Crypto is not cryptocurrency | Hacker News Reader

Crypto is not cryptocurrency

cryptoisnotcryptocurrency.com

9 pointspabs38 comments

Au contraire, the differing meanings of the word "crypto" are a fantastic shibboleth. When someone uses "crypto" to refer exclusively to cryptocurrencies, that is a very good signal that they do not have knowledge about the technical side of things.

As a doctoral security researcher, working full time in fintec security engineering having good low level knowledge TLS, SSH, X.509, etc and using pycrypto and golang crypto libraries most days... but also proficient in blockchain technology including solidity.

I'm also a part time consultant (& red teamer) with a well known platform, having received awards from both the US Pentagon and other national equivalents.

Although I am careful to use short or long form depending on the context, I do tend to use crypto more to refer to the currency rather than cryptography.

And I don't think I'm a minority, so I hope you reconsider your gatekeeping view on this.

Well... no. Crypto is crypto. It's the adaptation of a greek word to be used as prefix in the english language. For some time some people used it as short for cryptography. But most other people didn't.

It makes no sense to me that those people that assimilated and adapted the word to their context are now upset that other people are assimilating and adapting the word for their own context.

ಠ is not an emoji, it is a character from a Hindi script.

Giving lessons on misappropriation is not a great look there...

Crypto means hidden. It is a common prefix. Whether a community uses it for a thing is not some cause for riot.

OTOH facebook bought the word meta to appropriate the metaverse related terms even though they haven't built anything yet. The press is wholesale buying it for fear of being embargoed and nobody seems infuriated by this

Related discussion from a few hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29309153

You’re a decade late.

Don't you hate it when they show up in masses and take your words and your ideas and your land.

Then they use those very words in twisted ways. They take your ceremonies and celebrations and make them what they want.

And what you built is gone. Changed in ways you could not imagine.

You never had control to begin with... it was an illusion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com