Recently I've started thinking that the word "cryptocurrency" does a pretty poor job at describing what it's all about. The "crypto" part does not describe the main properties - decentralization and openness, cryptography is simply a tool for achieving them, and doesn't necessarily bring those properties. "Currency" is a pretty narrow economic term, which refers to money in active circulation, but in our case we have digital units that can have many use cases and most notably they allow building applications on top of them. The "currency" part is also used by opponents to claim that they are in fact inherently worthless by pointing out their high volatility and lack of scalability - two factors that indeed make them almost unusable for daily transactions for average user at the moment.

Thoughts?

I understand your concerns. But, on the contrary, i think it does do it justice for instance 'crypto' refers to the use of cryptography and without an intermediary and as such without an intermediary there is some cause to justify that it is decentralized. The term 'cryptocurrency' was conceived long before Bitcoin too.

Pretty sure you're a decade late if you were hoping to change the terminology

There are a lot of poorly defined terms in the history of mankind. Complaining about the term cryptocurrency is not the problem, the problem is how we decided to define it in the first place.

Names don't need to be descriptive. As long as they're unique enough and easy to remember they do the job.
Between "decentralized open applications platform" and "cryptocurrency" I'd choose the latter. It also sounds much cooler.

(Not really a Development & Technical topic...)

I think the term 'cryptocurrency' does the job. There are two sections of people. In the world of people with knowledge on bitcoin and its function the term certainly means something like 'encrypted currency' which clearly points out to the use of computers and digitalized currency. But for a common man not very aware of the system in vogue, it simply amounts to a 'secret currency' which is suggestive of his or her need to avoid! But when people get used to the process of transacting through bitcoin etc then the term becomes more appealing.

There is however a drawback for this term. The very principle of the bitcoin transaction is based on decentralization and openness. In either of the above terms, we cannot deduce these two principles. The term encryption neither hints at openness nor decentralization. In fact it is something contrary to that. And the meaning of being 'a secret' does not do any good.

Since the term cryptocurrency cannot be changed and it is in the use almost since the beginning it is not possible to modify it. However, what can be done is we can introduce a synonym for the term which can simply be 'eCurrency'. The term 'Digital currency' can also be suggested. However, it may simply mean the existing currency used in computers. Which otherwise will mean as internet banking transactions and the like which already are most commonly used where the currency is simply a dollar only that the number or figure is transacted from one system to the other.

The term 'eCurrency' will make it more appealing for both the experts and the common public. And when the use of eCurrency dominates slowly the confusing cryptocurrency will fade away. The advantage with the term eCurrency is that it does not directly convey openness or decentralization. However it does not convey anything contrary either, unlike the term cryptocurrency. This eCurrency as an alternative perhaps be better tuned to the needs and in allying the apprehension caused with the name cryptocurrency.

CryptoCurrency seems to be the catchall word for everything related to blockchain; be it the blockchain, the currency, maybe a token or even a smart contract. If you are revering to just the currency then maybe it is a good term, what else would you make it? HashCoin?

well, another day at twitter I saw cryptographers almost had a 'tilt' because people using "crypto" as "crypto currency"

Words can be very confusing since they might contain different meanings. Complaining about the term cryptocurrency is not the problem, the problem is how you use it in the first place.

From the word 'crypto or cryptography' is the art of writing or solving codes. Which is somehow correct because miners does solve some mathematical puzzle. And the word 'currency' well basically it is a money, notes, or coins that has a value. So a cryptocurrency or digital currency is being made because of it's characteristics. But if you are having a problem with this and making a big deal then you can tell everyone what to name on it but i don't think if they will listen, since it is what they already know what to call on it.