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0 pointssanderjd4y ago0 comments

I think this is a symptom of the general problem of calling everything "cryptocurrency", which anchors people on the mental model of Bitcoin. You were involved in "cryptocurrency" 2011 when everything was Bitcoin or essentially just a fork of Bitcoin and all of the stuff in the comment you replied to was a few years away from existing.

I think it would be like writing "applications" in the early 90s in Visual Basic and then reading something about web applications and saying "I was involved in applications and none of this makes sense to me". That's because it's a different domain, with some similarities but many differences.

Edit: Changed "crypto" to "cryptocurrency" to differentiate from a different general problem with how the shorthand already had a different meaning.

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8 comments · 2 top-level

throw0101a4y ago· 3 in thread

> I think this is a symptom of the general problem of calling everything "crypto", which anchors people on the mental model of Bitcoin.

Or those of us who immediately think of AES, RSA, and Diffie–Hellman.

Anyone around tech in the 1990s may also remember:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars

sanderjdOP4y ago

Right you are. I just edited to differentiate from this other general problem with the nomenclature in the space.

I actually think this one leads to less confusion though, because the people who are familiar with "crypto" vis cryptography universally have enough expertise to differentiate it from "crypto" vis cryptocurrency. Whereas I would estimate that at least 99% of people who have heard of both Bitcoin and Ethereum have no idea that there are important differences in their capabilities and technology.

All the smart but non-technical people I know or read commentary from talk about cryptocurrency as a single thing, where that thing is just different flavors of Bitcoin.

dTal4y ago

The next time I get cornered by a coinhead - a worryingly common occurrence in real life lately - I'm going to say "Oh, I love crypto! My bank uses it so I can access my account from anywhere. It's great!"

1 more reply

tata714y ago

Many of the same teams in this round.

johnchristopher4y ago· 3 in thread

It goes to show that cryptomoney has not yet a settled common set of words to describe what's happening, unlike applications which have "gui, compilers, loop, trees, objects, etc.".

It's still to much specialized to follow what's going on from a higher viewpoint.

FDSGSG4y ago

I don't think so. The terminology is quite standardised, but just like "gui, compilers, loop, trees, objects, etc." you're not going to know them unless you're familiar with the subject.

dpark4y ago

Is it really? From what I can tell these are all Etherium-specific terms. This is not standardized. It might be consistent but that’s not at all the same as actually being standardized.

This seems like saying that Chef terminology is standard. It might be internally consistent with its talk of recipes and ingredients and whatnot for imaging machines. But this terminology is not standard because it’s meaningless to someone who had experience with a different imaging platform.

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sanderjdOP4y ago

I think you're both right to a degree. I agree the jargon is pretty well defined at this point, but it certainly is not as widely understood as the earlier computing and internet jargon. I think the mainstream is in the phase of basically having no idea whatsoever. I am sympathetic to them. I think they feel chuffed with themselves for finally figuring out what Bitcoin is, and now we're telling them they're still over half a decade behind the curve?!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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8 comments · 2 top-level

throw0101a4y ago· 3 in thread

> I think this is a symptom of the general problem of calling everything "crypto", which anchors people on the mental model of Bitcoin.

Or those of us who immediately think of AES, RSA, and Diffie–Hellman.

Anyone around tech in the 1990s may also remember:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars

sanderjdOP4y ago

Right you are. I just edited to differentiate from this other general problem with the nomenclature in the space.

All the smart but non-technical people I know or read commentary from talk about cryptocurrency as a single thing, where that thing is just different flavors of Bitcoin.

dTal4y ago

1 more reply

tata714y ago

Many of the same teams in this round.

johnchristopher4y ago· 3 in thread

It goes to show that cryptomoney has not yet a settled common set of words to describe what's happening, unlike applications which have "gui, compilers, loop, trees, objects, etc.".

It's still to much specialized to follow what's going on from a higher viewpoint.

FDSGSG4y ago

I don't think so. The terminology is quite standardised, but just like "gui, compilers, loop, trees, objects, etc." you're not going to know them unless you're familiar with the subject.

dpark4y ago

Is it really? From what I can tell these are all Etherium-specific terms. This is not standardized. It might be consistent but that’s not at all the same as actually being standardized.

2 more replies

sanderjdOP4y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse