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比特币比数字黄金更好

Kyle Samani
2017年9月21日 | 5 Minute Read

解释比特币的一个常见说法是“比特币是数字黄金(digital gold)”。该说法表明了一些事实:

  1. 人们将会一直认为黄金有价值(因为一直以来他们就这样认为),即使它的功能并不像价格显示的那么有用。因此人们可以以同样的方式认为比特币有价值,即使比特币在功能上并没有那么有用。
  2. 比特币不由政府赞助或支持。不存在一个中央银行制定黄金或比特币的货币供给量。
  3. 比特币和黄金都不会因政客的政策而通货膨胀。世界上黄金的总量恒定,比特币的最大发行量为 2100 万。
  4. 比特币和黄金都具有可互换性。
  5. 比特币和黄金都充当法定货币通货膨胀风险的对冲工具。 接下来我们考虑一下比特币的风险和优势,假设在以下场景:某个政权变得动荡,同时政客为了保持权力,增发该国的货币。 这时候你将很难对黄金进行物理切割,然后拿去交易。黄金用于小额购买时非常困难。 如果你不把黄金存储在你的床垫下,而是放到某处的保险柜,换回一些黄金的债券或借据,那么你必须支付存储费用,以及面临内在交易对手风险——假如发生了保险库被破坏等情况。但最重要的是,你面临着保险库不能兑现客户借据的风险。由于政权不稳定,在你刚好最需要这些黄金的时候,你想取回黄金的行为可能会被限制或者无限期延迟。 最糟糕的情况是,在你最需要黄金的时候,这时候也是你最不可能赎回黄金或出售借据的时候。即使你能够出售借据,那么别人用什么支付给你?用正在通货膨胀中的法定货币? 现在我们来拿比特币比较一下:
  6. 不需要存储费用。
  7. 显著地降低了物理被盗的风险,因为它更容易安全地存储(假设多签名支持选项等)。
  8. 不受制于资本控制(要不你试试带着价值 100 万美金的黄金从中国出来?)。
  9. 比特币可以分割。你可以把比特币分成小的单位,并且在不转换为通货膨胀法币的情况下,轻易地进行交易。
  10. 没有交易对手风险。你的私钥就是你的钱。你保管自己的钱。无论发生什么事,情况有多么糟糕,只要你拥有私钥和能够连接互联网,你永远都可以控制你的钱(请注意,Blockstream 在通过卫星,免费全天候与比特币网络连接)。 在美国,恶性通胀的风险很低。但在国外许多国家,情况并非如此。想想今天生活在委内瑞拉、阿根廷、南苏丹、叙利亚、土耳其、韩国和朝鲜的约 2.5 亿人口,他们贡献的 GDP 约为 3.2 万亿美元。对这些人来说,对恶性通胀和政府倒台的担忧是真实存在的。

蓝色国家的通货膨胀率大于 20%,绿色国家的通货膨胀率大于 10% 随着人们将财富从黄金转移到比特币,我们预计黄金的价格会下跌。但黄金的价格不会跌到 0,因为它有功能价值(珠宝,电脑芯片),该点也是比特币无法取代的。比特币不会完全取代黄金,但它在作为一种法币对冲工具上,会很大程度取代黄金。 对于“比特币比黄金好”的观点有几个相反的看法:

  1. 黄金的历史悠久,意味着它更具备长期的稳定性。
  2. 黄金更容易为人们所理解:你能看到、摸到黄金。但是比特币完全是抽象的:你既不能看到它,也无法触摸它。
  3. 万一比特币有一个灾难性的漏洞(bug)或者密码学被破解怎么办?
  4. 黄金价格的波动不像比特币那样剧烈,也是这一点让黄金成为一种更加稳定的价值存储。 对于这些反驳,我们来逐一解答: 对于观点 1,确实没有一个很好的答案。但如果相信过去的惯性,你很自然不会相信比特币会替代黄金成为一种法币对冲工具。你可能相信古老的、自然流传下来的预言:黄金具有价值;但不会相信全新的、自我实现的说法:比特币也具有价值。但是人类已经显示了一种超凡的能力,能够快速地适应全新的、陌生的变化:
    • 安彼迎(AirBnb)——让陌生人住在你的房子
    • 优步(Uber)——搭乘陌生人的车
    • 脸书(Facebook)——把孩子和朋友的照片发布到陌生人轻易能看到的互联网上
    • 智能手机(Smartphone)——很少有人能猜测到我们会在 4 英寸的屏幕上阅读和看视频 “因为现有的解决方案已经存在很长时间,所以人们不会采取更好的解决方案”的观点在历史长河中一直是个错误的观点。落后的技术不会立即消亡,但技术本身的落后性是无法弥补的。观点的转变可能不会像某些人期望的那么迅速,但它们确实在转变。 观点 2 目前是正确的,但它的半周期非常短。作为类比我们可以看到:在 1995 年很少有人能理解互联网。 观点 3 描述的情况使可能存在的,但几率非常低。目前比特币的网络价值约为 600-700 亿美元。如果真的有一个灾难性的漏洞出现,它也很可能早就出现过并且已经被修复了。 但我们仍然可能发现严重的漏洞——例如几年前 OpenSSL 出现的 heartbleed 漏洞就是一个例子——不过即使是这类漏洞,在发生灾难性前,它们也很容易通过网络修复。当时 heartbleed 被发现后,技术社区迅速团结起来,同时几乎互联网所有重要的权威中心都对 OpenSSL 进行新版本升级来解决这个问题。我们已经看到类似的情形发生在比特币网络中,当时是 2011-2014 年,一些漏洞相继出现。 观点 4 目前是正确的,但在未来很可能就不是这样了。现在比特币的价值是世界上所有黄金的 1%。随着比特币总市值的增加,由于资金流的绝对数量有限,比特币的波动性会逐渐降低。当比特币市值达到 1 万亿美元时,100 亿美元的资金进出对市场造成的波动远比它对目前 600-700 亿美元网络价值造成的影响小得多。 反对比特币而支持黄金的理由总体来说是站不住脚的,它们的依据是缺乏改变、对世界静态变化的眼光和不太可能发生的事情。另一方面,支持比特币而反对黄金的理由(存储性、传输性、隐秘性、分割性)是无可争辩的。 比特币比数字黄金更好。

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