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新聞來源連結：

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-14/bitcoin-s-high-transaction-fees-show-its-limits

縮網址
https://goo.gl/y8UPrC

新聞本文：

隨手加減跳著翻一下


Bitcoin's High Transaction Fees Show Its Limits
比特幣的高手續費暴露了它的極限

The original cryptocurrency may never be a widespread payment instrument.
第一個加密貨幣可能永遠不會成為廣泛使用的支付工具

By Leonid Bershidsky
November 14, 2017, 8:41 PM GMT+8

More hassle than it's worth? Photographer: Dan Kitwood

The Bitcoin rate spike, still alive despite bitter divisions in the community
that supports the cryptocurrency, has laid bare the biggest problem with
Bitcoin: Compared with fiat currencies, it's painfully inconvenient and
expensive to use as a means of payment.

儘管比特幣社群分裂，它的價格還是上漲
最大的問題：和法幣相比，它作為支付的工具
使用上有夠痛苦，有夠不方便，成本有夠貴


Bitcoin is set up to reward users for verifying transactions. Miners who
package transactions into "blocks" receive two kinds of rewards: The
additional Bitcoin they produce by using their hardware to solve mathematical
problems (an income stream that will eventually cease since 21 million
bitcoins are the maximum that can be mined) and the transaction fees paid by
users to get their payments into blocks.

簡介一下礦工的角色，這個大家都知道就不翻

The Bitcoin system is designed around scarcity and its traditionalists insist
on keeping the block size small (rebels who did away with that tenet founded
an offshoot, Bitcoin Cash, earlier this year). Their reasoning is that only
people with more computing power can live in a big-block world and going down
that path would make Bitcoin less democratic. But that horse has bolted:
Mining is already largely the province of people who invest significant money
in equipment and the huge amount of energy required to run it. As Bitcoin's
exchange rate rose rapidly and more people wanted to get in on the boom,
getting into blocks became difficult, and miners prioritize transactions on
which users are willing to pay a higher fee. It works a bit like Uber's surge
pricing, except the user sets the fee based on how long she's prepared to
wait for the transaction to go through -- using one of several sites that
link fees to waiting times or show median and average fees.

一邊堅持區塊要小，另一邊分叉為bitcoin cash
理由：大區塊減低比特幣的民主性
但，挖礦己經是專業礦工的事
隨著比特幣價格上漲，很多人想要上車，
想擠進區塊越來越難，礦工看誰錢出得多來排定誰可以進入區塊的優先順序
有些網站可以查詢平均手續費用


At the time of this writing, the median fee paid to process the median
transaction -- 226 bytes of information -- was 171,760 satoshis, or 0.0017176
Bitcoin, or $11.38. If you just want to pay for a cup of coffee or order
something relatively inexpensive on an e-commerce site without waiting many
hours for the transaction to clear, this is uneconomical. If you're a
speculator, though, hoping to make money on the wild exchange rate
fluctuations, you'll be willing to pay an even bigger premium for speed. No
wonder the medium transaction size at the time of this writing exceeded $800
after reaching a peak of almost $1,300.

手續費的中位數目前是171,760聰，折合11.38鎂
如果你是想買杯咖啡，或來個網購，這不划算
不過，想炒作的話，你會願意付高一點的手續費加快速度
現在平均交易金額是800鎂，好像也不意外


Bitcoin was never a particularly convenient means of payment. One can get a
Bitcoin debit card and use it anywhere cards are accepted, but the fees on
them -- charged on top of the Bitcoin transaction fees -- are generally
higher than at your bank. For merchants, it's convenient to sign on to accept
the cryptocurrency via specialized payment platforms -- but then the rate
volatility and the same high transaction fees make it unattractive for a
merchant who mostly works in a fiat currency economy. In July, Morgan Stanley
issued a report saying merchants' acceptance of Bitcoin was on a downward
trend just as the cryptocurrency's exchange rate went through the roof.

比特幣從來就不是特別方便的支付工具
你可以申請一張debit card，但在手續費之外還要另外付一筆使用費，
比銀行收得還貴
對於商家，接受加密貨幣，多一個收款方式也不錯


Some merchants stick to the currency, perhaps for PR value. BitPay, one of
the top Bitcoin payment platforms, reported last month it was on track to
process $1 billion in payments to merchants this year; the dollar volume of
the transactions in January through September was up 328 percent
year-on-year, the company said. But Visa, for example, processed $6.3
trillion in payments last year. Bitcoin hasn't even begun to make a dent in
this market.


但跟VISA的處理的6.3兆筆比起來，簡直是九牛一毛


There is a notable group of merchants and customers willing to put up with
Bitcoin's inconveniences: U.S. marijuana dispensaries and pot users, who are
not adequately served by banks because of legal problems. Dark Web markets
for harder drugs, guns and other restricted items also prefer to use Bitcoin,
and, despite a recent crackdown, the currency still holds an appeal for
Chinese investors trying to bypass their country's currency restrictions.

也有部份商家和顧客願意忍受比特幣的不方便：大麻產業
因為法律原因他們沒辦法好好利用銀行
黑暗網路dark web的市場，毒品，槍枝，還有其他管制品，也偏好比特幣
還有，一些中國投資人還是寄望它可以突破外匯管制


The essential value of Bitcoin, speculation aside, is to provide payment and
transfer services in grey or black areas, where governments don't want banks
to go and where electronic fiat money is too traceable for comfort. It's up
to buyers and sellers to determine if this value proposition justifies the
exchange rate to fiat currencies; given the current maximum block size of 1
megabyte and the strong resistance to increasing it, the original Bitcoin may
never expand beyond its current narrow usefulness.

不管投機的部份，比特幣的基本價值在灰色地帶甚至黑色地帶提供支付和交易服務
這些地方政府不希望銀行去，法幣又太好追踪
比特幣這部份的價值就看買家和賣家取捨
現在區塊大小是1M，實用性可能永遠不會跨出這小小的範圍

This creates a window of opportunity for Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and other
cryptocurrencies to gain wider acceptance. But dealing in several of them
will inevitably be confusing for merchants. Besides, various combinations of
design, technology and market failures such the one now afflicting Bitcoin as
a means of payment, will keep cropping up.

對以太幣，bitcoin cash，和其他幣種，這是一個機會
但處理太多種幣也是麻煩
再者，現在比特幣面臨的問題，他們也遲早要面對

It's likely that, if we ever switch to paying in cryptocurrency, it will be
of the fiat variety, issued by central banks. As the sole issuers, they will
fit their systems to historical transaction volumes and dictate transaction
fees. If forced to compete with central-bank-designed systems for
convenience, decentralized currencies will remain on the risky fringe,
seducing volatility-loving speculators, dodgy businesses and their
anonymity-craving customers.

如果我們真的要改用加密貨幣，那很可能會是央行發行的版本



評論：
有些同意有些不同意，老是提犯罪有點倒胃口


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