IT STARTED as a joke. Dogecoin was launched in 2013 as a bitcoin parody, using as its mascot a Japanese shiba inu dog, a popular internet meme. The crypto-currency was never really used, except for tipping online, and one of its founders has called it quits. But recently its price has soared: on January 7th the dollar value of all Dogecoins in circulation reached $2bn, a sign of how crazy crypto-currency markets have become. It is also a reminder that, for all the focus on bitcoin, it is no longer the only game in town. Its market capitalisation now amounts to only about one-third of the crypto-market (see chart).

这一切都是因为一个玩笑开始的。2013年推出和狗狗币是一款模仿比特币的货币，以网络动图日本柴犬作为吉祥物。这个加密货币除了在线上支付小费外，从未在真正使用，而且一位创始人曾叫停交易。可是，近期狗狗币价格飙升：1月7日，所有流通的狗狗币美元价值均达到20亿。这显示了个加密货币市场的疯狂程度。同时，这也提示一直作为焦点的比特币，如今不再是唯一的王者。现在比特币的市值仅占加密货币市场的三分之一（见图表）。

A new crypto-currency is born almost daily, often through an “initial coin offering” (ICO), a form of online crowdfunding. CoinMarketCap, a website, lists about 1,400 digital coins or tokens, including PutinCoin, Sexcoin and InsaneCoin (worth $7m). Most are no more than curiosities, but by January 10th, around 40 had a market capitalisation of more than $1bn.

几乎每天就有新的加密货币出现，通常是通过一种在线众筹的形式，即“首次代币发售”（ICO）出现。CoinMarketCap网站列出近1400种数字货币或代币，包括普京比（PutinCoin）、性币（Sexcoin）和疯狂币（InsaneCoin）（疯狂币市值7百万美元）。其中很多货币只是为了满足人们的好奇才出现，但是，截至1月10日，其中约40种货币的市值超过10亿美元。

First on the list, after bitcoin, was Ethereum, whose coin, called ether, reached a market capitalisation of $137bn. Ethereum’s claim to fame is that it is also a platform for “smart contracts”—business rules encapsulated in software. Most ICO tokens, for instance, are issued by such contracts. Its success has attracted crypto-copycats: Cardano ($20bn) and NEO ($8bn), a Chinese version.

在加密货币列表中紧随比特币后面的是以太坊，其货币称作以太币，市值达到1370亿美元。以太坊声名远播也因其是一个能实现“智能合约”的平台——商业规则内封于软件之中。比如，很多ICO代币就是由这样的合约发布的。以太坊的成功引起了加密货币模仿者的关注——中国版加密货币：卡尔达诺（Cardano）（200亿美元）和尼奥（NEO）（80亿美元）。

Ripple, too, is defying gravity. It is all the rage in crypto-crazy South Korea, which this week roiled crypto-markets with plans to ban trading on exchanges. Ripple sells software to move money between countries; more than 100 banks have signed up to its technology, based on a coin called XRP. Its market capitalisation jumped by more than 40,000% in 2017, reaching nearly $149bn on January 4th, before falling back to $78bn. That still makes Chris Larsen, a Ripple co-founder, one of the world’s richest people, at least on digital paper.

瑞波网络（Ripple）也公然抗起，在加密货币盛行的韩国风行一时。韩国这周计划禁止在交易所进行交易在加密货币市场引起轰动。瑞波网络通过销售软件，实现货币在世界范围内流通。有100多家银行都基于瑞波币（XRP）的技术加入其中。2017年，瑞波网络市值跃升超过40,000%，1月4日升至1490亿美元，后又跌回780亿美元。这仍然让瑞波网络的联合创始人克里斯·拉森至少在数字上挤入全球最富有的人之列。

Less well-known coins have also taken wing. Monero ($6bn) and Zcash ($2bn) focus on privacy. Stellar ($9.8bn) has developed a system to transfer funds cheaply that is used by charities, particularly in poor countries. IOTA ($10.1bn) allows connected machines to exchange information and payments securely. And then there is Bitcoin Cash ($46bn), whose founders split from bitcoin in August 2017 because they were unhappy with how it was run.

那些不太知名的货币也纷纷崛起。门罗币（Monero）（60亿美元）和大零币（Zcash）（20亿美元）关注隐私性。恒星（Stellar）（98亿美元）已研发出一款低价转移慈善基金（主要用于贫穷国家）的系统。埃欧塔（IOTA）（101亿美元）可以让连接机器安全进行信息和支付交易。还有比特币现金（Bitcoin Cash）（市值460亿美元）。2017年8月，比特币现金的众多创始人因为对比特币运行的不满，脱离比特币独立运作。

Might any of these one day replace bitcoin as crypto-land reserve currency, something insiders call the “flippening”? Given bitcoin’s governance problems (another “fork”, or split, may be in the offing) and limited capacity (a transaction now costs nearly $30, on average, in fees), this cannot be excluded. But the others have problems, too. Ethereum’s user fees have soared and the system has again hit technical snags. As for Ripple, some question the extent to which XRPs are actually used.

这些货币有朝一日会取代比特币，成为加密领域储备货币，即行业内人士称为的“逆袭”？如果比特币的管理出现问题（也许再一次发生“分叉”或拆分），容量也有限（目前交易平均费用约30美元），取而代之也不是不可能的。但是，其他币种也存在问题。以太坊用户费用猛涨，其系统又出现技术问题。对于瑞波，则有人质疑瑞波币能够使用的范围。

Come what may, the field will only get more crowded. Kodak, the archetypal victim of digital disruption, wants to jump on the crypto-wagon: on January 9th it announced that it will launch a coin to allow photographers to charge for their works. More ambitious will be the ICO of Telegram, a messaging service with 180m users: it aims to raise $1.2bn and issue a token called Gram that can be used to pay for a range of services from online storage to virtual private networks. Even Facebook has reportedly started looking into creating a token. Should the world’s biggest social network ever make that move, bitcoin’s days as the leading crypto-currency would almost certainly be numbered.

无论如何，加密货币领域只会变得越加庞大。柯达（Kodak）是数字化颠覆的典型受害者，它也想跳入加密货币领域：1月9日，它宣布将会发布一款货币，让摄影师能为自己的作品收费。Telegram是一家拥有1.8亿用户的短息服务平台，它的ICO规模更庞大：以筹集12亿美元为目标，发行一款古拉姆（Gram）代币，用于支付线上储存和虚拟专用网络等一系列服务。甚至有报道称Facebook正研究创造一款代币。全球最大的社交网络如果有所行动，那比特币成为最主要的加密货币几乎肯定是指日可待了。

编译：pengpeng

编辑：翻吧君

来源：经济学人（2018.01.13）