翻译The Comprehensive Guide to NFTs
Are there any areas of controversy within crypto, blockchain, and NFTs?
数字货币，区块链，NFT有争议点吗？
Blockchain technology has seen its fair share of skepticism and criticism. At this point, I suppose we should be used to it!
区块链技术受到了怀疑和批评，此时，我认为我们应该习惯于它！
Since the dawn of time, new inventions and innovations have given rise to confusion regarding the unfamiliar new product. In some unfortunate cases, this has set the stage for consumers making purchases in which they did not fully understand what they were buying—or even for outright fraud.
从一开始，新的发明者和创新者就对这个陌生的产品提出了质疑。在一些不幸的案例中，这些对知识的不了解可能会带来买卖中的诈骗。
The good news is that blockchain-backed technology is becoming more familiar to everyone, including people who may not be on the leading edge of tech (or tech savvy at all). The essentials of what blockchain is and how it works are getting out there. Everyone has heard of Bitcoin—which is a start— even if they don’t know how it works or how to buy it. While there is still the potential for miscommunication, an increasingly educated consumer base means that in general there is less confusion around blockchain technology.
好消息是，基于区块链的技术已经被大家熟知，包括那些可能没有在技术前沿的人们。区块链技术是什么，如何运作已经非常明确。每个人都听过比特币，这就是了解区块链的开始，尽管他们并不懂比特币如何运作，如何购买。但是，这里仍然有潜在的误解风险，有一群受高等教育的消费者为基础，区块链技术的误解会少很多。
The even better news is that, when it comes to NFTs, their unique technology is providing a strong counter to much of the criticism that their predecessors experienced.
更好的消息是，在NFT领域，他们独特的技术正在对后续的批评者提供强列的支持。
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, for example, have long been criticized for their energy consumption and carbon footprint. How can a digital coin—that you can’t even hold or touch—have a carbon footprint in the “real world”? The answer is: because Bitcoin maintains its blockchain by mining, the miners will always need electricity to power the computers doing the mining. As Bitcoin has grown—and more and more of the coins have been mined—the cost of mining has accelerated ever upward. A study by the University of Cambridge published in early 2021 reported that, globally, Bitcoin mining now uses approximately as much electricity each year as the country of Argentina. All of this power use raises the specter of carbon emissions and elevates the carbon footprint of Bitcoin. And alas, most of the energy powering Bitcoin mining does not yet come from renewable sources (even though Bitcoin enthusiasts are promising that this is soon going to change). The good news is that contemporary NFTs can be produced in ways that have only the smallest fraction of the environmental impact of something like a Bitcoin (again, more on this later.) If they are rolled out the right way, NFTs won’t have to create the energy drain that Bitcoins do.
像比特币这样的数字货币，曾经因为能源消耗和碳足迹被诟病。一个你甚至没有持有或是触摸不到的货币，是如何在现实世界里有碳足迹的？答案是，由于挖矿，矿工总是需要电力来维持运算。随着比特币的发展，越来越多的数字货币被挖矿产生，挖矿的成本前所未有地提高了。2021年早些时间，剑桥大学的一项调研指出，在全球，比特币挖矿已经用了阿根廷一年的电力。这些能源的使用增多了碳排放和比特币的碳足迹。而且大部分的比特币挖矿能源并不是可再生资源（尽管比特币爱好者表示这一现状很快会改变）。好消息时，NFT可以用更环保的方式铸造——对环境的影响只相当于挖比特币的一小部分。如果它们以正确的方式被生产出来，NFT就不会像比特币那样造成能源的枯竭。
Other criticisms of blockchain products have come from enabling “pump and dump” schemes, or schemes in which a cryptocurrency with no value has been launched to intentionally dupe newcomers. For example, as the value of Bitcoin slowly but steadily began to increase in the early 2010s, the cryptocurrency market became flooded with new “coins” launched every week. Many of the creators of these new coins were just out to make a quick buck. To make this fast money, they might launch a crypto in connection to a meaningless gimmick—“The new alt-coin for parakeet lovers, which everyone with a parakeet will want to use!”—and then a billion coins would be released. Half would be put up for sale on a crypto exchange, but half would be retained by the creators of the coin. If the value of that new coin reached just one cent, for example, the creators of the coin could sell their half a billion ParakeetCoin, clear $20M out of thin air, and walk away. Coinholders (and parakeet lovers everywhere) would feel duped and taken advantage of.
其它对于区块链产品的评价如“拉高后低卖”的骗局，或是发布没有价值的币来愚弄新入场的用户。例如，当2010年左右比特币价值缓慢但稳步上升时，数字货币市场每周都充斥着刚发布的新币。这些新币的创作者只是想赚快钱。为了赚钱，他们会采用一些噱头——如对鹦鹉爱好者发行鹦鹉币，然后十亿的币就被造了出来。一半会用于交易所售卖，一半会被发行人保留。如果新币达到了一分钱，币的发行者就会卖掉他手里的币，凭空赚了2000万美金。币的持有者会感到被玩弄，被利用了。
But NFTs tied to works of art, iconic images, and other unique and meaningful content present an entirely new arrangement, and eliminate the possibility of a creator seeking to quickly and anonymously “cash out.” It’s an entirely different proposition. The ownership chain is clear. Those selling the NFT do so in an environment of transparency. Potential buyers can research who sellers are, and can work to genuinely understand the product being offered. The value, the integrity, and the uniqueness of the item being purchased as an NFT is assured.
但是NFT与艺术品、头像和其它独特且有意义的内容连接，进而消除了创作者想要快速套现的可能性。这是个全然一新的商业创意。所有权非常清晰。那些卖掉NFT的人是在一个完全透明的环境中做的。潜在的买家可以搜索到谁是卖家，也能努力弄清楚是谁提供了报价。在购买NFT时，确保了价值、整合和NFT的独特性。
Other areas of controversy have also arisen from copyright violation. This is a problem in just about every visual media. While copyright violation appears to be rare in the world of NFT art, there have been a few documented cases. For example, in early 2021, both CNN and VICE reported on artists claiming that someone had copied one of their original digital artworks and sold it as an NFT without permission. When this happens, the original artist is forced to pursue a copyright claim. With the number of NFTs for sale expanding exponentially, this type of violation will probably keep occurring.
其它的有争议的领域就是在侵犯版权的问题上，在每一个可视化媒介都会遇到这个问题。然而，在NFT世界里，侵犯版权的现象会很少见，有几个已记载的案例。例如，在2021年，CNN和VICE报道了一个案例，有艺术家声称他的作品被另一个人剽窃而且未经许可，以NFT的形式售卖。当这件事发生时，原创的艺术家被强制购买版权声明。随着大量的NFT售卖，类似这样的案例可能还会出现。
However, the good news is that because the technology is digital, it will be much easier to 1) report the offense, 2) locate the bad actor, and 3) ensure that the problematic NFT is dealt with appropriately. When an artist alleges their work has been copied and sold without permission in the physical world, there can be a great deal of (slow and tedious) work to determine exactly who was involved and where all the inappropriate copies are. In the digital world, this kind of problem—once users become aware of it—can be remedied much more quickly, and the location of any illicit work is never in question. In the meantime, security for visual artists will continue to evolve so that inappropriate use is prevented. (For example, when displaying their work on their own websites, many visual artists now use a “floating banner” that always obscures a small portion of their work. This prevents it from being digitally captured.)
然而，好消息是由于数字化技术，如下事情会变得容易 1）上报侵权 2）定位问题 3）确保这个NFT争议被合理地解决。当一位艺术家声称他的作品被抄袭了，而且未经他的允许在现实世界售卖，可以通过大量的工作来确定抄袭者是谁以及在哪。在数字世界里，只要及时发现，这类问题是可以被迅速补救的，定位问题也从不是难事。同时，与此同时，视觉艺术家会持续进化，进而会减少不恰当的呈现方式（例如，当他们在个人网站上展出自己的作品时，很多艺术家会采用浮动Banner,并对一部分模糊处理，这样做会减少被数字化抓取的可能）。
To conclude, blockchain technology is not new to criticism. However, the earliest critics of technologies like cryptocurrency have gradually had over a decade to be proved wrong. The criticisms being leveled at NFTs now are few, are much less daunting than what cryptos faced, and there is every reason to feel confident that evolving technology will allow us to solve any problems that might arise as we move forward.
总结起来，对于批评者而言，区块链技术并不新鲜。然而，经过了近十年的争论，可以证明对这一技术批评是错的。值得相信的是，不断发展的技术将会让我们得以解决未来可能出现的问题。