第1474期:The changing nature of money

词汇表

tangible 可触摸的

hard cash 现金（包括硬币和纸钞）
outdated 过时的
checkout 付款台
groceries 杂货食品（常用复数）
cashier 收银员
to tally up 结算
to spell 意味着（不好的后果）
wearable 可穿戴的
chip 芯片
seamlessly 不间断地
to underpin 支持、构成
virtual currency 虚拟货币
crash 系统瘫痪
to take off 突然成功
to wind back the clock / to wind the clock back 让时光倒流，回到过去
barter economy 以物易物的经济制度
to conjure 让人联想到（某个画面或情境）
to make a comeback 再度兴起，回归

How do you pay for things in a shop? Perhaps you like the tangible reliability of hard cash? 你如何在商店里买东西？也许您喜欢硬现金的有形可靠性？

Maybe the financial flexibility of a credit card suits you better?

也许信用卡的财务灵活性更适合您？

 Or perhaps you prefer the simple convenience of a smartphone?

或者，也许您更喜欢智能手机的简单便利？

Whatever you use today, experts believe all these methods could soon become outdated. 

无论您今天使用什么，专家认为所有这些方法很快就会过时。

Instead, we will use our bodies: our eyes, our fingerprints, even our mere presence in the store. 

相反，我们将使用我们的身体：我们的眼睛、我们的指纹，甚至我们在商店里的存在。

In fact it's happening already. Amazon are trialling stores which have no checkouts, where technology tracks the items you've taken from the shelves and deducts the total from your account when you leave the shop.

事实上，它已经在发生了。亚马逊正在试用没有结账的商店，技术会跟踪你从货架上拿走的物品，并在你离开商店时从你的账户中扣除总额。

French supermarket Monoprix takes a different path: you choose your groceries and leave them with a human cashier. 

法国超市 Monoprix 采取了不同的方式：您选择杂货并将其交给人工收银员。

You then leave the shop while the cashier tallies up your bill, charges your account, and organises delivery to your home.

然后您离开商店，收银员清点您的账单，向您的账户收费，并安排送货到您家。

Amir Sajed, chief executive of Barclaycard, told the BBC that such new developments spell the end of the plastic credit card.

Barclaycard 的首席执行官 Amir Sajed 告诉 BBC，这些新发展意味着塑料信用卡的终结。

 
Instead, wearable items such as rings, bracelets and keychains will carry chips that allow shoppers to "seamlessly shop, going between the web, an app or in store," he says.

取而代之的是，戒指、手镯和钥匙链等可穿戴物品将携带芯片，让购物者能够“无缝购物，在网络、应用程序或商店之间移动”，他说。

And while all the above payment methods are underpinned by accounts held in traditional currencies, let's not forget the rise of alternatives such as Litecoin.

尽管上述所有支付方式都以传统货币账户为基础，但我们不要忘记莱特币等替代品的兴起。 

Such virtual currencies can rise in value very quickly, but are also susceptible to crashes and threats from hackers.

这种虚拟货币的价值可以很快升值，但也容易受到崩溃和黑客威胁的影响。 

Who knows, perhaps something totally new will take off that changes money as we know it? 谁知道呢，也许一些全新的东西会起飞，改变我们所知道的货币？

One such possibility is explored in the movie In Time. It imagines a futuristic society in which the currency is time itself, where people trade the amount of time they have left to live.

电影《及时》中探讨了一种这样的可能性。它想象了一个未来社会，其中货币就是时间本身，人们在其中交易他们剩余的生活时间。

Or perhaps we'd do better to wind back the clock to the simpler financial world of the barter economy.

或者，也许我们最好将时间倒流到更简单的易货经济金融世界。

 
While the term conjures images of sacks of grain and herds of sheep being exchanged in ancient times, there are signs that bartering is making a comeback in today's world of modern technology.

虽然这个词让人联想到古代一袋袋谷物和成群的羊群交换的形象，但有迹象表明，易货交易在当今的现代技术世界中正在卷土重来。 

Startup Let's Barter India has developed an app which facilitates the exchange of goods, and already has around 100,000 members.

Startup Let's Barter India 开发了一个促进商品交换的应用程序，并且已经拥有大约 100,000 名会员。

Maybe the only thing we know for certain is that money will keep evolving.

也许我们唯一确定的就是金钱会不断发展。