翻译The Comprehensive Guide to NFTs
So then how did we get from blockchain to NFT art?
我们怎样从区块链获得NFT艺术品？
Did NFTs begin with Beeple? Certainly not. Finding the precise origins of NFTs can be somewhat difficult. Unique digital items have been around for a few years. But when did one of these unique digital items cross the line from a commodity into “art”?
NFT是从Beeple开始的吗？当然不是。找到NFT准确的起源有些困难。独特的数字藏品已经风行有些年。但是从什么时候开始，这些独特的数字藏品“越界”，由商品变成了艺术品呢？
This, of course, begs the bigger question “What is art?” to which, there is no easy answer. Can digital currency—like the Bitcoins that preceded NFTs—count as art?
这可能引出了更大的问题，“什么是艺术？”对于这个问题，答案并不简单。像比特币一样的数字货币，先于NFT产生吗？
Actually, maybe they can.
事实上，它们是可以的。
Money has been used in (or as) art many times before, and several artists have simply exhibited physical piles of currency as artworks in galleries. In 2017, artist Danai Anesiadou sealed a kilogram of gold in plastic and declared that it was a piece of art. And back in 1994, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty performed an “art piece” in which they burned a million British pounds in currency notes in a fire.
金钱在（作为）艺术中的使用由来已久，很多艺术家曾经将成捆的现金作为艺术品在画廊中展出。在2017年，艺术家Danai将一公斤的金子封在塑料时，宣称这就是一件艺术品。早在1994年，Bill和Jimmy展览的艺术品，更是将一百万英磅烧成灰烬。
Had forms of digital currency already functioned as art, prior to NFTs? It’s possible. (And is something art historians will surely debate in years to come.) However, most in the space agree that the first proper works of digital NFT art were probably CryptoPunks, closely followed by CryptoKitties, which premiered in late November of 2017. CryptoKitties was (and still is) an Ethereum-based blockchain game that allows users to collect and breed digital cats. Through the robust CryptoKitties online community, users could create their own unique cats—which exist forever as NFTs—and trade them with and sell them to one another. Within the first week of its launch, users of CryptoKitties purchased over $1M of these digital cat images!
把数字货币作为艺术品的表现形式，是否早于NFT就出现了？是有可能的。（这可能是历史学家在未来几年会辩论的）然而，大部分人认为，首个数字NFT是早期的密码朋克，2017年创作的谜恋猫。谜恋猫基于以太坊，用户可以收集并繁殖出新的谜恋猫。在迅速发展的谜恋猫线上社区中，用户可以生成自己的谜恋猫，并作为NFT交易。在这个产品发布的前一周时间里，谜恋猫的用户购买了超过价值100万美金的谜恋猫图像！
While online cats might seem a bit unserious as the progenitors of a massive artistic revolution, people were buying these cats for the same reasons that anybody buys fine art. The images were nice to look at. Buying them was fun. You could make money from them because you were purchasing an appreciating asset. It was a way to show that you were “in the know” and “cultured” (or at least “online cultured”). And it was a way of expressing your interests while supporting artists financially. CryptoKitties also showed one of the defining and revolutionary features of NFT art in that it was accessible to collectors at almost any level of wealth. The most modestly priced CryptoKitty NFTs started at just $12.
数字猫可能看起来不太严肃，人们买这些东西的原因和买其它艺术品一样。这些图片看起来好看。买它们很有趣。由于购买的是增值资产，你可以从中获利。这是一种展示你是圈内人的行为。这是一种展示对你感兴趣艺术家支持的方式。对于任一财富层级的用户，谜恋猫都是可以参与的。最便宜的的谜恋猫NFT只需要12美金。
Sensing (correctly) that these cat NFTs were just the opening notes in the great symphony of collectible digital art, developers quickly set to work creating online marketplaces where NFTs could be bought and sold—and where artists new to the space could have their creations turned into NFTs. In 2018, a number of NFT marketplaces such as SuperRare, OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, and MakersPlace, were up and running.
谜恋猫NFT只是可收藏数字艺术的开胃菜，意识到这一点后，开发者们迅速投入到开发线上交易平台中，在这些平台上，NFT可以被买卖，新兴艺术家也可以将他们的作品铸造成NFT。在2018年，大量的NFT交易平台，如SuperRare, OpenSea, Nifty Gateway和 MakersPlace开始崛起。
In most cases, these NFT marketplaces make money by taking a percentage of each NFT sold. In return, they get the NFTs in front of the eyes of buyers, and facilitate the transactions.
在多数情况下，这些NFT交易平台通过售卖NFT，收手续费赚钱。作为回报，他们需要展示NFT，并促成交易。
With the rise of these online marketplaces, even more players started to get in the game. Literally. One of the most prominent entities to join the NFT space after CryptoKitties was the NBA’s official platform for selling game highlights—NBA Top Shot. In its first half-year operation, NBA Top Shot has done approximately $400 million in business!
随着这些NFT交易平台的崛起，更多的玩家开始进入这场游戏。在谜恋猫之后，最突出的NFT玩家就是NBA官方，将Top Shot作为NFT售卖。在前半年的运营中，NBA Top Shot赚了4亿美元！
The success of NBA Top Shot is important because it showed that a community of fans who might not be tech-inclined would take the steps to become so if it meant they could engage with their favorite sport in an exciting new way. Another, similar example would be the rock band Kings of Leon releasing an album in early 2021 as an audio NFT. Their fans were willing to make the leap to NFT, and the album made millions of dollars for the band.
NBA Top Shot的成功很重要，因为这说明，一个并不懂技术的社群粉丝可以和他们热衷的活动有了新的互动方式。另外，摇滚乐队里昂王族 在2021年初发布音频NFT。他们的粉丝也非常乐意参与NFT，这张唱片卖了数百万美金。
The story of the journey from blockchain to NFTs can also be seen in the way we’re watching NFTs change the nature of art collecting as a financial venture—especially when it comes to how works can be resold. To cite just one prominent example, a group of art collectors calling themselves Metapurse purchased twenty NFT artworks by Beeple in January of 2021. They then fractionalized their ownership of the works into tokens, and then they made those tokens available for sale to the public. Thousands of people bought them. Going by the value of the tokens at the time of this writing, the twenty works of art have now increased in value approximately six-fold.
从区块链到NFT之旅，也能在NFT作为艺术品是如何被二次售卖的体现出来。在一个经典的案例中，艺术品投资基金Metapurse 在2021年1月购入了Beeple的20幅NFT作品。他们把这些作品的所有权分解为代币的所有权，并面向公众售卖。数以千计的用户买入了它们。直到我写这本书的时候，这20幅作品的价值已经超过了原价的6倍。
Try doing that with a Rembrandt.
用伦勃朗的画作来做这件事。
Everyone’s getting into the act. Bhad Bhabie, a.k.a. the “Cash Me Outside” girl, has auctioned 20 NFTs based on her famous meme.
每个人都参与进来，被公众称为“出来单挑”的女孩 Bhad Bhabie，已经拍卖了她的20个NFT作品。
So now, we’re at this point where there seems to be endless opportunity and continual innovation as we see blockchain connecting in new ways with the technology.
现在，我们处于这样一个点，区块链和技术的结果有了层出不穷的机会和创新。
At least for the moment, there appears to be an endless appetite for NFT products. And even fan bases that may not be “into tech” are proving willing to take the leap to get to NFTs. But with this success comes legitimate questions about where NFTs will go next.
至少此时此刻，NFT产品看上去有无穷尽的胃口。那些不那么懂技术的粉丝也对NFT很感兴趣。但随之而来的，是有关NFT下一步该向哪走的合规问题。
Artists are constantly experimenting with new forms of art that can be created virtually. Developers are thinking about what else can be sold virtually (or sold as an NFT). For example, there is a booming market in virtual NFT real estate. You might not be able to own a mansion in real life, but now users can purchase one in a virtual world. We’re also seeing collectors scramble to figure out the best ways to exhibit their NFTs. Businesses are doing this too as they wish to develop and launch their own unique NFT products. And when you have a product, you want to get it in front of the eyes of your customers. But who are your customers and how are they going to find your NFTs? That’s what we’re still figuring out.
艺术家不断地对创作形式加以试验。开发者也在思考什么内容可以售卖。例如，虚拟房地产NFT市场份额在不断增长。你可能在现实生活中不曾拥有一座房子，但是现在，用户可以在虚拟世界购买房产了。我们也在看到，收藏者迅速弄清了展览他们NFT的最佳方式。商业经营者同时也在做，他们希望开发并发布他们自己的NFT。当你拥有一个NFT时，你希望展示给你的顾客。但是谁是你的客户，他们在哪里，这是我们仍在思考的问题。
From this evolving landscape, a solid piece of wisdom has already emerged: Don’t bet against NFTs. People who said that NFTs would remain small and niche were wrong.
从正在发展的趋势来看，不要和NFT对赌。那些认为NFT小而美的其实错了。
Those who claimed that only people who worked in the tech industry would ever purchase NFTs were also demonstrably incorrect. And those who claimed that NFTs “might be well and good for the unwashed tech-proletariat” but “we’ll never see those things being sold by the great auction houses for millions of dollars?” You guessed it; also wrong.
那些认为只有技术从业者才能购买NFT的人也大错特错了。那些认为NFT不入流，不会被放在拍卖行卖个大价钱的想法，也错了。
What walls are NFTs going to break through next? While nobody can predict the future for certain, in this book we’ll identify top candidates for places that NFTs will probably take off next.
NFT下一个需要打破的壁垒是什么？没人能准确预测未来，在本书中，我们将寻找那些即将起飞的NFT。
And one day, far in the future, in a marketplace where NFTs are so common they hardly raise an eyebrow, we may look back in amusement knowing that it seems to have all started with collectible digital cats.
在未来的某一天，当NFT非常常见，已经无法吸引人的注意力，我们回看时，会发现一切都是有谜恋猫引起的。