黄粱一梦 一个币圈韭菜的故事

　　“市场对韭菜们的收割开始了。”曾文愁眉苦脸。在暴跌行情里，他经历几次爆仓，所有数字货币化为乌有。

"The market begins the harvest of the pickles." He's got a sad face. In a crash, he goes through a number of busts, and all the numbers are monetized.

　　他自称是币圈里的“小韭菜”。进入币圈前，他是一个初中文凭、装卸货物的工人，每个月工资2800块。没钱的时候，喝1块钱的矿泉水还要找人借钱。从2017年开始“炒币”之后，在两个月里赚了120万元。他差一点真就改变了自己的命运。

He claims to be a “little pickle” in the currency ring. Before entering the currency, he was a junior high school diploma, loading and unloading worker with a monthly salary of 2,800 dollars. When there was no money, he had to borrow a dollar of mineral water. He made 1.2 million dollars in two months after the “fibulation” began in 2017. He almost changed his destiny.

　　如今，这个百万富翁“一夜回到解放前”。但狂热之中，谁都不愿意相信自己是最后的那根韭菜。

Today, this millionaire goes back one night to pre-liberation. But in fanaticism, nobody wants to believe that they're the last pickles.

　　发大财

　　“币圈曾文”，告别了3年前的那个“打工曾文”。

The “coin circle” said goodbye to the “working paper” three years ago.

　　他废弃了打工时常用的qq号，丢掉用了多年的烂手机，买了一部iphone7plus，还拥有了一台1万多块钱的顶配台式电脑。

He abandoned the qq, which was used for working hours, lost his many years of poor mobile phone, bought an iphone 7plus and owned a top desktop computer for more than $10,000.

　　现在，“币圈曾文”的微信里有数百个群，并且“非币圈人不加”。在其中一些群里，他还是意见领袖，常常发表对行情的判断，以指引新进场韭菜们的投资方向。有人还喊他“老师”或者“前辈”。

Now, there are hundreds of groups in the Wirtschaftsprüfer's micro-letters, and there are also groups of people who are not in the currency. In some of them, he is also an opinion leader, often expressing his judgment about his behavior in order to guide the newcomers to their investment. He is also called "teacher" or "former".

　　实际上他并不老。他出生于1992年，父母都是江西的农民。初中毕业后，他南下去东莞打工，在一家工厂当仓管员。他身材瘦弱，不善言谈，常常被安排最重的活，“每天在满是灰尘的地下仓库里搬东西”。

In fact, he was not old. He was born in 1992 and his parents were farmers in Jiangxi. After he graduated from junior high school, he went south to work as a warehousekeeper in a factory. He was thin, unspoken, and was often assigned the heaviest task, “to move every day in an underground warehouse full of dust”.

　　2015年，他被女网友骗入杭州的传销机构，逃出来后，又加入了一种名为“资金盘”的庞氏骗局，为此透支多张信用卡和现金贷，总共有30万元。到了2017年春节，他躲在外地不敢回家，只能靠吃泡面度日，因为通讯录里的所有亲友都收到了催债短信。

In 2015, he was lured into Hangzhou's distribution agency by a woman's online friend, who escaped and joined a Ponzi scheme called the “fundboard” for which he had overdrafted his credit cards and cash loans for a total of $300,000. By spring 2017, he was hiding in the field, afraid to go home, and had to eat blisters, because all his friends and friends in the newsletter received debt-driven text messages.

　　“要是没有比特币，我可能这辈子都翻不了身。”曾文说。2017年，一个以前一起陷进骗局的朋友找到他，说“玩资金盘已经过时了，现在流行的是炒币”，还说赚了100多万，邀他一起过去“发大财”。他想都没想就去了。

“If it wasn't for bitcoin, I might not have turned over my whole life.” It was written. In 2017, a friend who had been in a scam together found him, saying, “Playing the money plate is out of date, and now it's popular,” said he made more than a million dollars, and invited him to go, "Big money." He didn't even think about it.

　　朋友给他租了一间地下室当工作室。第一次去时，他在地下二层拐了10个弯才找到自己的房间。屋里十分之一的地方，被暴露在外的热力管道占据。

A friend rented him a basement as a studio. The first time he went, he took 10 turns to find his room. A tenth of the room was occupied by exposed heat pipes.

　　朋友在那里给曾文上了一次“虚拟货币课”。地下室里特有的霉味，让他想起当年听传销课时同样破旧的屋子。朋友跟曾文解释什么叫比特币，讲“去中心化”和“区块链”，曾文都似懂非懂。直到朋友说“做这个比干传销挣钱多了，还不犯法”，他才激动得连连点头，因为“越难懂，相信的人越多，而且听不听得懂不重要，重要的是能赚钱”。

A friend gave Tsang a “virtual currency lesson” there. The odour in the basement reminded him of the same old house when he was in a marketing class. A friend explained to Tsang what was called bitcoin, “decentralization” and “block chains”, which used to be understood. He was nostalgic until a friend said, “There is more money to do than a dry pass and nothing to do”, because “the harder it is to understand, the more people to believe, and the less to understand, the more it matters, the more it is to make money”.

　　他太渴望赚钱了。当初注册现金贷的手机，他一直不敢开，不然银行和催债的人会把电话打爆。朋友借了他5000块钱，他就用来炒币。

He was too eager to make money. He was afraid to open the phone that he had signed up for a cash loan, otherwise the bank and the debt collector would blow the phone. A friend lent him $5,000, and he used it for money.

　　2017年，比特币上万块钱一个，他炒不起，就去炒其他的山寨币。他用朋友淘汰的一台笔记本电脑，低价买币，高价卖币，自学“波段操作”和“杠杆交易”。

In 2017, one in ten thousand dollars in bitcoins, and he can't afford it, he's going to fire the rest of the money. He uses a laptop that his friends took out, he buys it at a low price, he sells it at a high price, he learns his own "band operation" and "leveraging trade."

　　“慢慢就明白了币圈是怎么回事，懂不懂区块链根本一点关系都没有，主要就看哪个币会宣传，哪个币就会涨。”他说。

“It's slowly becoming clear what the ring is all about, and it doesn't matter what the chain of blocks is, depending on which one promotes and which one rises.” He said.

　　他看到的最显著的例子，就是澳大利亚的杰克逊·帕尔默创造的“狗币”。2013年时，帕尔默抱着开玩笑的心态发明了“狗币”，到了2017年，市值达到了20亿美元。

The most striking example he saw was the “dog coin” created by Jackson Palmer of Australia. In 2013, Palmer invented the “dog coin” with a funny mind, and by 2017, the market value had reached $2 billion.

　　曾文也炒过狗币”，“一个开玩笑的根本没什么实际作用的币，一样能涨几百倍。这可确实比传销好赚钱多了。” 那段时间，在散发着霉味的地下室里，他每天盯20个小时的K线图，连上厕所都抱着电脑，只睡4个小时的觉。

Tsang also fired the dog coins, “a currency that makes no sense at all, but that can increase several hundred times. This is a lot better than selling.” During that time, in the rotting basement, he looked at 20 hours of the K-line map every day, and even went to the toilet with a computer and only slept four hours.

　　2017年是比特币的狂热之年，全年最高涨幅达到1700%。“基本上每天挣两台iphoneX的钱。”曾文说。

The year 2017 was a year of bitcoin fanaticism, with a peak annual increase of 1700 per cent.

　　2016年底到2017年10月期间比特币币值一路飙升，冲破6000美元。数据来源/美国彭博

Between the end of 2016 and October 2017, the value of the bitcoin rose sharply, breaking $6,000.

　　那段时间，曾文过上了打工时梦寐以求的生活，他基本实现了吃饭自由和买衣服自由，“想吃什么菜就吃，想买多少钱衣服就买”。以前为了几块钱在QQ里转发各种广告，现在跟人在微信里“谈投资项目”。

During that time, Tsang was able to live the life he dreamed of working for, and he was basically free to eat and buy clothes, “Eat whatever he wants and buy as much clothes as he wants.” Before sending ads for a few dollars in QQ, he was “talking about investment projects” in a letter.

　　他实现了许多人生中的“第一次”。第一次去洗脚店洗脚、第一次买iphone、第一次坐飞机、第一次参加币圈聚会……他还清了全部债务，给家里买了电视机、电冰箱，还给父母买了养老保险。

He has achieved a lot of “firsts” in his life. For the first time, he went to wash his feet at the footshop, bought his first iphone, took his first flight, attended his first currency circle party... He also cleared all his debts, bought his home a television set, a refrigerator and a pension insurance for his parents.

　　相比物质上的“脱贫”，精神上的改变更让他振奋。“以前在工厂里打工，别人不会拿正眼看你，甚至都懒得知道你的名字。”但现在，他参加币圈人组织的聚会，“坐在过去只有参加婚礼才有机会坐的酒桌上吃饭”。说话时，别人会认真地看着他的眼睛。

He is much more excited by the change of mind than by the material “getting out of poverty.” “When people used to work in factories, they didn't look at you, and they didn't even know your name.” But now, he goes to a party organized by the Money Circle, “sitting at a table where people used to have a chance to sit at a wedding.” When people talk, they look into his eyes.

　　一夜返贫

　　暴富的感觉让曾文沉迷。他专门回去见了3年前一起打工的工友，对方在他最困难的时候请他喝了一瓶1块钱的矿泉水。他一直记在心里。

The feeling of tyrannical wealth enthralled him. He went back to his fellow workers who worked with him three years ago, and invited him to a bottle of a dollar of mineral water at his most difficult time, and he kept it in his heart.

　　对方还是老样子，干着和以前同样的工作，3年里工资上涨了200块钱。他们在厂子附近的餐馆里吃了饭，他点了几道店里最贵的菜，买了单。离开时，他感叹，“两人已经不是一个世界的人了”。

They're still doing the same job as they used to, and their wages have increased by 200 dollars in three years. They eat in a restaurant near the factory, they order the most expensive food in the shop, they buy the bill. When he left, he lamented, "The two are no longer one of the world."

　　“从前我过惯了穷日子，觉得那样生活下去没什么，直到炒币后，心里才多了一种感觉，这种感觉以前没有过。”曾文把这种感觉总结为“希望”。

“I used to live in poverty, and I felt that there was nothing left to live like that until after the coins were paid off, a feeling that had never existed before.” This feeling was summed up in the text as “opportunity”.

　　“人一旦有了希望，就会努力想过更好的生活。”以前在工厂打工，存10万块需要10年，这让他几乎看不到希望。但如今，他在两个月里就挣了120万，仿佛一下子进入了新世界。

“A man, when he has hope, tries to think about a better life.” Formerly working in a factory, it took 10 years to save 100,000 dollars, which made him almost impossible to see. But now, he earns 1.2 million in two months, as if he had just entered the new world.

　　这几乎是那段时间里比特币给很多人的共同感受。北京的张泉早在2012年就听说了比特币，那时用显卡就能挖到比特币，100多元一个。他当时只是大学生，抱着好玩的心态买了5个，等涨到了1000块一个的时候卖了，之后就再也没关注过比特币。

It was almost the same time that Bitcoin was shared by a lot of people. In Beijing, Zhang Quan heard of Bitcoin as early as 2012, when he was able to dig up bitcoin with a visible card, 100 more than one. He was only a college student, bought five, sold it at $1,000, and never noticed bitcoin again.

　　直到2017年比特币涨到了人尽皆知的价格时，他才想起来，并且后悔不已。他感觉曾经离新世界的大门只有一步之遥，可惜最终没有跨进去。到了他参加工作，并且比特币已经涨到了10万块钱一个的时候，决定重新进入这个市场。他用准备买车的钱，买入了两个比特币，小心翼翼地记下私钥，决定等它们涨到100万一枚的时候再卖。

It was only when Bitcoin rose to a well-known price in 2017 that he remembered and regretted it. He felt that he was only one step away from the door of the new world and unfortunately did not cross it. By the time he got to work, and Bitcoin had risen to $100,000, he decided to re-enter the market. With money to buy a car, he bought two bitcoins, wrote the private keys carefully, and decided to sell them when they rose to 1 million.

　　更多人在见证了比特币造就的“奇迹”之后跑步进场。根据coinmarketcap网站资料显示，在2017年1月，虚拟货币全球总市值为176亿美元，一年后暴涨46倍，达到8138亿美元的最高点，与苹果公司市值相当。

More people are running after witnessing the “miracle” created by Bitcoin. According to Coinmarkcap, in January 2017, the total global market value of the virtual currency was $17.6 billion, and a year later it jumped 46 times, reaching an all-time high of $813.8 billion, comparable to that of Apple.

　　内蒙古某比特币“矿场”，长达150米的仓库两侧，密密麻麻地摆放着2万台隆隆作响的机器。图/视觉中国

There's a bitcoin mine in Inner Mongolia, on both sides of a 150-metre warehouse, with 20,000 machines in a tight position. Graphics/Visual China.

　　孙正也是在这一时刻入场的，他付费加入了一些“炒币大佬”们的群，很快被刷新了三观，“我自己也炒股，股票要是收益率有20%，我就高兴得跳起来了，但这在币圈还不及一个零头”。

Sun was also present at this time, when he paid for the addition of a group of “boss” and was quickly updated, “I'll be happy to jump if I make 20 per cent of the return on my own stock, but it's not even a penny in the ring”.

　　“币圈里面，一个人炒币从‘屌丝’到上亿身价的故事比比皆是，我突然觉得以前勤恳工作简直是在虚度人生。”他辞了职，卖了房子，变现了100万，然后投入到币市里，用10倍杠杆做起了期货。

"In the currency ring, there are stories about a man who's been squeezing his money from a "bitch" to a billionaire, and I suddenly feel like I've been living a life in vain before." He quit his job, sold his house, made $1 million, then put it into the money market, and made a future with a ten-fold leverage.

　　他坚信自己不是韭菜，而是“拥抱未来的人”。他买了四台电脑，分别用来看不同币种的价格走势，又用上了3部手机，一部用来接收群里的信息，一部用来接电话，还有一部用来接收最新的咨询推送。

He believed that he was not a pickle, but a “capture of the future”. He bought four computers to see the price movements in different currencies, and used three mobile phones, one to receive information from the crowd, one to answer the phone, and one to receive the latest consultation.

　　但现实是残酷的。在岁末年初的多次震荡中，他接连爆仓。

But the reality is cruel. At the end of the year, in a series of shocks at the beginning of the year, he blew up the barn.

　　曾文也在这一时刻遭遇爆仓，3000多个ETC和7个BCH虚拟货币顷刻间化为乌有。赚钱的账户数字是红色的，而亏损的账户数字是绿色的。他的账户里多了几个巨大的绿色的0，意味着他又回到了一无所有的状态。

Tsang also suffered an explosion at this time, with more than 3,000 ETCs and seven BCH virtual currencies evaporated. The number of accounts earning money is red, while the number of accounts losing it is green. There are a few large green zeros in his account, which means he's back to nothing.

　　“那几天整个人像僵尸一样，盯着天花板整晚整晚地发呆。”只有在饿了时，他才会动一下手机，点一份外卖。现在，一度不再考虑的事情又浮现在他脑海里，比如每个月要交的100块钱手机话费和1500块钱的房租该从哪儿弄。

"The whole guy was staring at the ceiling like a zombie all night long." Only when he was hungry would he move his cell phone and order a takeout. Now, what he doesn't think about is going to come back to his head, like 100 bucks a month of phone calls and 1,500 bucks a month of rent.

　　他只好回到老家。考虑再三，他觉得还是应该跟父母坦白，说自己亏了120万。父母把眼睛瞪得老大，半天没反应过来，“啥？120万？”

He had to go back to his home. Thinking about it all the time, he thought he should confess to his parents, saying he lost 1.2 million. Parents stare at the boss, and they don't react for half a day, "What? 1.2 million?"

　　“那天我爹差点心脏病发了，赚钱的时候觉得我很有出息，现在又觉得我很没用。”曾文说。

"My father almost had a heart attack that day, and he thought I was good when he made money, and now he thinks I'm useless."

　　到了2月5日这一天，比特币一路下行，相比于最高点，跌到了约45000元一枚。虚拟货币的全球总市值蒸发了约5000亿美元。

By 5 February, Bitcoin had gone down, down to about $45,000, compared to its highest point. The total global market value of virtual currencies had evaporated by about $500 billion.

　　能否东山再起？

　　迅速返贫后，另一个坏消息是，曾文发现他“已经回不到过去的生活了”。

Another bad news after a quick return to poverty is the discovery that he “cannot return to his past life”.

　　多年的打工经历，使他养成了不自觉关注招工广告的习惯，但他很沮丧地发现，再也没法像以前那样干活儿了。

After years of work, he had developed a habit of unwittingly paying attention to job advertisements, but he had been frustrated to find that he could no longer work as he had done before.

　　“这就像你抽惯了20块钱的烟，再抽回2块钱一包的烟就不习惯了。”曾文说。临近过年，他本可在当地工厂找份工作，但一想到就在1个月前，1天就可以赚打工1年赚的钱，又想到在尘埃中搬砖的经历，他就“不甘心得想哭”。

"It's like you're used to smoking 20 bucks, and you're not used to smoking another 2 bucks a pack of cigarettes." He said, "He didn't want to cry when he thought he could get a job in a local factory in the year to come, but one day just a month ago, he could earn a year's worth of work, and then he thought about moving bricks in the dust."

　　他不想就此放弃，把“好日子”的回忆当成燃料，劝自己坚持下去。他反复地谈起此前经历的那些“第一次”。比如第一次洗脚时，他一下子付给服务员1000块钱，后来还和对方一起去KTV唱歌，在旋转的闪灯下，两人摇骰子、喝啤酒。

He didn't want to give up on it, using the memory of a “good day” as a fuel. He talked about the first time he'd been through it. For example, he paid the waiter $1,000 for the first time, and then he went to sing at KTV, and under a spinning flash, two people rocked the dice and drank beer.

　　“当时很快乐。”他说。以前在工厂，平均10个工人里只有2个女生，他很少有机会同异性说话，也不太敢。有女生陪他一起唱歌，还愿意听他讲故事，这让他很开心。但这段回忆最后“断片儿了”，因为他过去打工时喝酒的机会太少，酒量没练出来，很快就喝醉了。

"It was fun," he said. Previously, in the factory, there were only two girls out of an average of 10 workers, and he rarely had the opportunity to talk to people of the opposite sex, and he didn't have the courage to dare. He had a girl who sang with him and was willing to listen to his stories, which made him happy. The memory ended with a "breakup," because he used to drink too little, he didn't know how much to drink, and he quickly got drunk.

　　孙正没法靠回忆坚持，因为他“从一进入币圈，比特币就一直跌，就没有快乐的时候”。微信聊天时，他发出的最多的表情，是一张从电视剧《神探夏洛克》里截取的夏洛克跳楼的动态图片。

Sun couldn't hold on to his memories because he was “from the moment he entered the currency circle, bitcoin fell and there was no time for happiness.” The most important expression he gave when he talked to the micro-letter was a dynamic picture of Sherlock jumping from the TV show Sherlock.

　　“好日子没了。”孙正所说的“好日子”，指的是2017年9月底到12月初短短3个月里，比特币涨到了历史上的最高点，12万5千元一枚。

“Good days are gone.” Sun is referring to “good days”, which means that in just three months from the end of September to the beginning of December 2017, Bitcoin rose to a historic high of 125,000 dollars.

　　币圈的知名财经博主老特，在微博上有10万粉丝。他形容那段疯狂的时间，“当时所有币圈的人几乎都默认，只要买新出的币，就肯定会涨”。

A well-known financial player, Te, had 100,000 fans on Twitter. He described the crazy time, when “nearly everyone in the currency circle agreed to buy a new currency, it's bound to rise.”

　　他觉得比特币的暴涨都是相似的原因。币圈开创了“炒空气”的先河。“现在的币有一千多种，99%都是在炒空气。”他说，“很多虚拟货币都是国内人搞的，团队请人写个白皮书，吹得天花乱坠，再随便建个官网，放几个外国人头像，然后就开始在电报群、微信群里拉人了，所谓的项目都只是空气，但就算知道是空气，也都有人去买。”

He thought that the surge in bitcoin was the same reason. The currency ring created the first river of “fry air.” “There are more than a thousand coins, 99 per cent of which are in the air.” He said, “Many virtual money is done by domestics, the team asks people to write a white paper, blow it up, build a network of officials, put a few foreign heads on it, and then start working on telegrams, micro-credits, so-called projects are just air, but even if they know it is air, they're bought.”

　　在内部的乱象之外，外部的政策也在打击虚拟货币。国内在2017年年底陆续发布关于比特币的禁令，加上全球多个国家对比特币进行管制，导致接下来的暴跌。

In addition to the internal turmoil, external policies are also fighting virtual currency. A domestic ban on bitcoin, combined with regulations in several countries around the world, was issued at the end of 2017, resulting in a sharp fall.

　　不过那些风雨没击垮一些人长期持有比特币的信心。一份“守币人宣言”在币圈的忠实信众间流传：“利空将至，我从今开始守币，至死方休。我将不抛币、不套现、不做空。我将不看价格，不问涨跌。我将尽忠持币，生死不抛。”

But those rains did not defeat some who had long held the faith of bitcoin. A “currencykeeper's manifesto” spreads among the faithful believers in the currency circle: “It will come, and I will keep it from now on, until I die. I will not give up, I will not give up. I will not look at the price, I will not ask for it, I will not ask for it, I will hold it, and I will live and die.”

　　张泉就是这样的“守币人”。对于监管政策，他说自己“不看、不管、不问”，已经进入了“佛性持币”的境界。支撑他的是一种类似于宗教般的信念，就是“区块链必将是改变未来的技术，比特币必将暴涨”。

Zhang Quan is such a money keeper. With regard to regulatory policy, he says that he “does not look, do not care, do not ask” and has entered the realm of “fossil currency.” He is supported by a religious belief that “the chain of blocks will change the technology of the future, and the bitcoin will rise.”

　　曾文也一样。他觉得自己没有别的选择，只能选择相信。经历了爆仓之后，在2月6日这一天，他的全部资产仅剩1千多个山寨币，每个跌到1分钱。

The same is true of San Man. He felt that he had no choice but to believe. After the explosion, on 6 February, his entire assets were left with more than 1,000 bounties, each falling to a penny.

　　尽管如此，他总觉得自己还能“东山再起”。春节后，他的虚拟货币资产回升到2万元，让他似乎又看到了希望。从此，“挣100万只是小目标了，2018年的目标是挣1000万”。

After spring, his virtual monetary assets rose to $20,000, making him seem to see hope again. Since then, “one million is just a small goal, and the target for 2018 is 10 million”.

　　（应采访对象要求，曾文、孙正和张泉为化名）

责任编辑：张伟