美国“加密选举”的闹剧

November 5, by all accounts, is set to be America’s first “crypto election”. Hundreds of millions of real dollars have poured into pro-crypto political action committees. Kamala Harris has talked about encouraging “innovative technologies”. Donald Trump, her rival for the presidency, has decided that bitcoin isn’t “a scam” after all, embarked on a series of crypto ventures and promises to make America “the crypto capital of the planet”.
11 月 5 日，普遍认为将成为美国的第一次“加密选举”。数亿美元的真实资金已流入支持加密货币的政治行动委员会。卡马拉·哈里斯谈到了鼓励“创新技术”。她的总统竞争对手唐纳德·特朗普最终决定比特币并不是“骗局”，并开始了一系列加密货币投资，承诺将美国打造为“全球加密货币之都”。

“The crypto voter is real, bipartisan and ready to engage this cycle,” the executive director of lobby group Stand With Crypto, founded and funded by America’s biggest crypto exchange Coinbase, enthused last week. (The group gives politicians grades for their crypto stance, and Trump — unusually — gets an A.)
“加密货币选民是真实的，跨党派的，并准备在这个周期参与，”由美国最大的加密货币交易所 Coinbase 创立和资助的游说团体 Stand With Crypto 的执行董事上周热情表示。（该团体对政治家的加密货币立场进行评分，而特朗普——不寻常地——获得了 A。）

But reader, I must level with you right off the BAT (a digital token): the crypto voter is not, in any substantive sense, real. Aside from the small group of men (OK, mainly men) whose livelihoods now depend on this digitally indigenous fluff, most Americans have rather bigger things to worry about — food prices, healthcare, the jobs market, or the general state of their nation, maybe.
但是读者，我必须直接告诉你：加密投票者在任何实质意义上都不是真实的。除了那小部分（好吧，主要是男性）生计现在依赖于这种数字原生的虚幻，大多数美国人还有更重要的事情需要担心——食品价格、医疗保健、就业市场，或者他们国家的整体状况。

The idea, therefore, that there is a “constituency” of crypto voters needing to be pandered to, whose top issue is making sure that exchanges and other companies aren’t too heavily regulated, is fanciful. And yet that is the narrative being pushed by the industry, along with some creatively interpreted statistics.
因此，认为存在一个需要迎合的“加密选民”群体，他们的首要问题是确保交易所和其他公司不受过度监管，这种想法是幻想。然而，这正是行业所推动的叙述，以及一些创造性解读的统计数据。

“Crypto is a national priority . . . 52mn Americans own crypto and want their voices to be heard in the upcoming elections,” claims Stand With Crypto (the 52mn is certainly contested). “Nearly nine in ten Americans believe the financial system is overdue for an update. Yet, US policymakers seem content on maintaining the status quo, rather than fulfilling their responsibilities.”
“加密货币是国家优先事项……5200 万美国人拥有加密货币，并希望在即将到来的选举中发声，”Stand With Crypto 声称（5200 万的数字确实存在争议）。“近九成美国人认为金融系统已经过时。然而，美国政策制定者似乎满足于维持现状，而不是履行他们的责任。”

This, presumably, means making sure people like multibillionaire Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong can continue to get richer. Because if it’s really the crypto owners being considered here, they are doing just fine, thanks (or the ones lucky enough to choose an exchange that didn’t steal it all, anyway).
这显然意味着要确保像亿万富翁 Coinbase 首席执行官布莱恩·阿姆斯特朗这样的人能够继续变得更富有。因为如果这里真正考虑的是加密货币的拥有者，他们过得很好，谢谢（或者说那些幸运选择了没有全部盗走资金的交易所的人，反正也是如此）。

Despite the Biden-Harris administration being “very hostile” to crypto, according to Trump — “extremely hostile, like nobody can believe” — bitcoin has more than quadrupled in price since the 2020 election, reaching a record high earlier this year. The estimated value of the entire crypto market has almost sextupled. If it’s US jobs we’re talking about, industry figures show almost a third of the world’s crypto workforce is based in the US.
尽管拜登-哈里斯政府对加密货币“非常敌对”，特朗普表示“极其敌对，没人能相信”，但自 2020 年选举以来，比特币的价格已经上涨了四倍多，今年早些时候达到了创纪录的高点。整个加密市场的估计价值几乎增长了六倍。如果我们谈论的是美国的就业，行业数据显示，全球近三分之一的加密货币劳动力位于美国。

Crypto is also responsible for almost half of all corporate spending on the election so far, with the pro-crypto Fairshake super Pac having raised more than $200mn alone.
加密货币也占据了迄今为止所有企业选举支出的近一半，支持加密货币的 Fairshake 超级政治行动委员会单独筹集了超过 2 亿美元。

But while the fact that there is a huge amount of both crypto money and crypto rhetoric in this campaign is in no doubt, does either candidate really care? Let’s look at Harris’s own words. Until recently, there were none. But last Sunday at a Wall Street fundraiser, she finally said: “We will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets, while protecting our consumers and investors.”
但尽管在这场竞选中，存在大量的加密货币和加密言论毫无疑问，但这两位候选人真的在乎吗？让我们看看哈里斯自己的话。直到最近，她没有发表过任何相关言论。但上周日，在一次华尔街筹款活动上，她终于说：“我们将鼓励像人工智能和数字资产这样的创新技术，同时保护我们的消费者和投资者。”

For all those getting excited about her sudden conversion — Stand With Crypto even graded her a B, for being “somewhat pro-crypto”, before downgrading after a backlash — let me make clear my own thoughts: Harris couldn’t give a flying Satoshi. She has promised nothing at all. Her comments were designed not to alienate the tech world by coming across as heavy-handed while keeping those who favour stronger regulation on side.
对于所有因她突然转变而感到兴奋的人——“支持加密货币”甚至给了她一个 B 的评分，因为她“在某种程度上支持加密货币”，但在遭到反对后又降级——让我明确我的想法：哈里斯根本不在乎。她根本没有承诺任何事情。她的评论旨在不让科技界感到疏远，同时又能让那些支持更强监管的人感到满意。

Trump has sold four collections of NFTs, and generously offers Americans the “chance to contribute to the campaign with cryptocurrency”. But if you think his interest goes beyond his own prospects, you too should brace for disappointment. He might be lauded by Coinbase’s chief policy officer for his “concrete and visionary positions” but he doesn’t seem to take the whole thing very seriously. “Have a good time with your bitcoin and your crypto, and everything else that you’re playing with,” he told July’s bitcoin 2024 conference.
特朗普已经出售了四个 NFT 系列，并慷慨地为美国人提供了“用加密货币为竞选贡献的机会”。但如果你认为他的兴趣超出了他自己的前景，你也应该做好失望的准备。他可能会因其“具体而富有远见的立场”而受到 Coinbase 首席政策官的赞扬，但他似乎并没有非常认真对待这一切。“好好享受你的比特币和你的加密货币，以及你正在玩的一切，”他在七月的比特币 2024 大会上说道。

Neither does Trump display much understanding — which, to be fair, he at least owns up to. At the launch of his and his sons’ latest foray into crypto, World Liberty Financial, he compared it to learning Chinese. What the company will do remains unclear.
特朗普也并没有表现出太多的理解——公平地说，他至少对此承认。在他和他儿子最新的加密货币冒险“世界自由金融”的发布会上，他将其比作学习中文。该公司的具体业务仍不清楚。

Still, at least the venture’s “DeFi visionary” seems to get it. “Barron knows so much about this,” the former president said of his 18-year-old son. “He talks about his wallet. He’s got four wallets or something, but he knows this stuff.” Remember remember the fifth of November. Cluelessness, claptrap and grift.
尽管如此，至少这个风险投资的“去中心化金融愿景者”似乎明白这一点。“巴伦对此了解很多，”前总统谈到他 18 岁的儿子时说道。“他谈论他的数字钱包。他有四个钱包之类的，但他懂这些东西。” 记住记住 11 月 5 日。无知、胡言乱语和诈骗。

jemima.kelly@ft.com