What did I just buy? I tried to use New York’s first NFT vending machine
我刚刚买了什么？我试着去用纽约第一台NFT售货机
Could buying an NFT the way one buys a bag of Cheetos demystify the process?
购买NFT能否像买一包Cheetos一样搞清楚过程的来龙去脉？
It’s easy to miss the storefront that is home to the “world’s first NFT vending machine” in Manhattan’s financial district. Squished between a sandwich shop and a tailor, the windows are bathed in pink neon light, with glowing letters that announce “NFT ATM.” When you walk through the entryway, you enter a tiny booth with the vending machine, filled with rows of little paper cartons, looking almost like cigarette packs. There are only two products: a “color” for $5.99 and a “party pigeon” for $420.69.
很容易错过这个坐落在曼哈顿金融区“世界上第一台NFT售货机”的店面。夹在三明治店和裁缝店之间，窗户沐浴在粉色霓虹灯下，上面写着“NFT ATM”的发光字。当你通过入口，你会进入到一个有自动售货机的小屋，里面塞满了一排排的纸箱，看起来像烟盒。这里只有两种商品：$5.99的“颜色”和$420.69的“派对鸽”。
I was here to spend some of the Guardian’s money on an NFT, or non-fungible token. NFTs are based on a blockchain feature called the “smart contract,” which is kind of like a virtual vending machine. Send some of your crypto to a smart contract, and it’ll print a unique token – basically a digital receipt – that says you now own this cat pic. Anyone else can still right-click-save and share Mr Whiskers, but you’ll know, and anyone else looking at the blockchain will know, that the image is yours. Or so the logic goes.
我来这是为了将一些卫报的钱花在NFT或者其他非同质化货币上。NFT基于一种具有区块链性质的名为“智能合约”的东西，这有点像是虚拟售货机。将你的一些加密货币发送给智能合约，它会输出一段独一无二的token——基本上相当于一个电子发票——意味着你现在拥有这个猫咪图片。其他任何人仍然可以右键保存并分享Mr Whiskers，但你要明白，其他任何查看区块链的人就会知道，这个图片是你的。大概是这样的逻辑。
The main problem facing users is that blockchain is too complicated, according to Jordan Birnholtz, the Chicago-based co-founder of Neon, the startup behind the vending machines. When he called me, the 30-year-old introduced himself by telling me he was using a skillet to heat up green tea, because he doesn’t have a pot or a kettle. (“I think my ex took them when we broke up,” he explained.) And just as you can boil water in a frying pan, Birnholtz is determined to prove you can buy NFTs without crypto.
据自动售货机背后坐落于芝加哥的初创公司Neon联合创始人Jordan Birnholtz说，用户们面临的主要问题是区块链过于复杂。当他与我通话的，30岁的他给我介绍自己说他正在用平底锅煮绿茶，因为他没有煮锅或者水壶。（“我认为我的前任在我们分手的时候带走了它们，”他解释说。）就像你可以在平底锅里烧开水一样， Birnholtz坚决的要证明你可以无需加密地购买NFT。
Birnholtz, who used to work in progressive politics (a “totally different” side of his life), said Neon’s target customer doesn’t want to get into “19th and early 20th century lessons about economics,” they just want to support artists they like, and in return get a little token of “conspicuous consumption” they can show off, like a digital version of a band T-shirt. Neon’s stated goal is to make buying an NFT “as simple as buying a toothbrush” – which means using an old-fashioned credit card, and instead of fiddling with smart contracts: a literal, physical vending machine.
Birnholtz过去在进步政治工作（他生活中“完全不同”的一面），他说Neon的目标客户不想涉入“19世纪和20世纪初的经济课程”中，他们只想支持他们喜欢的艺术家，并作为回报获得他们可以显摆的一小串“炫耀性消费”token，比如一个数字版的乐队T恤。Neon的目标是让购买NFT“简单得像买牙刷一样”——这意味着用一张老旧的信用卡，而不是摆弄智能合约：一个真正的，实体的售货机。
I didn’t think my editor would be thrilled with the pigeon, so I bought a color. This, it turns out, meant a piece of paper inside the carton with a randomly generated code that would allow me to “mint” an NFT, claiming ownership over one of 10,000 different colors. Birnholtz tried to clarify: “It’s impossible to own a color. What you own is a ledger on the Solana blockchain that represents that particular color. And we allow people to collect those colors to trade them, and sell them.”
我不认为我的编辑会为了这个鸽子而激动，所以我买了一种颜色。事实证明，这意味着一个纸盒里有一张纸，上面有一串随机生成的编码，它使我可以去“铸造”一个NFT，以声称拥有了10,000种不同颜色中的一种。Birnholtz尝试进一步解释：“占有一种颜色是不可能的。你所拥有的是一个在Solana区块链上代表该特定颜色的分账户。我们允许人们收集那些颜色来交易和出售它们。”
I still don’t fully know what that means, but I wasn’t about to let those silly anxieties get in the way. As if buying a bag of Cheetos, I punched in my selection and tapped my credit card. The machine beeped, the metal coil began to turn – and then, nothing. My NFT was stuck. I banged on the glass, but it refused to drop. I noticed two security cameras watching me, and felt self-conscious. Was I the first person in the world to lose money while physically buying an NFT?
我仍不完全明白这是什么意思，但我不会让那些愚蠢的焦虑来碍事。就像买了一个Cheetos的包，我输入我的选择并抽出我的信用卡。机器响起来，弹簧开始运动——之后，就没了。我的NFT卡住了。我使劲敲玻璃，但它还是不肯下来。我注意到两个安保摄像头正看着我，感觉有点难堪。我是世界上第一个在买实体NFT时亏钱的人吗？
Without other options, I bought another one to push the first one off. Now I had the first one, but the second one wouldn’t drop. I didn’t want to keep buying them, so I left the second one there. I knew in my heart that I owned it, but I had no real way to prove it.
没别的办法，我又买了一个把第一个推下来。现在我有第一个，但是第二个没有掉下来。我不想继续买了，所以我把第二个留在了那里。我心里知道我拥有它，但我没有真正的方式证明它。
I told Neon’s co-founder what happened. “That sucks, I am so sorry,” he said. “Vending machines remain, um, not perfect.” He offered to send me a refund if I sent him an email with the approximate time I had made the purchase and the last four digits of my credit card number. I began wondering if crypto would’ve been easier.
我告诉Neon的联合创始人发生了什么。“太糟糕了，我很抱歉，”他说。“售货机仍然存在...呃...不太完美。”他主动提出如果我给他发送一份带有我大致购买时间和信用卡号后四位的邮件，会给我退款。我想知道加密是否会更容易。
There was another snag when I redeemed my prize. I scanned my QR code, which directed me to a website and told me to create an account on the Neon marketplace. Then I had to enter a 12-digit sequence on my little slip of paper to mint my NFT. But instead of getting a color, based on a random six-digit “hex code” used by web designers, I got a five digit string that resulted in a blank square.
当我兑换我的奖励时出现了另一个障碍。我扫描了我的二维码，它引导我去了一个网站并让我在Neon商场上创建一个账号。之后我要输入我纸条上一串12个数字的序列来铸造我的NFT。但并没有得到一种颜色，基于Web设计师使用的一串6位的随机“十六进制代码”，我得到了一个五位字符串，结果是一个空白方块。
“That’s embarrassing, it sounds like you might have got a misprint,” said Birnholtz. But maybe, I suggested, the flaw could make my NFT more desirable? “Yeah, perhaps future generations will look upon your error in the same way they looked to numismatic errors with joy,” he offered.
“挺尴尬的，听起来像是你可能碰到一个印刷错误，”Birnholtz说道。但我提出，这个缺点可能会使我的NFT更受欢迎吗？“是的，可能以后年代的人会像看待钱币错误一样愉快地看待你的错误，”他提议道。
Other than list it for sale – and I wasn’t convinced anyone would buy it – it didn’t seem like there was much else I could do with the NFT. “That is correct. You are buying it to show it off,” the co-founder told me, adding, “We make no promise of future value. I would never sell something to someone as, oh, this is a great investment. That’s bullshit. I think you should buy something if you like it and you connect with it.”
不同于挂牌销售——我也不相信有人会买它——看起来没有什么别的我能用做的关于NFT的事情了。“这就对了。你买它就是为了展示的，”联合创始人告诉我，并补充说，“我们不保证未来的价值。我从不把某个东西说成是‘哦，这是个极棒的投资’，然后卖给某个人。那是胡说。如果某样东西触动了你，我认为你应该买它。”
On the topic of investment: Birnholtz’s company has received $3 m in seed funding. The co-founder said he plans to open more vending machines in half a dozen cities over the summer, probably including Las Vegas, Chicago, LA and Miami. The idea is that the machines will attract enough attention to turn Neon into a bustling platform. “Like, people having fun, collecting things, showing off their taste, flexing, and connecting with other people online. That’s awesome. It makes me happy. I get up every morning excited to talk to artists who want to sell on Neon.”
关于投资：Birnholtz的公司获得了300万美元的种子资金。这位联合创始人说他计划今年夏天在6个城市里开设更多售货机，可能包括拉斯维加斯、芝加哥、洛杉矶和迈阿密。这个想法是，机器将会吸引到足够的注意以使Neon变成一个繁华的平台。“爱好，人们乐此不疲，收集物品，展示他们的品味、多变，并与其他人在线上接触。这太棒了。让我感觉很好。我每天早上起床后都激动的与那些想要在Neon上销售的艺术家们交流。
I wasn’t sure who I could flex to, though. As I lingered outside the ATM for about half an hour after my purchase, on a busy street during lunch hour in FiDi, hundreds of people walked by, but only one other person stopped to look at the booth. “Oh my god,” he said, snapping a picture on his cell phone. I approached and asked him if he owned NFTs. “A few,” he replied, but he was already walking down the street.
我不确定我能屈服于谁。当我购买后在ATM机外徘徊了近半个小时，在午餐时间一条繁华的FiDi街上，数百人走过但只有一个人停下来看向亭子。“我c，”他说道，并用他的手机拍了一张照片。我走近问他是否有NFT。“有一些，”他回复道，但他早已走上街了。
—— 本文译自卫报，仅用于学习和交流目的