很少有东西能像比特币这样引起那么多的关注。投资者关注是因为这十年它的价格飙上天了，监管机构关注是因为它对法币造成的威胁。但环保人士也非常关注，因为现在它每年消耗的电量已经超过了约1.1亿人口的菲律宾。这东西为什么这么耗电？还有其他省电一点的办法吗？Jon Huang、 Claire O’Neill与Hiroko Tabuchi打算用一篇通俗易懂的文章解释这些问题。原文发表在《纽约时报》上，标题是：Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible？
Few things get as much attention as Bitco's. Investors are concerned about the price of this decade, and regulators are concerned about the threat it poses to the French coin. But environmentalists are concerned, too, because it now consumes more electricity than about 110 million people in the Philippines. Why does this stuff consume so much electricity? Is there any other way to save electricity? Jon Huang, Claire O'Neill and Hiroko Tabouchi intend to explain these issues in a popular and understandable article.
划重点：
Focus:
比特币的起源是为了干掉中间商
比特币耗电主要是因为“挖矿”
Bitcoin power consumption is mainly due to “mining”
挖矿的原理跟抛骰子类似，谁先抛出规则要求的数字就能拿到比特币作为奖励
"strange" mining principles are similar to dice throws, and whoever throws the number required by the rules first gets Bitcoin as a reward
挖矿实质是把电力变成了安全保障
The essence of mining is to turn electricity into safety.
挖矿需要的算力和消耗的电量越来越高
如果比特币用可再生能源，家庭、工厂和电动车就没有可再生能源可用 There is no renewable energy available to households, factories and electric vehicles if Bitcoin uses renewable energy 重写比特币的机制面临既得利益者的阻挠 The mechanism for rewriting bitcoin faces obstruction by vested interests 作为一种投资，加密货币是全世界最吸引人但也是最令人头疼的品种之一。所以这玩意儿的价格一会儿上天，一会儿坠落。加密货币的粉丝声称，这种东西将会取代美元、卢比或卢布等传统货币，从而改变世界。加密货币的品种繁多，甚至还有以狗狗的模因命名的。 As an investment, encryption money is one of the most attractive and painful varieties in the world. So the price of this stuff falls and falls. A fan of encryption money claims that it will replace traditional currencies such as dollars, rupees or rubles, thereby changing the world. 但光是在维持存在的过程中，像比特币这样最受欢迎的加密货币就消耗了惊人的电量。 But the most popular encrypted currency, such as Bitcoin, consumes an amazing amount of electricity in the mere maintenance of its existence. 我们会在一分钟之内解释它是怎么工作的。但首先，请思考一下这个：创建比特币的过程每年需要消耗约 96 太瓦时的电力，这个数字已经超过人口约1.1亿的菲律宾全国消耗的电量。 We'll explain how it works in a minute. But first of all, think about this: the process of creating Bitcoin requires the consumption of about 96 watt-hours of electricity per year, which already exceeds the amount of electricity consumed by the country's population of about 110 million. 这种规模的用量已接近全球电力总消耗的 0.5%，仅在过去五年的时间里比特币的电耗就增加了大概10倍。 This size is close to 0.5 per cent of total global electricity consumption, and in the last five years alone the consumption of Bitcoin has increased by about 10 times. 比特币网络消耗的电量跟华盛顿州一年的电量大致相同。 The amount of electricity consumed by the Bitcoin network is roughly the same as in Washington, D.C., for a year. 比美国三分之一住宅的制冷电耗还要多。 More than one third of homes in the United States consume more refrigeration electricity. 是谷歌全球业务电耗的七倍多。 It's more than seven times as much electricity as Google's global business. 为什么比特币会这么耗电？ Why does Bitcoin consume so much electricity? 长期以来，大家一直认为钱是可以揣进兜里的东西——比如一美元的钞票。 For a long time, money has been thought to be something that can be put into a pocket — like a dollar of money. 类似这样的货币似乎是个简单又绝妙的点子。政府打印出一些纸，然后保证它的价值。接着我们把它换成汽车、糖果棒和筒袜。这玩意儿我们想给谁就给谁，甚至毁掉都行。 A currency like this seems like a simple and wonderful idea. The government prints out some paper and then guarantees its value. Then we replace it with cars, candy sticks and socks. We give it to whoever we want, or even destroy it. 但在互联网上，情况会变得更复杂些。 But on the Internet, the situation becomes more complex. 传统类型的货币，比方说由美国或其他国家政府铸造的货币，并不是完全可以随意使用的。银行、信用卡网络还有其他的中间商，他们可以控制谁可以使用自己的金融网络以及怎么用——这种控制一般都有充分的理由，比如防止洗钱或其他的邪恶活动。但这也可能意味着，如果你向某人进行大额转账的话，哪怕这笔转账完全正常，但银行也会向政府报告。 Traditional types of currency, such as those forged by the United States or other governments, are not entirely free to use. Banks, credit card networks, and other intermediaries can control who can use their own financial networks and how – controls that are usually well founded, for example, to prevent money-laundering or other pernicious activities. 于是，一群自由思想家——或者无政府主义者，叫什么取决于你问谁——开始琢磨一件事情：如果想办法撤除这样的控制会怎样？ So a group of liberal thinkers — or anarchists, depending on who you ask — began to wonder one thing: what would happen if we were to find a way to remove such controls? 2008 年，一个或者一群神秘的人用中本聪这个名字公布了一项提议，说要创建一个跟现金类似的电子支付系统，以达到这个目的：干掉中间商。这就是比特币的起源。 In 2008, one or a group of mysterious people published a proposal in the name of Nakamoto to create an electronic payment system similar to cash in order to achieve this: to kill the middleman, which is the origin of Bitcoin. 中本聪说，比特币用户不需要信任第三方——银行、政府或其他任何东西——因为交易会交给比特币用户组成的去中心化网络来管理。换句话说，没有任何个人或实体可以控制比特币。所有比特币交易都公开记录进一个公共账本里面，任何人都可以核查，作为对帮助管理这个庞大的、计算机化的账本的参与者的奖励，网络会创建新的比特币。但比特币的最终供应将是有限的。他们的想法是，随着时间的推移，不断增长的需求会给比特币带来价值。 In other words, no person or entity can control bitcoin. All bitcoin transactions are publicly recorded in a public account book, and can verify that the network will create new bitcoins as an incentive for participants to help manage this huge, computerized account. , but the ultimate supply of bitcoins will be limited. Their idea is that, over time, growing demand will bring value to bitcoins. 但大家用了一段时间才理解这个概念。 But it took a while to understand the concept. 时至今日，一个比特币的价值约就大概有45000 美元——尽管这个数字在你看到本文的时候可能会发生很大的变化——而且你想给谁就给谁，没人能阻止你。（当然，如果被发现用来买非法毒品或策划勒索软件攻击这两种喜欢使用加密货币的恶意行为的话，仍难逃当地法律的制约。） To date, the value of a bitcoin is about $45,000 – although it may change a lot when you see this – and no one can stop you if you give it to anyone. (Of course, if you are found to be used to buy illicit drugs or to plan extortion software to attack these two malicious acts that prefer to use encrypted currency, there is still no escape from local law.) 然而，就像现在所发生的事情那样，在没有中央权威的情况下，管理具备这种价值的数字货币需要大量的计算能力。 However, as is happening now, in the absence of central authority, the management of digital currencies with such value requires considerable computing capacity. 1. 从交易开始。 1. Start with the transaction. 假设你想买一个东西，而且想用比特币支付。第一部分十分的简单快捷：你可以到像 Coinbase 这样的比特币交易所开个账户，然后就可以在上面用美元买比特币。 Suppose you want to buy something, and you want to pay it in bitcoin. The first part is very simple and fast: you can open an account at a bitcoin exchange like Coinbase, and then you can buy bitcoin in dollars. 现在你有了一个“数字钱包”，里面装有一些比特币。要想把比特币花出去，只需将它传给商品卖家的数字钱包中即可。就这么简单。 Now you have a "digital wallet" with some bitcoin in it. To spend bitcoin out, just pass it on to the commodity seller's digital wallet. That's it. 但是这笔交易，或者实际上任何的比特币交易，都必须先通过比特币网络进行验证。用最简单的术语来说，卖家就是通过这个过程来确信自己收到的比特币是真的。 But the transaction, or indeed any bitcoin transaction, must first be verified through the Bitcoin network. In the simplest terms, the seller makes sure that the bitcoin it receives is true. 这就引出了整个比特币记账系统的核心：维护一个庞大的比特币公共分类账。比特币大部分的电耗都用在了这项维护工作上。 This leads to the core of the entire bitcoin accounting system: maintenance of a huge bitcoin public ledger. Bitcoin spends most of its electricity on this maintenance. 2. 一场全球性的猜谜游戏开始了。 2. A global puzzle game begins. 在世界各地，会有一批公司和个人，也就是所谓的比特币矿工，他们会争相成为验证交易并将其录入到记录所有比特币交易的公共分类账的那个人。这帮人基本上是在玩一场猜谜游戏，利用强大斌且耗电的计算机来努力击败别人。因为如果他们成功的话，就能得到新创建的比特币作为奖励，这玩意儿当然很值钱。 Around the world, there will be companies and individuals, the so-called bitcoin miners, who will compete to be the ones who authenticate the transaction and record it in the public ledger that records all bitcoin transactions. These people are basically playing charades, using powerful bins and electric computers to try to defeat others. Because if they succeed, they will be rewarded with the newly created bitcoin, which is, of course, valuable. 这场争夺新创建的比特币的竞赛就叫“挖矿”。 This contest for the newly created Bitcoin is called “mining”. 你可以把它想象成玩彩票或骰子游戏。比特币挖矿公司 Braiins 发表的一篇文章为我们提供了一个很好的类比：想象一下你在赌场，每个人手上都有一个有 500 面的骰子。（更准确地说，这个骰子会数十亿条边，但这很难画出来。）第一个抛出 10 以下数字的人就是获胜者。 You can imagine it as a lottery or a dice game. An article published by BitcoinBraiins provides us with a good analogy: imagine that you're in a casino with a 500-faced dice in everyone's hand. (More accurately, this dice will be billions of sides, but it's hard to draw.) The first to throw 10 numbers below is the winner. 你手头的计算机能力越强，你抛骰子的速度就越快，能抛的次数越多。所以，跟只有一个骰子，用人类的速度抛骰子的赌场不一样的是，你可以弄很多台计算机，从而每一秒种都可以抛很多次骰子。 The more powerful the computer you have, the faster you roll the dice, the more often you can throw them. So, unlike a casino with only one dice, which throws the dice at human speed, you can make a lot of computers, so that every second can throw a lot of dice. 比特币网络在设计上就做成了参与的矿工越多，猜谜游戏的难度就越高，从而进一步加大了对快速、耗电的计算机的奖励。具体来说，系统被设计成赢得一轮比赛平均需要 10 分钟。按照抛骰子游戏那个类比，如果因为有更多人加入游戏，导致获胜所需时间变短，游戏就会重新校准，提高难度。比方说：现在你得掷出一个小于4的数字，或者你必须掷出一个1才算赢。 The more the bitcoin network is designed to be a participating miner, the more difficult it is to play puzzles, thus further increasing the incentive for fast, power-consuming computers. Specifically, the system is designed to win a round of games for an average of 10 minutes. By the analogy of the dice game, if more people join the game and the time it takes to win, the game will be calibrated and made more difficult. For example, now you have to throw a number less than four, or you have to throw one to win. 这就是比特币矿工现在要用一个大仓库来装满强大的计算机的原因，这样才能在猜大数的速度游戏中有竞争优势，但这个过程也会消耗大量电能。 That is why bitcoin miners now have to fill a large warehouse with powerful computers in order to have a competitive advantage in large-digit speed games, but this process also consumes a great deal of electricity. 3. 赢家可斩获价值数十万美元的新比特币。 猜谜游戏的获胜者验证出比特币交易的一个标准“区块”，作为奖励，可因此可获得 6.25 个新铸的比特币，每个比特币价值约为 45000 美元。为什么那么多人要削尖脑袋挤进这个挖矿的行当也就不难理解了。 The winner of the puzzle game has proven a standard block of bitcoin transactions that, as an incentive, can get 6.25 newly forged bitcoins, each worth about $45,000. It's not hard to understand why so many people have to cut their heads into this digging business. 为什么要搞这么复杂这么昂贵的猜谜游戏？那是因为只是把交易记录进分类账里面实在是太容易了。所以，这里的挑战在于要确保只有“值得信赖”的计算机才能做这件事。 Why do you make such a complicated and expensive puzzle? That's because it's so easy to just record a transaction in a ledger. So the challenge here is to make sure that only a “trustworthy” computer can do it. 坏蛋可能会对系统造成严重破坏，阻止合法的转账，或者用虚假的比特币交易来欺骗大家。但是比特币在设计上就是要让坏人需要赢得大多数猜谜游戏才能拥有这个网络的多数权力，而这需要大量的资金和电力。 Bad guys can cause serious damage to the system, prevent legal transfers, or deceive people with false bitcoin transactions. But Bitcoin is designed to give bad people most of the game of puzzles in order to have most of the power of the network, which takes a lot of money and electricity. 在中本聪的系统里，黑客会把资源用来挖掘比特币和收集奖励，而不是攻击系统，因为前者更具经济意义。 in a medium-sized system, hackers use resources to dig up bitcoins and collect rewards instead of attacking systems because the former is more economic. 就这样，比特币挖矿把电力变成了安全保障。这也是系统在设计上会浪费能源的原因。 So, bitcoin mining turns electricity into safety. That's why systems waste energy in design. 比特币日益增长的能源需求 Bitcoin's growing energy demand. 在早期，当比特币还没那么受欢迎而且价值不高的时候，任何有计算机的人在家里就可以轻松挖矿。但现在没那么多比特币了。 In the early days, when Bitcoin was less popular and less valuable, anyone with a computer could easily dig mines at home. But now it's not that much bitcoin. 时至今日，你需要有高度专业化的机器、投入大量资金、要很大的空间以及足够的冷却能力来防止不断运行的硬件过热。所以现在挖矿都是在由拥有大型数据中心的公司或一群人来做的。 To this day, you need a highly specialized machine, a huge investment of money, a large space and enough cooling capacity to prevent running hardware from overheating. So mining is now done by companies or groups of people with large data centres. 挖矿需要的算力和消耗的电量越来越高，原先个人在家就能干的事情已经变成了少数拥有大型数据中心的公司才能承担 The numeracy and power consumption required for mining are increasing, and what was available to individuals at home has become the responsibility of a small number of companies with large data centres. 事实上，现在的运营集中度已经极高，高到七大挖矿集团就占到了网络近 80% 的算力。（比方说，像这样“池化”算力的目的是为了让收入分配得更加均匀，从而让参与者每天能拿到 10 美元，而不是每 10 年拿到几个比特币。） In fact, the concentration of operations is already extremely high, with seven mining groups accounting for nearly 80% of the value of the network. (For example, the purpose of “pooling” computing is to achieve a more even distribution of income, so that participants can get $10 a day instead of a few bitcoins every 10 years.) 挖矿的活动发生在世界各地，一般是在有大量廉价能源的地方。剑桥大学一直在追踪比特币挖矿活动的研究人员近日表示，全球比特币挖矿第一大国所占份额已经从 2019年底的75%下降到今年4月份的46%。在同一时期，美国挖矿所占份额则从4%升至 16%。 Mining activities occur around the world, usually where there is a large amount of cheap energy. Researchers at Cambridge University have been tracking bitcoin mining activities recently indicated that the share of the world's largest mining country, Bitcoin, declined from 75% at the end of 2019 to 46% in April this year. During the same period, the share of the United States mining increased from 4% to 16%. 比特币的挖矿活动影响的不仅仅只有排放。需要的硬件也堆积如山。人人都想要最新、最快的机器，这导致了高周转率和产生新的电子垃圾问题。据巴黎经济学家亚历克斯·德弗里斯 （Alex de Vries） 估计，大概每一年半的时间，挖矿硬件的计算能力就会翻一番，而旧机器也随之被淘汰。根据他的计算，在 2021 年初的时候，光是比特币产生的电子垃圾就比许多中型国家还要多。 According to the Paris economist Alex & Middot; and Alex de Vries, the ability to calculate mining hardware will double for about a year and a half, and the old machines will be eliminated. According to his calculations, by early 2021, Bitco’s alone generated more e-waste than many medium-sized countries. Digiconomist是一个负责追踪加密货币可持续性的网站，其运营者de Vries表示：“比特币矿工对这个问题完全无视，因为他们没有解决方案。所以旧机器纯粹被丢掉了。” Digiconomist is a website that tracks the sustainability of encrypted money, and its operator, de Vries, says, "Bitco miners are completely ignoring this issue because they have no solution. So the old machine is simply lost." 能不能环保一些？ Can't you be a little more environmentally friendly? 如果可以利用更多的可再生能源（如风能、太阳能或水力发电）来开采比特币呢？情况会怎样？ What if more renewable sources of energy (e.g. wind, solar or hydropower) could be used to exploit bitcoin? What would happen? 鉴于比特币的本质是一种去中心化的货币，所以矿工基本上都是匿名的，也因此很难弄清楚到底有多少比特币的挖矿活动是由可再生能源驱动的。 Given the fact that Bitcoin is essentially a decentralised currency, miners are largely anonymous and it is difficult to determine how many bitcoin mining activities are driven by renewable energy. 就全球范围而言，估计比特币利用可再生能源的比例在 40% 到近 75% 之间。但专家表示，总的来说，如果利用可再生能源来挖比特币的话，就意味着可再生能源没法给家庭、工厂或电动汽车供电了。 Globally, the proportion of Bitcoin using renewable energy is estimated to be between 40% and nearly 75%. But experts say that, in general, using renewable energy to dig for bitcoin means that renewable energy cannot power households, factories, or electric cars. 少数矿工开始尝试利用石油天然气钻井现场过剩的天然气，但这样的例子仍然很少，而且很难确定数量。再说了，这种做法最终可能会刺激更多的钻探活动。矿工还声称要在像中国西南部等地利用雨季产生的过剩水电。但如果这些矿工在旱季运营的话，主要还是用化石燃料。 A few miners have begun to try to use excess natural gas from oil and gas drilling sites, but such cases are still rare and difficult to quantify. Moreover, this may eventually stimulate more drilling. 新墨西哥大学经济学助理教授本杰明·A·琼斯（Benjamin A. Jones）说：“据我们所知，在用的主要还是基荷化石燃料，但不同季节和国家的情况会不一样。”他的研究涉及到加密货币的挖苦活动对环境的影响。他说：“所以你会得到各种截然不同的估计。” The Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of New Mexico, Benjamin & Middot; A & Middot; and Jones, said, “As far as we know, fossil fuels are used mainly in Keehol, but they will differ from season to season and from country to country.” His study concerned the environmental impact of enticing the encoded currency. He said, “So you get very different estimates.” 是不是可以重写比特币的机制来减少能源消耗呢？一些小型的加密货币已经在推广一种替代性的记账系统。在这样的系统中，交易处理权不是靠计算性劳动而是靠证明自己拥有足够多的加密货币来赢取的。这样效率会更高。但这种做法还没有得到大规模证明，并且不太可能在比特币这里站稳脚跟，因为除来其他原因以外，比特币的利益相关者有强大的经济动机不做改变，因为他们在挖矿上面已经投入了大量资金。 Is it possible to rewrite the Bitcoin mechanism to reduce energy consumption? Some small encoded currencies are already promoting an alternative accounting system. In such systems, trading power is won not by computational labor, but by proving that they have enough encrypted money. That would be more efficient. But this has not been proven on a large scale, and it is unlikely that the Bitcoin stakeholders will be able to stand firm here because, among other things, they have a strong economic incentive not to change because they have invested a lot of money in mining. 部分政府和环保主义者对比特币同样持谨慎态度。如果他们限制挖矿活动的话，理论上是可以减少能源压力的。但请记住，这是一个旨在消灭中间人的网络。有些地方已经开始对挖矿业实施限制，但据报道，矿工们正转向煤炭资源丰富的哈萨克斯坦，以及廉价但问题不断的德州电网。 Some governments and environmentalists in are also cautious about Bitcoin. Theoretically, energy pressure can be reduced if they restrict mining activities. But remember, this is a network aimed at eliminating intermediaries. Some have begun to impose restrictions on mining, but miners are reported to be turning to a coal-rich Kazakhstan, as well as to a cheap but problematic power grid in Texas. 在可预见的未来，只要价格波动，比特币的能源消耗就可能继续维持波动性。 For the foreseeable future, as long as prices fluctuate, the energy consumption of Bitcoin is likely to remain volatile. 尽管比特币的开采也许不需要镐和安全帽，但它也不是纯粹的数字抽象：它跟化石燃料、电网以及排放的物理世界以及我们今天所陷入的气候危机有关。一种被设想成具有前瞻性的数字货币已经对现实世界产生影响，而且这种影响还在不断加剧。 Although bitcoin mining may not require gills and caps, it is not a purely numerical abstraction: it has to do with fossil fuels, the physical world of power grids and emissions, and the climate crisis that we are in today. A digital currency that is conceived as forward-looking has an impact on the real world, and it is growing. 译者：boxi。 Translator: boxi.
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