class in itself.

「加密貨幣」一詞描述的是一種資料庫技術，而不是一種資產類別。股票、債券、選擇權和儲蓄帳戶（或它們的各種組合）等各種資產類別都可以記錄和儲存在加密資料庫中，就像 MKR 在以太坊（最受歡迎的加密資料庫之一）上發行一樣。這些加密資料庫與 Azure SQL 資料庫或 Oracle 資料庫屬於同一類別，兩者都記錄資產，但本身都不是資產類別。

So now you can see why Fidelity’s recommendation that clients invest 99% in equities + fixed income and 1% in Crypto is ridiculous. This is a category perception error, like Fidelity recommending that people hold 99% equity + fixed income, with the remaining 1% stored in an Oracle database.

所以現在你可以明白為什麼富達建議客戶將 99% 投資於股票 + 固定收益，1% 投資於加密貨幣是荒謬的。這是一個類別認知錯誤，就像Fidelity建議人們持有99%的股權+固定收益，剩下的1%儲存在Oracle資料庫中。

Telling customers that investing 1% of their wealth in a general-purpose asset stored in an Oracle database isn’t just a category error—it sounds pretty reckless. All kinds of crazy financial information appeared in the Oracle database, including sports betting and doomsday options. As for the Crypto database, it is notorious for being riddled with financial scams like Ponzi.

告訴客戶將其財富的 1% 投資於儲存在 Oracle 資料庫中的通用資產不僅僅是一個類別錯誤，聽起來相當魯莽。各種瘋狂的金融資訊出現在Oracle資料庫中，包括體育博彩和末日選擇權。至於加密貨幣資料庫，它因充斥著龐氏騙局等金融騙局而臭名昭著。

Crypto does not refer to an asset class, but rather a database technology that describes the occurrence of assets. The best thing to do is, let’s get rid of the word altogether.

加密貨幣並不是指一種資產類別，而是一種描述資產發生狀況的資料庫技術。最好的辦法是，讓我們完全擺脫這個詞。