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"Crypto" Is Being Redefined as Cryptocurrencies
- zerostar07 9y agoright, so we call them ??????. there isn't a better name
- dictum 9y agoCryptocurrencies or cryptocoins.
- zerostar07 9y agoboth are shortened to 'crypto'. not good choices
- acct1771 9y agoThey're only shortened if you don't know what you're talking about.
- zerostar07 9y agomost people into cryptocoins don't know what they 're talking about
- jondubois 9y agoI sometimes use Cryptos (plural) but usually I use Cryptocurrency (generic) or Cryptocurrencies (to emphasize the variety).
- majewsky 9y agoWasted energy.
- zerostar07 9y agowasties
- jdowner 9y agoMaybe it is a stupid name, but the prefix 'crypto' and its usage are not the exclusive domain of cryptographers. Perhaps thinking of crypto-currencies as mimics of real currencies is appropriate ;)
- SirensOfTitan 9y agoAnd to a non-native speaker maybe the English terms 'butt dial' and 'booty call' should have been better chosen. Language evolution knows no obvious master, and getting angry over that evolution as if a particular domain of study has ownership of a subset of words is ridiculous.
- elefantastisch 9y agoIndeed. As upsetting as it may be to have ambiguity introduced into the terms of your domain, you're never going to stop it. Better to focus your efforts on what you can control: your own choice of terms. The term cryptography has always left out the critical importance of operational security and correct implementation and usage of cryptography. Instead of trying to protect "crypto", which is never going to happen, we can choose to use a different term, maybe even one which encompasses a fuller range of concerns. Data security, InfoSec, communication privacy... I don't know what the best term would be, but "crypto" is never going to go back to unambiguously referring to cryptography. Terms must always adapt to changes around them. "Silent movie" wasn't a term before "talkies" came around. They just called them "movies".
- dingaling 9y agoBut neither of those composite terms is clobbering a preexisting meaning. Whilst their meanings may not be clear at first encounter they can be quickly and unambiguously determined using a dictionary. In fact I had to look up booty call just now and understand immediately the difference. Whereas "Switzerland should become crypto capital" can mean different things to different people simultaneously. That's the problem. If I look up crypto in a notional 2018 dictionary and it has two definitions, which do I choose?
- Torgo 9y agoIf someone said "crypto capital" I would immediately think "hidden capital" ala "crypto-Jews" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism
- egwynn 9y agoThe first definition of “hacker” in my dictionary is “a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data”. So there’s that...
- unclenoriega 9y agoCryptographers have invited this by using "crypto" to mean "cryptography/cryptographic" in the first place. Without this meaning, "cryptocurrency" couldn't have formed and been shortened to "crypto".
- natch 9y agoSimilar to what happened to "meme," the original meaning of which is way more interesting than the current most popular meaning.
- panarky 9y agoI don't like it either. I also don't like that "literally" now means "figuratively", or using the plural "their" to mean "him or her". But we don't get to dictate how language is used. How language is used dictates what is acceptable. So get over it, Schneier, language is alive.