Can we establish "crypto" to mean "cryptography" again? \ stacker news ~crypto

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Can we establish "crypto" to mean "cryptography" again?#190934

2635 sats \ 34 comments \ @ek 24 Dec 2023 crypto

An old post from me that I just found while searching for something else.

Posting this here since I think it's still highly relevant. I "squatted" ~crypto to establish exactly that.

I also raised posting costs here to incentivize thinking before posting.

Unfortunately, I realized I have to pay my own fee, too, and can't pay myself back 128 sats, lol

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @kenobi_ninja31 21 Sep

I’ve been waiting for this to catch on and go mainstream. Call things what they are… don’t lump quasi-related items into a bulk category.

27 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 16 Apr

I believe we can and we will.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 29 Mar

@ek I am just curious, have you made back everything from making your own territory?

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 29 Mar

Definitely not

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 9 Feb

If fedimints can change the name of their territory to ecash, surely crypto to cryptography is a lot more straight forward?

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 9 Feb freebie

Yes but missing one the points of ~crypto

People will learn -- just like you apparently did

I'm willing to die on this hill.

Have you read this thread?

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 14 Feb

I read the thread. I personally really like the term "cryptography" and never use "crypto" as a shortcut for it. It has its roots in the Greek language. It is derived from two Greek words: "kryptos," meaning "secret" or "hidden" and "graphia," meaning "writing" When combined, they form "kryptographia" or "κρυπτογραφία" in Greek, or "secret writing."

"Crypto" said on it's own feels a touch lazy to me even without the negative connotations. It's not a term I use except, at times, to describe and separate the pump and dump NFT shitcoin industry in one word. The world only needs one blockchain. Let's hope 2024 is the year that the entire shitcoin industry massively deflates due to Gresham's Law as shitcoin positions are dumped in exchange for hard non-debasable money.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @godlikeXi 4 Feb

It will always mean BOTH.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mrldotsh 25 Dec 2023

Count me in 🤝

230 sats \ 3 replies \ @Coinosphere 24 Dec 2023

Truthfully, the way language works is that the most popular usage almost always wins.

Cryptography nerds aren't popular. Shitcoiners and their casinos are far more popular and incentivized to keep talking about their shitcoins. It is also given a big boost by the mainstream media who keeps referring to all cryptocurrencies as 'crypto,' which they think includes bitcoin.

Edge cases exist for all words... Yes, university textbooks will continue to call cryptography 'crypto' too, but so will the global swimming community call their most-hated ear bactieria, cryptosporilla, crypto. These are both smaller, lesser-incentivized communities than the global shitcoin community is.

I'm afraid we're stuck with the term until shitcoins die. Then the media won't have any reason to include them in the conversation about bitcoin.

100 sats \ 2 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 9 Feb

I'm afraid we're stuck with the term until shitcoins die.

I expect shitcoins will be Bitcoin's first casualty. As secondary layers remove any features of these other coins (privacy, scalability, "smart contracts", etc) they will get dumped for stacking sats. What will remain of the so-called "crypto" market will be the slimiest of fraudsters. I think we are getting closer to this point every day.

The damage however has been done for the word "crypto". Honestly, to me, it does not matter. Bitcoin is not a currency. And Cryptographically sound money is just one of Bitcoin's many characteristics.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 9 Feb

I expect shitcoins will be Bitcoin's first casualty

I agree for the reasons you mentioned.

The damage however has been done for the word "crypto"

We can start undoing the damage on SN to begin with.

Bitcoin is not a currency

Care to elaborate? Is this about the definition of currency vs money?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 12 Feb

Bitcoin is not a currency Care to elaborate? Is this about the definition of currency vs money?

Yes, mostly. "Bitcoin" is both an open decentralized Internet protocol and the name of the unit of value - This is a taxonomy issue that is not ideal. It's programmable digital money. A new layer on the Internet that for the first time allows for the transfer of value in a purely digital way. All the network effects, by every metric, make it the undisputed king of "crypto" and it will displace all other shitcoins (my original point). It is not a currency to be denominated in USD unlike all other foreign state-backed currencies that are to varying degrees based on the USD. Bitcoin heralds a new and better form of hard sound money that cannot be debased. And that is its central value. The immovable immutable thermodynamically and cryptographically hardened blockchain is the anvil upon which Archimedes' lever can be placed to indeed move the world.

394 sats \ 2 replies \ @0fje0 24 Dec 2023

Very glad you squatted the territory and I sure hope we can reclaim the meaning of crypto.

(When I first saw the territory's name, I immediately assumed it was about shitcoins and didn't even bother to visit.)

Just curious: isn't it possible that bitcoin may actually be the first coin to have been referred to as a cryptocurrency? By some journalist or blogger or someone back in the day? Does anyone know? Can anyone know or remember who "coined" the term cryptocurrency?

299 sats \ 0 replies \ @031ef7d322 24 Dec 2023

(Not very surprising, given that Eric and I devised the playing cards, roles to be played (banker, assassin, money launderer, freedom fighter, whistleblower, etc.), and doled out crypto-currency (Monopoly money). The idea was not to discover real-world lessons, of course, but to graphically demonstrate some of the technology, some of the ways crypto-anonymity would change interactions, etc.)

Tim May, Sep 1996 https://mailing-list-archive.cryptoanarchy.wiki/archive/1996/09/5972295c55f73b29dbd59ad5ea09e1d68be2ec232487034c8c950af7e9fad58c/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @031ef7d322 24 Dec 2023

deleted by author

230 sats \ 0 replies \ @falsefaucet 24 Dec 2023

YES YES YES ABSOLUETLY YES

i have an old sticker on my car. i refuse to remove it.

i placed it there when crypto meant cryptography not shitcoins.

46 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies 24 Dec 2023

To me it always was and still is

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @piecover 24 Dec 2023

CrYpTo is already a shitcoin

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 24 Dec 2023 freebie

No

Watch us in ~crypto then :)

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @BlueSlime 24 Dec 2023

Yes please

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 24 Dec 2023

Then post crypto stuff in ~crypto :)

77 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 24 Dec 2023

#328631 :)

62 sats \ 8 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Dec 2023

It is a shame that "crypto" has become synonymous with scam coins, rug pulls, shitty nfts, get rich quick schemes, gambling.

I think the better thing to do is for BTC to move away from it's association with crypto and focus more on itself and it's Blockchain. When people can segregate BTC from the rest of the "crypto" space. Then I think people will understand bitcoin much better.

42 sats \ 7 replies \ @ek OP 24 Dec 2023 freebie

I think the better thing to do is for BTC to move away from it's association with crypto and focus more on itself and it's Blockchain.

Blockchain is also already associated with scams. What if people just continue to be people and come for the next terms? You're going to move away from associations until you no longer have anywhere to move to? What you're going to do then?

Also, I think this discussion about "Should we continue to use crypto as cryptography?" is related to rent-free living in heads.

111 sats \ 6 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Dec 2023

Really valid counter point, I hadn't thought of the how many times do you run away before standing your ground. And I'm inclined to agree with you, perhaps instead of running from those terms it is time to reclaim them. Show people what crypto is not what they think it is. It's not an angle I had originally looked at it from.

21 sats \ 5 replies \ @ek OP 24 Dec 2023 freebie

The most funny part is when people try to argue that "crypto" means "cryptocurrencies" and not "cryptography":

The "crypto" in "cryptocurrencies" literally comes from "cryptography". So if "crypto" means anything, it should mean "cryptography" and not only "cryptocurrencies".

22 sats \ 4 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Dec 2023

Wholely agree. I refer to those types as uneducated. During my time in the military (before the days of BTC) we regularly talked about "crypto" and we were absolutely referencing cryptography and how you concealed or protected information. It's got nothing to do with dog coins 😂

21 sats \ 3 replies \ @ek OP 24 Dec 2023

Yeah, I think what changed my view on this is that we don't have to accept the ~~stupidity~~ uneducatedness of some people. We should acknowledge it and do something about it but we don't have to accept it.

Accepting something sounds to me like giving up - as if it's out of your control to do something against it. Small but important detail imo.

I came up with this difference the first time when I was talking to a friend how mandatory health insurance works in Germany.

222 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Dec 2023

It took 3 messages lol but I went from, the move away from them camp to the take it back and have them moved camp courtesy of your comments.

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 24 Dec 2023

Another related message, lol:

Imo, imagine bitcoiners are hanging out in a pool and having a great time and then some shitcoiners show up and literally shit in the pool. Are we just going to leave the pool to them now?

No, we should make them clean up and then tell them gtfo

That's how I like to think about this.

It's not as simple though, I agree :)