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Unfortunately language isn't a static thing and is somewhat defined by the dominant usage of something over time (unless you're in the rare country that has ful
by Grimm1 5y ago
Unfortunately language isn't a static thing and is somewhat defined by the dominant usage of something over time (unless you're in the rare country that has fully prescriptive language). I had been using crypto as shorthand for cryptography for a long time but cryptocurrency quickly subsumed that. If I talk to any of my non technical friends, and even technical friends who don't touch cryptography, crypto = cryptocurrency. I think the war is lost here.
- jjice 5y agoMentioning a cryptography course I took in uni as 'crypto' always gets confused looks as to why we had a cryptocurrency course.
- JohnFen 5y agoI agree, it's already lost. The question then becomes -- since "crypto" no longer means "cryptography" -- what new shorthand term do we use?
- redwood 5y ago"encryption"
- tatersolid 5y agoSignatures, hash functions, message authentication codes, zero-knowledge proofs, authentication, etc. are all part of cryptography. They’re not “encryption” no matter how hard you try to stretch that word’s definition.
- snak 5y agoAt least "cryptos" in plural is clearly for crypto currencies (I don't think anyone uses "cryptographies").
- rsj_hn 5y agoI prefer to just keep using "crypto" and confuse the outsiders with my own crypto-jargon
- JohnFen 5y agoThis is actually my personal approach, because I'm a curmudgeon. If I'm talking about cryptography, I say "crypto". If I'm talking about cryptocurrency, I say "cryptocurrency".
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- iamcurious 5y agoDid you meant cryptic-jargon?
- throwvirtever 5y agoYou abandon the shorthand altogether, so that "cryptography" and "cryptocurrency" are distinguished the same way that "astronomy" and "astrology" are.
- wittycardio 5y agoA very appropriate analogy
- plorkyeran 5y agoWhich isn't a great place to be, as lay people confuse the two all the time.
- RobertRoberts 5y agoI often confused astrology/astronomy as a child... but not as an adult. Maybe some things simply can't be solved without education & maturity?
- OJFord 5y agoFrankly, you're reading HN, you can cope with it; a lot of people can't, and do confuse them as adults. An extreme example - there was a paediatrician murdered (? At least something severe happened) in the UK after a newspaper published his name and occupation in connection with some more mundane story, and some idiot saw 'paed' and assumed all words with that prefix mean the same bad thing, or whatever. Many people can't reliably tell you whether they bought something in a shop, or brought it home from a friend who gifted it to them.
- RobertRoberts 5y agoLack of intelligence and/or education can't be solved by modifying our language.
- OJFord 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kube-system 5y agoJust "crypto". Many words have multiple meanings, and we use context to figure it out.
- giantrobot 5y agoThe bigger problem is for non-technical users "cryptography" and "cryptocurrency" now sound interchangeable. So now you can't have a conversation about cryptography without explaining how it's distinct from the concept of cryptocurrency and that you're not talking about Bitcoin. While most people aren't talking to their non-technical friends and family about cryptography too often, the co-opting of "crypto" is problematic for companies. They now have to explain to lay people why a new phone isn't pumping out Bitcoin when it was advertised as having strong cryptography. It's going to also be super problematic when politicians start talking about "crypto" regulation and we're having to fight battles over the legality of cryptography again. I don't think my old RSA-as-one-liner still fits.
- Grimm1 5y agoI talk about encryption which cuts the confusion nicely even if it isn't a perfect replacement but I find lay people don't care about the general field of cryptography they care about privacy and from that, encryption. I've been able to get a few people onto signal for instance by going that route.
- AnthonyMouse 5y agoThe worst part is that there is already another word for cryptocurrency. Blockchain. It has the same number of syllables as "crypto" and isn't ambiguous. The cynic in me says they did it on purpose, because it's widely agreed by non-morons that cryptography is good and important and people wanted to associate their controversial shitcoins with that good and important thing.
- q-big 5y ago> The worst part is that there is already another word for cryptocurrency. Blockchain. There do exist cryptocurrencies that are not based on a blockchain. For example, Iota is based on a tangle, which the creators of Iota claim is better suited for their intended IoT applications than a blockchain. Or more centralized cryptocurrencies, for example eCash, which was invented 1983 by David Chaum: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash