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Reading the linked article is hard going. “Imagine if you gave up on the Internet in 2000”. This again. This is how distorted people’s perceptions become when
by highwaylights 4y ago
Reading the linked article is hard going.
“Imagine if you gave up on the Internet in 2000”. This again.
This is how distorted people’s perceptions become when they live their whole life in echo chambers.
Leaving the obvious aside, It genuinely seems like a lot of those still pushing this are utterly unaware of the harms their whole mess has caused.
Also, they’ve made it way harder to teach non-techies how to stay safe online in the future by co-opting the term “crypto”. They immediately think any use of the term crypto is related to this stuff. Your Digital ponzi scam != cryptography.
The worst part is how the public now thinks if you’re involved in software you must be a massive believer in cc/NFTs because they keep hearing about it so all techies must think it’s awesome, right!?
It’s exhausting.
- eterm 4y agoIf you're in the cryptography business I'd just refer to it as digital security. ( Or cybersecurity if you prefer ). It's the same concept but without the baggage of "crypto".
- klabb3 4y agoYes but Why should I change? They’re the ones who suck.
- siwatanejo 4y agoCome on, I'm sure that before bitcoin was invented, no one used the term "crypto" to refer to "cryptography"; doing that would be more cringy than this article itself.
- lordfoom 4y ago> I'm sure And yet you are wrong :)
- sunbum 4y agoLiterally everyone did
- maratc 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_(book) is from 2001 and it may give you a good indication of what the term crypto was referring to back then.
- voytec 4y agoyp.to - D. J. Bernstein's[1] domain registered in 1997 preceeds Bitcoin[2] by 12 years. [1] https://cr.yp.to/ https://cr.yp.to/ [2] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- mkl 4y agoHere's OpenSSL calling cryptography crypto in 1998: https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commits/master?after=931369429564b5a9bb09711de8e885fef546a0ac+13934&branch=master&path%5B%5D=crypto&qualified_name=refs%2Fheads%2Fmaster https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commits/master?after=9313... And libgcrypt in 2000: https://github.com/gpg/libgcrypt/commit/bf2fc9201cfa96cd70eff0db34578ff3760ccf59 https://github.com/gpg/libgcrypt/commit/bf2fc9201cfa96cd70ef... Totally normal and not cringy at all. Edit: And on Usenet in 1982: https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=net.misc&mid=dGVrY2FkLjEyOA https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=net.misc&mid=dGVr...
- stevoski 4y agoSomeone on the Internet is very wrong today.
- siwatanejo 4y agoAlright, touche.
- bdcravens 4y agoAs someone who was a developer well before Bitcoin was invented, yes, we did. Here's a conference from 1981 put on by the IEEE: https://www.iacr.org/archive/crypto81/1_front_matter.pdf https://www.iacr.org/archive/crypto81/1_front_matter.pdf
- jjav 4y ago> I'm sure that before bitcoin was invented, no one used the term "crypto" to refer to "cryptography" I have to assume this is sarcasm, right? That's literally what "crypto" has always meant for decades, cryptography. The Crypto conference started in 1981 for instance. https://www.iacr.org/meetings/crypto/ https://www.iacr.org/meetings/crypto/
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- rob74 4y agoWell yeah, there was a time when the title song for the Flintstones could contain the verse "we'll have a gay old time" without anyone questioning Fred and Barney's sexual orientation. Those times are gone too...
- willi59549879 4y agoi still use the old meaning of gay. It has such a wonderful meaning
- LocalH 4y agoYou could say the old meaning of gay is quite...gay
- highwaylights 4y agoAll I can do is upvote this but I kind of want it printed on a hoodie or something as well.
- INTPenis 4y agoHow about encryption? It's called e2ee after all.
- capableweb 4y agoThey're different though. Encryption is just one application of cryptography.
- xg15 4y agoyeah, the vocabulary used in public discussed has done a weird shift to accommodate the takeovers of various marketing departments. What used to be "crypto" is now "cyber". What used to be "cyber" is now "metaverse".
- valdiorn 4y agoCybersecurity is also much more accurate description of the skills/work required to stay safe online. Most computers are not compromised because of flaws in cryptography or the application thereof, they are compromised because of operational security (opening suspicious email attachments, reusing passwords, running systems with default admin passwords, etc). These things have little to do with cryptography and are much better understood as "cybersecurity".
- walrus01 4y agothe subreddit for "buttcoin" does a pretty good job lampooning cryptocurrency true believers. https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/
- lmm 4y agoNah, they go too far in hating it beyond the bounds of actual reality. I hate cryptocurrency as much as the next guy, but I got banned from that sub for pointing out that credit card transactions don't actually settle instantly and chargebacks exist.
- onion2k 4y agoI agree with your general point, but suggesting non-techies should learn about cryptography in order to stay safe online is pretty ridiculous; if people need an understanding of cryto to be safe we might as well switch the Internet off.
- seri4l 4y agoIf it were up to me every person with access to a computer where other people's personal or financial data is handled should be required to get a security certification stating they have a basic understanding of digital signatures, certificates, HTTPS, encryption and how to protect against common threats (phishing, social engineering). If people can't do that they might as well go back to typewriters and FAX machines.
- mstade 4y agoIn banks (and similarly regulated institutions) there's mandatory security training to educate employees. Sadly, in my experience, this "training" is essentially like those kids rides at an amusement park where you're stuck in a trolly till the end – it's slow and mostly tedious but sometimes there's one bit of trivia that might delight. In the end, there's a very simple multiple choice test that is worded to make it more or less obvious what the correct answers are. If you do get it wrong you get infinite retries and there are only so many questions... I'd love to see mandatory education in basic cryptography and such, but in reality I'd assume that even that would end up being security theater for the sake of ticking a box on the compliance score sheet.
- j5155 4y agoThis sounds like the OSHA 10 class I recently had to do. I think the issue here is that if a business wants workers it is incentivized to make the tests as easy as possible, not to make sure their employees know what they’re doing.
- xeromal 4y agoAgreed. On top of that, everyone who owns a car should be required to learn how to change their serpentine belts, oil, replace spark plugs, and alternator. They should be required to sign a paper saying they will change their tires with a spare on the side of the road and carry a jump starter with them at all times. The roads would be a safer place if people knew what was going on inside their cars and how to operate them.
- franky47 4y ago> The worst part is how the public now thinks if you’re involved in software you must be a massive believer in cc/NFTs because they keep hearing about it so all techies must think it’s awesome, right!? This used to be the case about a year ago, now I see the trend shifting towards AI.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- i_love_cookies 4y ago[dead]
- antihero 4y agoEvery tech friend I know is deeply cynical about NFTs and pretty much everything else now because anything that happens is immediately turned into some sort of grift by ravenous capitalists.
- milkytron 4y agoMost of all my tech friends are skeptical about most things we encounter in life. We're just naturally curious and ask questions to learn more. Asking questions about NFTs and the benefits of cryptocurrencies has led to a consensus of it being mostly pointless in the case of NFTs or a way to skirt around regulations in the case of cryptocurrencies. The people I've found that have embraced NFTs and altcoins are the ones that are much more focused on business and making money rather than the tech under it all.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- EGreg 4y agoSorry but HN is just too biased against anything blockchain-related. There are tons of reasons to use Web3. You typically do so when you want a community to manage some value without trusting a middleman. Here are a lot of examples: https://intercoin.org/applications https://intercoin.org/applications
- JohnFen 4y agoI don't find most of those persuasive, and the couple that would actually benefit from the blockchain are niche applications that most people would never use.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- SergeAx 4y agoInterestingly, some local "crypto" conference just rebranded as "future tech". Seems like "crypto" became a red flag deterring customers.
- JohnFen 4y agoOooh, maybe those of us involved with cryptography will get the term back? I'd love that.