Imagine having a $100 bill in your pocket. Now, imagine $100 worth of pennies.
想象一下，口袋里有一张100美元的钞票。现在，想象一下价值100美元的便士。
Notice the difference?
注意区别了吗？
Bitcoin isn’t without its irritating kinks, and tiny bitcoin pieces called “dust” are among the lesser-known. As the analogy above shows, the bitcoin protocol sometimes needs to generate tiny output coins when users send bitcoin back and forth, coins so small in value they require more fees to spend than they’re actually worth.
比特币并不是没有恼人的缺陷，比特币被称为“尘埃”，也不那么出名。因为上面显示的类比，比特币 协议有时需要产生微小的输出硬币当用户发送比特币来回，硬币那么小的价值需要更多的费用，花费比他们的实际价值。
But since blockchain room is limited and small value transactions, say $0.01, still can often take up just as much room as larger transactions, too many of these tinier coin pieces can lead to performance issues in the system as a whole.
但由于blockchain的空间是有限的 和小额交易，说0.01元，还可以经常拿一样的大交易多的房间，太多的这些小硬币碎片可导致系统性能问题作为一个整体。
In the past, dust wasn’t necessarily problem for bitcoin users. The story changed, however, as fees grew higher than ever late last year, making smaller value transactions much more expensive to send. In short, some developers argue the time is ripe to get rid of bitcoin dust now that fees are down again.
过去，比特币用户不一定会遇到灰尘问题。但是情况发生了变化，学费增长， 高于以往去年晚些时候，较小的交易价值昂贵得多送。简言之，一些开发商认为时机已经成熟，摆脱比特币的灰尘，现在收费又下降了。
Decentralized applications developer Greg Slepak, like many others in the space, is thinking ahead to a time where bitcoin adoption and transaction rates increase – something that might or might not happen.
分散的应用程序开发者Greg Slepak，像许多其他的空间，是思考的时间，比特币通过交易率增加-这可能会或可能不会发生。
If that does happen, the argument goes, it’s more profitable to move these tiny data pieces while fees are relatively low, especially if a user has collected a lot of them.
如果这确实发生了，争论，把这些小数据块而费也相对较低，更 有利可图，特别是如果一个用户已经收集了很多人。
Slepak, for one, isn’t about to take any chances.
斯莱帕克，一，不采取任何机会。
He told CoinDesk:
他告诉CoinDesk：
“That time might not come again.”
“那个时候可能不会再来了。”
Extinguishing dust
灭尘
To get rid of this “dust,” users need to “consolidate” their all their dust “transaction outputs” into one. That just means sending one transaction that effectively lumps them together.
为了摆脱这种“灰尘”，用户需要“巩固”他们所有的灰尘“交易产出”成一个。这就意味着发送一个有效地将它们聚集在一起的事务。
Going back to our original analogy, it’s similar to trading in a bunch of pennies, nickels and dimes for a fresh dollar bill. How (and whether) users can identify and get rid of dust, depends on their wallet, however.
回到我们原来的类比，这就像在一堆硬币的交易，一个新的美元硬币。如何（和）用户可以识别和消除灰尘，取决于他们的钱包，但是。
Slepak recommends Electrum, a long-standing simplified payment verification (SPV) wallet, that validates transactions with less data, and is thus common to use on mobile devices.
斯裏派克建议银金矿、长期简化支付验证（SPV）钱包，验证交易数据较少，因此是常见的使用在移动设备上。
A user can select a number of “change addresses” holding dust, then select the “send from” button to create one transaction consolidating all these little dust particles into a single transaction output.
用户可以选择一些“更改地址”保存灰尘，然后选择“发送”按钮创建一个事务，将所有这些小尘粒合并成单个事务输出。
Some wallets might not offer this granular level of control, especially if they’re custodial wallets like Coinbase, which essentially manage these sort of details themselves behind the scenes – choosing whether to keep or get rid of dust.
一些钱包可能无法提供这一粒度级别的控制，尤其是如果他们保管钱包像Coinbase，这基本上是管理这些细节本身幕后的选择是否保留或去除灰尘。
Bitcoin wallet Blockchain and offers a variation of this feature as well.
比特币钱包Blockchain提供类似的功能以及。
Bad for privacy?
对隐私有害？
One caveat, though, is extinguishing dust in this way can reveal more about your financial history than you might like.
然而，一个警告是，用这种方式扑灭灰尘会比你想象的更能揭示你的财务历史。
Say you have dust collected in a number of different accounts. In cryptocurrencies, it’s best-practice for financial privacy not to reuse bitcoin addresses. (Though not everyone actually does this since it’s not very convenient.)
比如说你收集了很多不同的账户。在cryptocurrencies，最好实践金融隐私权不重用的比特币地址。（虽然不是每个人都这么做，因为这不太方便。）
If this the case, consolidating dust from several accounts at once can compromise a user’s privacy. Since the blockchain is public, it’s easy to tell that all these transactions at least might have come from the same user. This is especially the case if a user has gone through a know-your-customer (KYC) filters at a bitcoin exchange, where users are required to confirm their identity, as a way to curb financial crime in the cryptocurrency world.
如果是这样，马上合并几个帐号的灰尘会损害用户的隐私。由于blockchain是公共的，告诉你，至少这些交易可能来自相同的用户很容易。这是尤其如此，如果用户已经通过一个了解你的客户（KYC）在比特币交易所过滤器，用户需要确认自己的身份，以此来遏制金融犯罪的cryptocurrency世界。
If one user’s address is tied to a real-world identity in this way, then all the other addresses storing dust in the consolidation transaction will suddenly be as well.
如果一个用户的地址以这种方式绑定到一个真实世界的身份，那么合并事务中存储灰尘的所有其他地址也将突然出现。
“It’s like saying, ‘Yes indeed, and these other addresses belong to me, too,'” Slepak remarked.
“这就像说，“的确，这些地址属于我，太，”斯裏派克说。
“This is why people should use Monero instead,” he added, pointing to a cryptocurrency that is more private by default and where this sort of privacy managing wouldn’t be an issue.
“莫内罗这是为什么人们要用相反的，”他说，指着一个cryptocurrency，更私人的默认情况下，这种隐私管理不是一个问题。
These privacy concerns really depend, though. If a user’s dust is already all tied to the same account, then the dust is already linked together anyway. So, mashing the dust together into one transaction, in this case, won’t harm a user’s privacy.
不过，这些隐私问题确实很重要。如果一个用户的灰尘已经被捆绑在同一个帐户上，那么灰尘就已经联系在一起了。因此，将灰尘一起进入一个交易，在这种情况下，不会损害用户的隐私。
So, while Slepak thinks that this is the time people should move to stamp out their dust “if they don’t want to lose those funds,” he said, they should only do so if such “privacy implications” don’t bother them.
所以，尽管Slepak认为这是人们应该去消灭他们的灰尘”，如果他们不想失去这些资金的时候，”他说，他们只能这样做如果这样的“隐私问题”不要打扰他们。
Bigger obstacles ahead
更大的障碍
On the other hand, Blockchain data software engineer, Antoine Le Calvez, one of the blockchain’s most avid data trackers, argues that dust levels have already been decreasing by quite a bit.
另一方面，blockchain数据软件工程师，安托万Le Calvez， 的blockchain最狂热的数据跟踪， 认为粉尘浓度已经被相当多的减少。
That’s thanks to bigger bitcoin businesses. Because of the high fees earlier this year, larger bitcoin companies were driven to adopt more efficient transaction technologies – including getting rid of dust – to reduce fees.
这要归功于更大的比特币业务。由于今年早些时候高昂的费用，更大的比特币公司被迫采用更有效的交易技术，包括清除灰尘，以减少费用。
“Coinbase cleaned their wallet. And they were quite a massive contributor,” Le Calvez told CoinDesk. “Since the end of the consolidation, there’s been less dust created.”
“Coinbase清理自己的钱包。他们是相当大的贡献，”Le Calvez告诉CoinDesk。”自合并结束以来，灰尘减少了。”
Users can consolidate transactions to potentially save money in the future – if they so desire. But bitcoin companies might have a larger-scale impact on overall dust levels – as they already have.
用户可以合并交易，以便在将来存钱，如果他们愿意的话。但是比特币公司可能会对整体的灰尘水平产生更大的影响，因为它们已经有了。
But, just like Slepak, Le Calvez is thinking about the future. Fees might get worse if bitcoin ever gains more attention on a larger scale. This could happen if and when the Lightning Network, trumpeted as the future of bitcoin payments, since they’re cheaper and gives bitcoin more scale, actually gains traction.
但是，就像斯裏派克，Le Calvez是思考未来。如果比特币在更大范围内获得更多关注，收费可能会更糟。这可能发生，如果当避雷网，鼓吹为比特币支付的未来，因为他们便宜，给了比特币更大规模，实际上获得牵引。
“I think that anything that results in more usage of the blockchain can lead to fees that are higher than the dust itself,” Slepak said.
“我认为任何结果更使用blockchain会导致费用高于尘埃本身，”Slepak说。
Le Calvez added that “it’s easy” to clean up dust when payments aren’t coming in at such a high volume, like they are today. That might not be the case if and when the level of transaction “heats up” again.
Le Calvez补充说，“清理灰尘时支付不到如此高的体积很容易”，就像他们今天。如果交易水平“再次升温”，情况可能不是这样的。
He stated:
他说：
“The real test, though, will be the next run up.”
“真正的考验是下一次助跑。”
Gold dust image via Shutterstock
金粉通过其他Shutterstock图片