4 ms·

Note to would be readers, this is an article on cryptocurrency and not cryptography. I was hoping it was about the latter before opening the article.

amalcon 6y ago
I get that we've lost that particular terminology battle, but I'm still a little sad about a decades-old term being stolen to refer to a fad.
- vntok 6y ago
  Cryptocurrency is a decades-old term as well (Bitcoin dates from 2009).
  - m12k 6y ago
    Decade-old then, not decades-old
  - Harvesterify 6y ago
    So, one decade old, not plural decade old ?
    - vntok 6y ago
      1.1 > 1, so 1.1 decades old. That is how plurals work in most languages.
      - Harvesterify 6y ago
        Yeah sure.
        vntok 6y ago
        French for example is an exception in that fractional numbers are only pluralized over 2. Note that in English "5 years old" would become "0.5 decades", using the plural form as well.
        legel 6y ago
        Your comment is about 0.000005 decades older than mine.
        ashtonkem 6y ago
        “Half a decade” is how I’d pronounce that.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - wolfgke 6y ago
    > Cryptocurrency is a decades-old term as well (Bitcoin dates from 2009). Indeed, but decades (1983 or 1995-1998) older (except for the decentralization): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ecash&oldid=948375226 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ecash&oldid=94837...
- sneak 6y ago
  I don't think it's lost. Only the fad-chasers and finance bros (and apparently a16z, which may actually qualify under that term in this instance) are calling it that. It's actually a good signal about the organization.
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    a16z drank their own coolaid in this instance.
  - Melting_Harps 6y ago
    > I don't think it's lost. Only the fad-chasers and finance bros (and apparently a16z, which may actually qualify under that term in this instance) are calling it that. >It's actually a good signal about the organization. > a16z drank their own coolaid in this instance. The cognitive dissonance amongst some of you guys is so baffling to me; I get most of you you don't get/like Crytocurrency, and often cherry pick its most notable blunders to highlight why its 'failed or dead,' but just a few years back A16z/Horowtiz was seen as the Bastion if not the very Oracle of everything that was shaking up SV and by extension most of what you guys here thought needed to be disrupted. Now because many of them have gotten involved into Cryptocurrencies, for various reasons I won't speculate about, now they're simply 'drinking Kool-aid.' As if a lot of their other ventures didn't require a massive distrust in a failed institution, look at their investments and judge for yourself what they're saying has failed and can be capitalized on if they're right (the ones that jump out are Healthcare and Education in the US in case you didn't notice) [1]. Hell, most people here don't realize that Coinbase, who I personally detest, is a YC backed venture and became an exchange/holder of nearly 5% of the entire supply of BTC in existence! By this rationale is YC a fad-chasing, Kool-aid drinking den for finance bros, too? Again, I'm indifferent to your position on Crypto as a whole, but to go so far as to burn the people most involved in the very startup culture that breeds innovation and belittling them because you think you know better is so conflicting with what SV was supposed to be. You've become like those people saying the Internet was a fad and will become irrelevant in a few years, only to see it be the very backbone of nearly every activity in daily Life and making most other technologies obsolete in the process. What's even crazier is that some of you might have not even noticed that one of Bitcoin's most active Core Developers (now stepped down) is actually a regular poster here, so rather than go on some diatribe about the scams or dismiss what many of you don't really understand, you could have engaged him and asked all the technical questions and gotten a very through analysis of your criticisms with one of the guys that helped maintain and develop the project into what it has become. 1: https://a16z.com/portfolio/#venturegrowth,enterprise https://a16z.com/portfolio/#venturegrowth,enterprise
joeblau 6y ago
I was explaining my background so someone a few days ago in an introduction and I said “I used to do crypto working on PKI infrastructure.” They responded that they had never heard of that token. Unfortunately, I think cryptocurrency is what is top of mind when the majority of people hear the word “crypto” so I’ve been relegated to saying “cryptography” when describing my background.

amalcon 6y ago

I get that we've lost that particular terminology battle, but I'm still a little sad about a decades-old term being stolen to refer to a fad.

vntok 6y ago
Cryptocurrency is a decades-old term as well (Bitcoin dates from 2009).
- m12k 6y ago
  Decade-old then, not decades-old
- Harvesterify 6y ago
  So, one decade old, not plural decade old ?
  - vntok 6y ago
    1.1 > 1, so 1.1 decades old. That is how plurals work in most languages.
    - Harvesterify 6y ago
      Yeah sure.
      - vntok 6y ago
        French for example is an exception in that fractional numbers are only pluralized over 2. Note that in English "5 years old" would become "0.5 decades", using the plural form as well.
        legel 6y ago
        Your comment is about 0.000005 decades older than mine.
        ashtonkem 6y ago
        “Half a decade” is how I’d pronounce that.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- wolfgke 6y ago
  > Cryptocurrency is a decades-old term as well (Bitcoin dates from 2009). Indeed, but decades (1983 or 1995-1998) older (except for the decentralization): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ecash&oldid=948375226 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ecash&oldid=94837...
sneak 6y ago
I don't think it's lost. Only the fad-chasers and finance bros (and apparently a16z, which may actually qualify under that term in this instance) are calling it that. It's actually a good signal about the organization.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  a16z drank their own coolaid in this instance.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > I don't think it's lost. Only the fad-chasers and finance bros (and apparently a16z, which may actually qualify under that term in this instance) are calling it that. >It's actually a good signal about the organization. > a16z drank their own coolaid in this instance. The cognitive dissonance amongst some of you guys is so baffling to me; I get most of you you don't get/like Crytocurrency, and often cherry pick its most notable blunders to highlight why its 'failed or dead,' but just a few years back A16z/Horowtiz was seen as the Bastion if not the very Oracle of everything that was shaking up SV and by extension most of what you guys here thought needed to be disrupted. Now because many of them have gotten involved into Cryptocurrencies, for various reasons I won't speculate about, now they're simply 'drinking Kool-aid.' As if a lot of their other ventures didn't require a massive distrust in a failed institution, look at their investments and judge for yourself what they're saying has failed and can be capitalized on if they're right (the ones that jump out are Healthcare and Education in the US in case you didn't notice) [1]. Hell, most people here don't realize that Coinbase, who I personally detest, is a YC backed venture and became an exchange/holder of nearly 5% of the entire supply of BTC in existence! By this rationale is YC a fad-chasing, Kool-aid drinking den for finance bros, too? Again, I'm indifferent to your position on Crypto as a whole, but to go so far as to burn the people most involved in the very startup culture that breeds innovation and belittling them because you think you know better is so conflicting with what SV was supposed to be. You've become like those people saying the Internet was a fad and will become irrelevant in a few years, only to see it be the very backbone of nearly every activity in daily Life and making most other technologies obsolete in the process. What's even crazier is that some of you might have not even noticed that one of Bitcoin's most active Core Developers (now stepped down) is actually a regular poster here, so rather than go on some diatribe about the scams or dismiss what many of you don't really understand, you could have engaged him and asked all the technical questions and gotten a very through analysis of your criticisms with one of the guys that helped maintain and develop the project into what it has become. 1: https://a16z.com/portfolio/#venturegrowth,enterprise https://a16z.com/portfolio/#venturegrowth,enterprise

joeblau 6y ago

I was explaining my background so someone a few days ago in an introduction and I said “I used to do crypto working on PKI infrastructure.” They responded that they had never heard of that token. Unfortunately, I think cryptocurrency is what is top of mind when the majority of people hear the word “crypto” so I’ve been relegated to saying “cryptography” when describing my background.