638：Why I’m excited about crypto collectibles

戳上方，订阅“清晨朗读者”

Why I’m excited about crypto collectibles

translation：

Why I’m excited about crypto collectibles

为什么我对加密收藏品感到兴奋

By John Gordon

People laugh at Crypto Kitties. They “broke” Ethereum. They show thefrivolityof the crypto space (Beanie Babies! Still a thing, by the way). But I'm super excited about andintriguedby crypto collectibles, and the reason is simple: provablescarcity.

人们嘲笑Crypto Kitties，他们“打破”以太坊，他们显示出加密空间的可笑无聊（顺便说一句，Beanie Babies的收藏依然很热门）。但我对加密收藏品感到非常兴奋和好奇，原因很简单：可证明的稀缺性。

（注：1.Crypto Kitties：链养猫，一款建立在区块链以太坊上的虚拟宠物养成社区游戏。

2.Ethereum：以太坊，一款能够在区块链上实现智能合约、开源的底层系统。

3.Beanie Babies：豆宝宝，一款由Ty Warner创办的毛绒玩具。在上世纪90年代后半期，由于其能作为一种具有高转售价值的金融投资，收集这种玩具成为时尚。）

As a kid, I collected baseball cards andStarting Lineupfigures (yes, I'm making ananalogyhere). I still have them in a box somewhere at my parents’ house, and I have so many fun memories of buying and trading cards and figures with friends growing up. I’m a much less active sports fan now than I was back then (I think that moving to China and not having easy access to live sports for a long time played a big part in this change), but at the time I knew all the players’ names and for many of them couldrecitestats from multiple years.

在小时候，我收集棒球卡片和先发球员手办模型（是的，我这里做了一个比喻）。它们至今还在我父母家某个地方的一个盒子里放着，在和朋友们一起长大的过程中，我有很多有趣的记忆都是关于购买和转卖这些卡片和模型的。现在的我相比那个时候，已经算不上是一个狂热的体育迷了（我认为搬到中国以及长时间不便参与进体育活动的现场直播在这一变化中扮演了重要的角色），但当时我知道所有球员的名字并且能够数出他们中的一些人多年以来的战绩。

We placed value on the cardsin large partdue to scarcity, as some cards were harder to get and some sets had limited runs. At some point after my personalobsessionwith the cards and figuresdied down, though, Ebaycame alongand addedliquidityto the market, and prices crashed (the popularity of collecting cards had also increased print runs).Previously, you were essentially limited to what you could find at your local baseball card store (or the occasionalconventionthat came through town), but with Ebay you had access to the supply of the whole world, and in that market prices went way down.

我们为这些卡片赋予价值很大程度上是由于它的稀缺性，毕竟有些卡片很难买到，其中一些系列还是限量生产流通的。然而，在我对这些卡片和模型的个人痴迷渐渐消退后，亿贝网出现了，增加了市场的流动性，导致价格暴跌（卡片收集的流行也使印刷和流通量上升）。以前，你基本局限于在当地的棒球卡店（或偶尔的镇上集会）找到你要买的东西，但在亿贝网上，你可以直接接触到来自全世界的供应品，而在那个市场空间里价格也会更便宜。

But with crypto collectibles, there are no questions about scarcity. You know that your item is unique (or how many of it exist). And I think that we’ll see cryptographically secured digital collectibles become more and more popular over the next few years.

但是，加密收藏品出现之后，确保稀缺性就不成问题了。你知道你的东西是独一无二的（或者当下仅有多少存量）。我想在未来几年，我们将会看到加密数字收藏品的逐渐普及。

So, yeah, Crypto Kitties aren’t baseball players, but they may end up having a special place in the crypto-collectible space just because they were the first one to be somewhat popular. And I’m actually quite excited to see what can happen just with Crytpo Kitties. Right now they can be mated together to produce new kitties, but someday there will probably be a Street Fighter-esque Crypto Kitty fighting game. Or maybe I can take my kitty for a walk in Decentraland? Or maybe I can use my kitty as my Decentralandavatar? Differenttokenscould be combined to create new collectibles. Or multiple digital items can be combined together to create digital art. Or art could be issued as tokens. Why not?

The possibilities are endless.

是的，的确，链养猫不是棒球运动员，但它们最终可能在加密收藏空间里占据一个特殊的位置，只因为它们是第一个在这个技术基础上受到广泛欢迎的东西。我真的非常期待链养猫会发展成一个什么样子。现在它们能够配对在一起产生新的小猫，但是有一天它可能会成为街头霸王式的链养猫格斗游戏。或许我是不是可以让我的小猫在Decentraland散步呢？也许我还可以让它变成我的Decentraland阿凡达？不同的代币可以重新组合创造出新的收藏品。或者多个数字项目结合在一起创造数字艺术。又或者艺术完全可以作为代币发行。为什么不行呢？这里面有无穷无尽的可能性。

（注：decentraland是由以太坊区块链驱动的虚拟现实平台。）

Collectibles related to gaming are especially exciting. Just as I treasured my Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.rookiecard, I can imagine a kid someday soon treasuring the sword that their favorite e-sports player used in a certain game in a certaintournamentin a certain city on a certain date.

与游戏相关的收藏品尤其令人兴奋。就像我无比珍视我Upper Deck出品的那张Ken Griffey Jr. 的新秀球星卡一样，我完全能够想象，有一天一个孩子会有多么地珍惜他最喜爱的电子竞技玩家在某个日期某个城市举办的某个特定的游戏锦标赛上的一场决胜局上所使用的那把剑。

（注：Upper Deck是一家顶级的体育和娱乐出版公司，为收藏家、体育和娱乐发烧友提供相关联、有创意、多角度的产品组合体验。）

I don’t know what types of collectibles will be popular, but I have a hard time imagining a world in which crypto collectibles are not extremely popular.

我不知道什么类型的收藏品一定会受到欢迎，但我很难去想象在任何一个世界中，加密收藏品会不引起人们的极度狂热。

words:

1.frivolity/frɪˈvɑːləti/ n. 轻浮；轻薄

e.g.I dislike her frivolity.

我讨厌她轻浮的举止。

2.intrigued/ɪnˈtriːɡd/ adj. 好奇的

e.g. I would be intrigued to hear others' views.

我对倾听别人的看法会感兴趣的。

3.scarcity/ˈskersəti/ n. 不足；缺乏

e.g....an ever increasing scarcity of water.

…越来越匮乏的水资源。

4.analogy/əˈnælədʒi/ n. 类比；类推；类似

e.g.The analogy between music and fragrance has stuck.

音乐与香味的类比已经深入人心了。

5.recite/rɪˈsaɪt/ vt. 背诵；叙述；列举

e.g.All he could do was recite a list of government failings.

他所有能做的就是逐一说出政府的过失。

6.obsession/əbˈseʃn/ n. 痴迷；

e.g.She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.

她会试图忘掉她对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

7.liquidity/lɪˈkwɪdəti/ n. 流动性；流动资产

e.g.I say that because it gives tremendous liquidity to the markets.

我这样说是因为它给市场带来的巨大的流动性。

8.previously/ˈpriːviəsli/ adv. 以前；预先；仓促地

e.g.He had first entered the House 12 years previously.

他12年前首次进入了众议院。

9.convention/kənˈvenʃn/ n. 大会；集会；惯例

e.g. ...the annual convention of the Society of Professional Journalists.

…职业新闻工作者协会的年会。

10.avatar/ˈævətɑːr/ n. (Avatar) 电影《 阿凡达》

11.token/ˈtoʊkən/ n. 表征；代币；

e.g....slot-machine tokens.

…自动贩卖机使用的代用币。

12.rookie/ˈrʊki/ n. 新手

e.g.I don't want to have another rookie to train.

我不想再训练一个新手。

13.tournament/ˈtɜːrnəmənt/ n. 锦标赛，联赛；比赛

e.g....the biggest golf tournament to be held in Australia.

…即将在澳大利亚举行的最大规模的高尔夫球锦标赛。

Phrases：

Starting Lineup首发阵容

in large part很大程度上

died down逐渐消退

come along出现