Crypto Through the Eyes of the Human Animal / 从人类本性来看数字货币

Following on from the huge success of Steemit, I'm sure many Steemians have been telling friends and family about how great the platform is and how seamlessly the system actually works. Yesterday, I had a similar conversation with a good friend of mine about the reward potential of Steemit and initially, it seemed like the best thing since sliced bread!  

继Steemit的成功，我敢肯定许多Steemit成员们纷纷向家人和朋友宣传这个平台有多好以及它是如何运作的。昨天，我也和一个好友谈到了类似的话题。说到能在Steemit这个平台上赚到真金白银，我们就像碰到天上掉下来了馅饼一样兴奋! 

However, when I started explaining about "crypto" related topics concerning Steemit, our chat literally hit a brick wall. She was previously aware that I was now somewhat involved with Bitcoins, but never really revealed her feelings on this, until now. There was a lot of sceptisism and doubt about this strange new technology and how it's something that is just a passing fad. Well, I inquired on what basis she had reached this conclusion and pretty much the answer I got was "just because". Talk about looking through a mirror at my past self! I used to think exactly like that! But her opinion was formed on what basis exactly? 

然而，当我开始解释与Steemit有关的数字货币时，发现自己好像碰上了一堵墙。朋友虽然知道我们买了一些比特币，但直到现在从未真正说出她在这方面的想法。她对这个新科技有很多疑问，觉得这会不会只是昙花一现而已？我问她，你这么说的依据是什么，我得到的回答是“没有为什么，只是凭感觉”。我就像是在镜子里看到以前的自己一样！我以前也是这么想的，但形成这结论的依据是什么呢？ 

Now, I am quite certain of two important points. 

现在的我，非常确定以下这两点： 

1) Crypto is here and here to stay for good. It is just a matter of time until mass adoption spreads it's wings across the globe. 

1）数字货币会继续存在并不断发展，从现在到全球大规模扩大也只是时间问题。 

2) Presently, people involved in crypto are the vast minority within society as a whole, with many people still unaware that it actually even exists. 

2）目前，社会上使用数字货币的人还占极少数，许多人甚至不知道数字货币的存在。 

I used to be one of those people, but now realise all it takes is just a touch of "open-mindedness" and the rest simply falls into place. This is most definitely easier said than done, lol. But I believe if you just sit back for a moment and look a look at the bigger picture, there is no opinion that is "Right" or "Wrong". It's just our instinctive nature playing itself out. Just humans reacting in a human way.  

我曾经是其中的一员，而现在意识到我们所需要的不过是开放的思想和接受新事物的能力，其它一切也就顺理成章了。但现实往往说起来容易，做起来难。我相信，如果你坐下来冷静思考，从长远的角度来看，是没有 “对” 或 “错”的。这是我们人类的本性。   

Here are a few of my own personal thoughts on this. 

以下是我关于这方面的一些看法.   

The Tangibility of an Asset  资产的有形性 

Technology has progressed in leaps and bounds to where our world is now functioning in a digital environment. The Internet revolution was a real revolution indeed. Yet the majority of people today still need to equate a physical object to having value. A house, a car, even physical "real world" money itself. It has to be something you can "see" with your own two eyes to show you that is it something you can actually possess. Even the use of a plastic bank card is a symbolic representation of your worth, as people can physically "hold" it and use it day to day.  

随着技术发展的飞跃，我们正生活在一个高科技环境里。互联网确实是一个大变革。然而，今时今日还有大多数人需要实物来代表价值，如房子，车子，和有物质形态“现实世界”的 钱。它是你能用双眼看到并实际占有的东西，即使用塑料做的银行卡也是象征你财富的实物，这是因为人们可以拿在手上并每天使用。 

Now, I'm quite positive about this mentality changing with time, hence my belief that crypto will be widely accepted in the future. For now though, this is the situation. 

我觉得这种心态会随着时间而改变，因为我相信数字货币在不久的将来会被广泛接受。但目前情况是大部分人还没有改变这种观念。 

But ask these same people how much is it's "real value" if you remove your rose-tinted glasses for just a second? The answer is almost nothing. It's in essence just a wrinkled piece of paper with some images and numbers printed on it. Same with the bank card, a small strip of embossed plastic. The value comes not from the medium, but from society itself.  

但如果你问这些人，钱的真正价值是多少？我想答案会是“没有价值”吧。钱的本质只是一张印有图案和数字的皱纸。同样道理，银行卡也只是加了铐印的塑料卡而已。这些价值不是来源于钱币，而是社会本身。 

Take this analogy, for example. We have all been conditioned from infancy to look at physical money and perceive it as something of value. If, however, you are shown a currency from a country not familiar to you, that now looks like a useless piece of paper until you actually purchase something with it. Now that scrap of paper has gained a whole new meaning in your world. Something that now carries worth.  

做个比喻，我们从幼儿时代被身边的人教育和影响着，钱是有价值的东西。如果别人给你一个你不熟悉国家的货币，对你来说这是废纸，直到你使用它来采购物品。此刻那张废纸在你的世界里就发挥了作用，成为了有价值的东西。

The exact same concept can be applied to digital currencies, but with a slight tweaking of the rules. It may not be something you can actually hold in your hands, but the cold hard truth is that people around the world ARE purchasing goods and services with it right now! Society on a planetary level is giving crypto currencies like Steem, Bitcoin and the like, REAL value. At one point in history, we would barter for the things we needed in life. That was the currency for that time period. Things change, and whether we like it or not, as I mentioned before, the world has already gone digital via the Internet. All except money, until now!  

同样的道理可以用在比特币上。虽然这不是你能拿在手里的东西，但事实是世界各地的人已经用它在采购商品和服务。整个社会开始给予Steem和比特币等数字货币真实价值。在人类历史的进程，有一段时期人们是以实物交换实物，当时实物就是货币。时代的变迁，不管你认不认同，世界已经通过互联网进入一个数字时代。现在，货币也一样经历着这样的变更。 

So now I ask you? What's more valuable? A stream of computer programmed code or a piece of paper?  

所以我要问的是，什么更有价值？是计算机程序里的代码，还是一张纸？   

Herd Mentality for the Masses  从众心理 

Humans are social creatures. It's embedded into our DNA. We find strength in numbers. We will go along with what everyone else says in the hope that the mainstream train of thought is the correct one. However if we always stuck to that way of thinking, we would never have evolved as a species. The ones that actually strayed from the masses to improve on the current way of doing things and eventually did so, were regarded as pioneers and innovators. 

人类是社交群体，这深深藏在我们的基因里。我们发现，人多力量大。我们总会跟着大家走，认为主流方向是正确的。如果我们只是坚持一成不变的思维方式，那么我们绝不会进化成今天的人类。通常走与大众不同的方向，想要改善现行机制并最后取得成功的人，被尊称为先驱者和创新者。

When we wish to learn something new, it's good to have the acknowledgement of our peers. For crypto, this could as seen as a good and a bad thing.  

当我们学习到新知识，能得到同伴认可是好事。数字货币可被看作好事也可被看作坏事。 

1) Bad for now because it has not received the worldwide recognition it deserves and people would rather stay safe with everybody else and keep the existing system the same as it always was.  

1) 现在被认为是坏事，这是因为它还没有得到全世界的认可，人们为了安全起见，情愿保留在现有的传统货币系统下。 

2) Good for when the technological advancements of crypto are apparent enough to be universally accepted everywhere and adopted as a monetary tool by friends, family and colleagues. 

2）当这个新科技更加普及，并被家人，朋友和同事接受它作为货币工具的时候，货币数据就是好事。 

The latter will happen, I personally have no question of that, it is just a matter of time. But until that day comes, people will carry on behaving just as people do. 

我个人认为，数字货币会被普遍接受，只是时间问题而已。但直到那一天的到来，大部分人还是会继续他们现有的观点。 

Resistance Is Futile  抵抗是徒劳的 

People are usually never happy with change if it is out of their direct control. It's ingrained as our innate survival mechanism. Be it a change at home, in the workplace or our personal circumstances, the result is more often than not a negative one. We have spent all that time and effort getting used to our daily routine and having the rug pulled out from under us is always going to require a level of adaption to the new. But does adapting actually have to be a bad thing? Has change consistently worked out for the worse for us?  

人们通常不喜欢变革，因为结果不是他们能直接控制的。不管这个变革是在家里，公司或是个人场所，通常都不是消极的。 改变我们花时间精力养成的日常习惯，是需要一定对新事物的适应能力。但适应新的东西总是坏事吗？难道所有在我们生活里改变过的事情全都没有好结果？ 

Look at Apple for instance, when Steve Jobs wanted a phone that could also act as a mobile computer, with Internet and high end media capabilities. People thought he'd lost it, but now we know his technology literally changed the world as we know it almost overnight. 

例如Apple, 当Steve Jobs想创造一个具有电脑功能，互联网和高端媒体设备的手机，所有人都以为他疯了。但现在我们知道他的技术在一夜之间完全改变了整个世界。 

The same thing was said of the Internet itself. A decentralised network of computers allowing the world to communicate. A great idea in theory, but this was met with the same response and look how that one worked out. 

那么，互联网本身也是另一个例子。分散各地的电脑网络能把全世界联系起来。同样的一个伟大理论，但当时遭到了许多人的怀疑和抵制，但其结果却是有目共睹的。 

There are countless examples like the above where the general consensus was a resounding no an "out-of-the-box" concept, even though it was improving on or solving an existing social issue. But sadly, we as a people seem to be pre-programmed to say NO, sometimes I've noticed even just for the sake of it. We don't want to be seen as different or out of place. But once we accept the fact that it is purely our human conditioning being naturally played out, surely we should start to see things from a clearer perspective and arrive at a more reasoned decision.  

像上述的例子有很多，对于跳脱框架的创意思维，虽然能改善或解决社会问题，但人们总会潜意识地说“不”，就像被电脑编了程序一样。他们不想显得自己与众不同或表现不得当。一旦我们承认这是我们的本性，相比大家可以开始从一个更清晰的角度来看待和评论数字货币。 

I put this to you, hopefully without offending anyone. If millions today can believe in "the invisible man in the sky wanting people to live well and be good to others so that we all may find peace", surely it's not too hard to consider the idea of "an invisible currency on the Internet that helps people get richer and live better, including parts of the world where that may not have been possible before".  

换个说法，如果数以百万计的人认为无形人（上帝）在天上看着我们，让我们互相友爱，才能一起繁荣。那么，人们应该更容易接受，互联网上的无形货币能帮助大家致富并生活得更好，包括世界上一些很穷连银行也普及不到的地方。 

Logic Will Prevail  逻辑将占上风 

I'm hoping this post reaches people who used to think the same way as I did. After all, all it takes really is looking at things from a slightly different point of view. Considering all the above, I came to the conclusion that all my points have one thing in common. 

希望与我以前有同样想法的人能看到这篇文章。毕竟，数字货币需要的只是人们从稍微不同的角度来看待事物。终上所述，我以上观点都有一个共同点。

"They all have a workable solution." 

他们都有一个可行的解决方法。 

Humans are a lot cleverer than we give each other credit for. We are an adaptive species by nature and time plays an important factor in acceptance for any breakthrough we make. But make no mistake, crypto currency solves many of the issues relating to conventional money and we are on the verge of a global monetary revolution. 

人类是聪明的。我们天生具有适应性，随着时间我们会慢慢接受任何新变革。但毫无疑问的是，数字货币解决了许多以往货币的弊端，而我们正处于全球货币改革的边缘。 

Naturally, crypto related problems will arise as adoption becomes more widespread, but I believe the benefits will prevail in the end. I myself couldn't see it for a long time and took the easy option of closing off doorways I didn't fully comprehend. I used to think exactly the same way as my friend does, but if I saw the light, then why can't everybody else too? 

随着数字货币的普及，与之相关的问题也会渐渐出现。但我相信困难会被战胜的。很长一段时间，我在没有弄明白数字货币的情况下就简单地选择了关闭这扇门，也曾经有与我朋友同样的想法，但现在我看到了曙光，为什么其他人不能呢？ 

We need to see the reasons behind why we act out in certain ways and do the things we do from a biological point of view. Changing the way we perceive new ideologies is then made all the more easier to implement. I see Steemit one day not needing the "$" symbol anymore as the Steem currency symbol would have eventually taken its place.  

我们需要了解我们做某样事情背后的原因，并从逻辑的角度来决定我们的行为。这样的话，改变我们看待新意识形态就变得更容易实现了。总有一天，Steemit不再需要“美元”这个标志，而是由Steemit自己的货币符号取代。