本文翻译自：https://medium.com/@FEhrsam/value-of-the-token-model-6c65f09bcba8
翻译时间：2017-10-27
Since my prior post on app coins (I think the more appropriate term is now tokens or blockchain tokens) we’ve seen more and more projects use this model. The tide is turning. While over $1bn of venture capital was invested in Bitcoin and blockchain based startups up through 2015, 2016 saw over $100m of crowdsourced, non-venture money fund 60+ projects.
从我之前关于应用程式货币上的帖子（我觉得更合适的术语现在是代币或区块链代币），我们已经看到越来越多的项目使用这种模型。时代潮流正在改变。截至2015年，已有超过10亿美元的风险投资投资于比特币和基于区块链的创业公司，在2016年，已有超过1亿美元的众筹形式的非营利性资金资助了60多个项目。
As momentum has increased, there have been some intelligent critiques of the model which help to hone in on the value a token really provides. I especially enjoyed these two, where the author argues it’d be more efficient to port the smart contracts of a token to use Ether directly, eliminating the token. He argues this will happen because 1) it eliminates the cost to convert between Ether and tokens, and 2) Ether will be a “better money” than any token because it will be more broadly used, thus more stable, so people will prefer to just use Ether. I want to succinctly describe the core value of the token model and address some of the common critiques below.
随着势头的增加，有一些对模型合理的评论，有助于体现一个代币真正提供的价值。我特别喜欢这两个，其中作者认为，将使用某种代币的智能合同直接移植到太币将会更有效率，从而消除该代币。他认为这将会发生，因为1）它消除了在以太币和代币之间转换的成本，以及2）以太币将成为比任何代币“更好的钱”，因为它将被更广泛地使用，从而更加稳定，所以人们更喜欢 只需使用以太币。我想简要地描述代币模型的核心价值，并解释下面的一些常见评论。
People will want to have governance over their own communities separate from the global governance of Ethereum (or any other base blockchain). A token is necessary for this sub-governance. Not having sub-governance would be like anyone who owns USD being able to walk into a Google shareholder meeting and voting without owning Google stock just because Google shares happen to be denominated in USD. Or like everyone in the US being able to vote on the bylaws of a social club in San Francisco, just because it happens to exist in the US.
人们希望对自己的社区进行独立治理，与以太网（或任何其他基础块链）的全球治理分开。代币对于次级治理是必需的。没有次级治理就像任何拥有美元的人都能够进入 Google 股东会议并且在不拥有 Google 股票的情况下投票，只因为Google股票以美元计价。或者像美国的所有人都能够在旧金山的一个社交俱乐部的章程上投票，只是因为它在美国存在。
A token offers security to community governance. While anyone can buy a token with Ether, in order to meaningfully influence the governance of that token community they’d have to buy a lot, increasing the price drastically while doing so. Finally, if they voted on something bad for the community, they would be destroying the value of what they own.
代币为社区治理提供安全保障。虽然任何人都可以用以太币购买代币，为了有意义地影响该代币社区的治理，他们必须购买很多，这样做会大大提高价格。 最后，如果他们投票对社区造成不利影响，他们将破坏他们拥有的价值。
It may be that the rules around some communities and their protocols can be static and thus don’t need governance — but I imagine most will want the option to evolve.
一些社区及其协议的规则可能是静止不变的，因此不需要治理 - 但是我想，大多数人都希望改变这个选择。
Ethereum may make monetary policy decisions like “let’s do 1% inflation to support the ongoing development of the Ethereum protocol.” A token built on Ethereum might want to do the same. And you’d want each to be able to do that independently. This is similar to what we are seeing with the Euro: you don’t necessarily want monetary union without fiscal union.
以太网可能会作出如“让我们通过1％的通货膨胀来支持持续开发以太网协议”这样的货币政策决策。基于以太网的构建的代币可能也希望做到同样的事。而且你希望每个代币都能够独立地做到这一点。这与我们看到的欧元类似：你不一定要在没有财政联盟的情况下想要货币联盟。
Tokens align incentives between developers, contributors, users, and investors. They allow everyone who wants to contribute to a project early the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. This overcomes the classic chicken and the egg problem for systems based on network effects.
代币将协调开发者，贡献者，用户和投资者之间的激励。他们允许每个想要为项目做出贡献的人提早有机会进入底层。 这克服了基于网络效应的系统的经典鸡和蛋问题。
“Just using Ether is more efficient because it eliminates the cost to convert between Ether and tokens”
“只需使用以太币更高效，因为它消除了在以太币和代币之间转换的成本”
The marginal cost argument for why it’s cheaper to do a contract on ETH is weak in my opinion. The cost of exchanging a token for ETH is already low at ~0.25% and will approach 0.
关于为什么在以太币上使用智能合同更便宜的边际成本论点在我看来是薄弱的。转换代币到以太币的开销已经很低，约为0.25％，接近0。
The more interesting economic force, in my opinion, is that Ether holders have a strong economic incentive to take any token protocol that works and port it directly to Ether. Let’s say Filecoin gets 30% of the Ethereum market cap. If Ether holders successfully port it — a simple matter of copying the code of the smart contracts — they absorb that value, and the value of their Ether goes up. So it seems like it will be tried. The question is whether or not it will work. In cases where a token is really needed for the reasons described above, I think the answer is no.
在我看来，更有趣的经济力量是，以太币的持有人有强烈的经济激励，将任何代币协议移植到以太币上。让我们说，Filecoin 获得了30％的以太网市值。如果以太币持有者成功地移植它 - 这是一个复制智能合同代码的简单问题 - 他们吸收了这个价值，其以太币的价值也上升了。所以看起来好像会被尝试。问题在于它能否奏效。如果由于上述原因确实需要一个代币，我认为答案是否定的。
Separately, I wonder what happens here if/when tokens start to span multiple base blockchains. For example: what if Filecoin is its own virtualized blockchain, where its ledger state is maintained across blockchains. If that is possible, you can imagine a token not being dependent on any one blockchain.
另外，我不知道如果/当代币开始跨越多个基本区块链时，会发生什么。 例如：如果 Filecoin 是它自己的虚拟化区块链，如果它的分类帐状态是跨区块链保存的。如果可能的话，你可以想象一个代币不依赖于任何一个区块链。
“People will prefer use Ether instead of tokens because it will be more stable in value”
“人们更愿意使用以太网代替令牌，因为它将在价值上更加稳定”
Holding/pricing in Ether instead of a token can be both a benefit and a drawback. On the benefit side, Ether may be more stable. On the drawback side, these communities may not want to be subject to changes in the price of Ether. This becomes especially true if tokens can start living across multiple base blockchains. In any case, I think this point is least important since holding tokens is not required because they can instantly be converted in/out of Ether.
以以太币而不是代币持有/定价可能既是一个好处，也是一个缺点。在好的方面，以太币可能更稳定。在缺点方面，这些社区可能不希望受到以太币的价格的变化。如果代币可以开始跨越多个基本区块链，这一点尤其如此。 在任何情况下，我认为这一点是最不重要的，因为持有代币不必要的，因为它们可以立即被转换成以太币。
As with early internet startups, some token models don’t make sense. For every 1 huge hit there will be 3 minor successes and 100 failures, so we shouldn’t be surprised when some fail. However, the fundamentals of the token model are valuable and powerful. They allow communities to govern themselves, their economics, and rally a community in powerful ways that will allow open systems to flourish in a way that was previously impossible.
与早期的互联网创业公司一样，一些代币模型也没有意义。对于每一次重大的成功，将有三次小的成功和100次失败，所以我们不应该惊讶，当有些项目失败。然而，代币模型的本质是有价值和强大的。他们允许社区管理自己，他们的经济学，并以强大的方式团结一个社区，这将允许开放系统以先前不可能的方式蓬勃发展。
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