你敢相信彩虹猫表情包卖出了50多万美元（约合人民币320万元）的高价？
2月19日，一款人气表情包Nyan Cat的NFT（该表情包的原型是2011年发布的游戏“彩虹猫”），卖出了50多万美元的高价。
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#类似的情况还有…
When the virtual auction bell rang at Christie’s on Thursday, Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist better known as Beeple, made history: he had sold a digital-only artwork for $69.4m. but the winning bidder will not receive a sculpture, painting or even a print. Instead, they get a unique digital token known as a non-fungible token (NFT).
3月11日，随着成交的铃声在佳士得拍卖行响起，数字艺术家 Beeple（原名Mike Winkelmann）创造了历史：他以6940万美元（约合人民币4.5亿元）的惊天高价售出了自己创作的一幅数字艺术品。但与以往的拍卖不同的是，中标者并不会得到一尊雕像，或者一幅画，乃至一份影印版作品，取而代之的是一个独特的数字资产凭证，也就是所谓的NFT（非同质化代币）。
The piece, titledEverydays: The First 5,000 Days, “positioning him among thetop three most valuable living artists”, Christie’s said via Twitter on Thursday.
佳士得拍卖行在推特上说道，这幅名为《每一天：最初的5000天》的数字艺术品将创作者Beeple送上了在世艺术家作品售价前三的宝座。这也是至今为止数字艺术作品的最高成交价。这幅画作是由5000张画作拼贴而成，Beeple每天完成一张画作，共耗时13年多才完成。
（以6940万美元的高价卖出的作品 Everyday: The First 5000 Days)
Christie’s said it also marks the first time a major auction house has offered a digital-only artwork with an NFT as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.
佳士得同时表示，这是数字艺术品第一次在主流拍卖行拍卖，同时采用NFT作为艺术品的真实性数字证书，这也是第一次在拍卖会上用加密的数字货币来进行交易。
Where Bitcoin was hailed as the digital answer to currency, NFTs are now being touted as the digital answer to collectables. But there are plenty of sceptics who think it is all a bubble that is going to burst.
比特币曾被誉为数字货币，如今，NFT也被吹嘘为数字形式的艺术收藏品。但也有很多人怀疑NFT是一个终将破灭的泡沫。
#What is an NFT?
#NFT是什么？
NFT stands for non-fungible token. In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged - like money. With money, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value.
NFT指的是非同质化代币。在经济学中，可交换资产是指具有易于互换单位的东西，例如货币。你可以将10英镑面额的纸币换成等值的两张5英镑面额的纸币。
However, if something is non-fungible, it means it has unique properties so it cannot be interchanged with something else. It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be the one original painting.
但是，如果某些东西是不可交换的,这意味着它具有独一无二的属性，使得它无法与其他东西互换。它可以是一栋房屋，也可以是《蒙娜丽莎》这一类的画作。你可以拍下该画作的照片或购买其印刷品，但原版画作始终只有一幅。
NFTs are "one-of-a-kind" assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but they have no tangible form of their own. The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
NFT是数字化世界中的“独一无二”的资产，可以像其他任何财产一样进行交易，但它们没有自己的有形形式。我们可以将数字代币视为虚拟或有形资产的所有权证书。
#How do NFTs work?
#NFT是如何运转的？
Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable because they are one of a kind. But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated. With NFTs, artwork can be "tokenised" to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.
画作这类的传统艺术作品由于其独一无二的特性而珍贵。但是，数字文件可以轻轻松松且无止尽地被复制。使用NFT可以对艺术品进行“标记”，同时创建可以买卖的数字所有权凭证。
As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain. The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world.
与加密货币一样，每项物品的所有权都会被记录在一个称为区块链的共享账本上。由于账本是由世界各地的计算机来维护的，账本上的记录是无法伪造的。
NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
NFT还自带智能合约，可以给艺术家提供未来销售的分成。
（Everyday: The First 5000 Days中的作品）
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#What's stopping people copying the digital art?
#是什么能阻止人们对于数字艺术的复制？
Nothing. Millions of people have seen Beeple's art that sold for $69m and the image has been copied and shared countless times.
没有什么能阻止。数以百万计的人们已经看到了Beeple 的那张售价4.5亿人民币的图片，而这张图片已经被复制并转发分享无数次了。
In many cases, the artist even retains the copyright ownership of their work, so they can continue to produce and sell copies. But the buyer of the NFT owns a "token" that proves they own the "original" work. Some people compare it to buying an autographed print.
许多情况下，艺术家们甚至还保有他们作品的版权，这样他们可以不断生产作品的复制品并从中获利。而不同的是购买NFT的人们独有一份“凭证”，证明他们拥有原版作品，这可以看作购买亲笔签名版和印刷签名版之间的区别。
#People are paying millions of dollars for tokens?
#斥资百万只为所有权凭证？
Yes. It's as wild as it sounds.
是的。听上去很疯狂吧。
#How much are NFTs worth?
#NFT价值几何？
In theory, anybody can tokenise their work to sell as an NFT but interest has been fuelled by recent headlines of multi-million-dollar sales.
理论上来说，任何人都可以使他们的作品并以NFT形式售卖，但实际收益正由于最近数以百万计的交易记录的刺激而上涨。
On 19 February, an animated Gif of Nyan Cat - a 2011 meme of a flying pop-tart cat - sold for more than $500,000. A few weeks later, musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for more than $6m.
2月19日，一款人气表情包Nyan Cat的NFT（该表情包的原型是2011年发布的游戏“彩虹猫”），卖出了50多万美元的高价（约合人民币350万元）。几周之后，音乐家Grimes卖出了她的几支数字音乐，成交价格总计超过六百万美元。
It is not just art that is tokenised and sold. Twitter's founder Jack Dorsey has promoted an NFT of the first-ever tweet, with bids hitting $2.5m.
除了艺术作品，可以被“代币化”并售卖的产品还有很多。推特创始人Jack Dorsey将他的首条推文推上了NFT拍卖会，竞价高达250万美元（约合人民币1600万元）。
（Jack Dorsey的首条推文)
#Is this just a bubble?
#这只是泡沫现象吗？
A day before his record-breaking auction, Beeple - whose real name is Mike Winkelmann - told the BBC: "I actually do think there will be a bubble, to be quite honest. "And I think we could be in that bubble right now."
在这破纪录拍卖的前一天，Beeple（Mike Winkelmann）告诉BBC：“老实说，我觉得确实有泡沫的成分在，而且我们可能就身处其中。”
Many are even more sceptical. David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain, said he saw NFTs as buying "official collectables", similar to trading cards.
很多人对于NFT的疑心更重。David Gerard，比特币圈吐槽书《Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain》的作者，表示他觉得NFT就是购买“官方收集品”，和收集卡牌差不多。
The people actually selling the NFTs are "crypto-grifters", he said. "The same guys who've always been at it, trying to come up with a new form of worthless magic bean that they can sell for money."
卖NFT的人就是“加密骗子”，他说，“背后还是那一群人，想发明一种全新且无用的魔法豆，好卖了换钱。”
Former Christie's auctioneer Charles Allsopp said the concept of buying NFTs made "no sense". "The idea of buying something which isn't there is just strange," he told the BBC. "I think people who invest in it are slight mugs, but I hope they don't lose their money."
佳士得的前拍卖商Charles Allsopp说购入NFT这样的想法完全“不合理”。“买一个不存在的东西，这个想法就是很怪，”他告诉BBC。“我认为投资这个的人都是有点容易被骗的体质，但我希望他们别亏了钱。”
编译|王兆隆 余梓骞 常君怡 李艳阳 刘予萌
排版|刘予萌
图片源于网络
