
"Crypto" Is Being Redefined as Cryptocurrencies - akvadrako
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/12/crypto_is_being.html
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panarky
I don't like it either.

I also don't like that "literally" now means "figuratively", or using the
plural "their" to mean "him or her".

But we don't get to dictate how language is used.

How language is used dictates what is acceptable.

So get over it, Schneier, language is alive.

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SirensOfTitan
And to a non-native speaker maybe the English terms 'butt dial' and 'booty
call' should have been better chosen. Language evolution knows no obvious
master, and getting angry over that evolution as if a particular domain of
study has ownership of a subset of words is ridiculous.

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dingaling
But neither of those composite terms is clobbering a preexisting meaning.
Whilst their meanings may not be clear at first encounter they can be quickly
and unambiguously determined using a dictionary.

In fact I had to look up booty call just now and understand immediately the
difference.

Whereas "Switzerland should become crypto capital" can mean different things
to different people simultaneously. That's the problem. If I look up crypto in
a notional 2018 dictionary and it has two definitions, which do I choose?

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Torgo
If someone said "crypto capital" I would immediately think "hidden capital"
ala "crypto-Jews" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-
Judaism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism)

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egwynn
The first definition of “hacker” in my dictionary is “a person who uses
computers to gain unauthorized access to data”. So there’s that...

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unclenoriega
Cryptographers have invited this by using "crypto" to mean
"cryptography/cryptographic" in the first place. Without this meaning,
"cryptocurrency" couldn't have formed and been shortened to "crypto".

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jdowner
Maybe it is a stupid name, but the prefix 'crypto' and its usage are not the
exclusive domain of cryptographers. Perhaps thinking of crypto-currencies as
mimics of real currencies is appropriate ;)

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natch
Similar to what happened to "meme," the original meaning of which is way more
interesting than the current most popular meaning.

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zerostar07
right, so we call them ??????. there isn't a better name

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dictum
Cryptocurrencies or cryptocoins.

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zerostar07
both are shortened to 'crypto'. not good choices

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acct1771
They're only shortened if you don't know what you're talking about.

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zerostar07
most people into cryptocoins don't know what they 're talking about

