Is crypto-currencies is a right term to refer bitcoin and altcoins together ?

[prtty2gal2]

As far as I am concerned cryptography is being used by human race for 1000s of years and it may got improved into more complex levels with modern computing era.

Cryptography provides security to bitcoins hence it is just layer of security thing and it is not the actual part of what we are considering as bitcoins, right ? If it is so, is it right way to have a term crypto-currencies ?

I agree it is a term to represent bitcoins and other coins as no other money system is being secured this way. Yes, cryptocurrencies is just a term to distinguish bitcoins and altcoins from paypal or skrill.

Then what could be a right way to represent bitcoins and its clones in general ?

Might be BLOCKCHAIN-MONEY or BLOCKCHAIN-CURRENCIES having exact representation of bitcoins and altcoins by conceptual way. Probably it may be a hard term for non-technical people (even crypto too). Smart-money or digital-cash are easy terms for anyone but not exactly representing bitcoin-family. If you have any suggestion, please do mention, we must have easy term for making it to main stream adoption yet it must have meaningful representation.

[Pursuer]

a cryptocurrency is a currency or payment system that is based on cryptography. so yeah, it is correct to use that term for both bitcoin and altcoins as long as the altcoin is also a "currency" although everything becomes a blur when it comes to altcoins since majority of them are purely pump and dumps so you can't consider them as "currencies".

using the term "blockchain" in it is false in my opinion because blockchain is only representing that "database" or the chain of blocks and is not necessarily used by "cryptocurrencies" it can be used for other purposes too. not to mention that cryptocurrencies don't have to be based on blockchain either. there are other technologies, for example AFAIK, DAG is not a blockchain but DAG coins are cryptocurrenices because they are using cryptography.

[Upgate]

Cryptocurrency can also be referred to as digital currency that is powered by technology the blockchain technology.
Bitcoin is a digital currency and so are altcoins.
So you won't be wrong referring to both as cryptocurrency

[iqlimasyadiqa]

Cryptocurrency can also be referred to as digital currency that is powered by technology the blockchain technology.
Bitcoin is a digital currency and so are altcoins.
So you won't be wrong referring to both as cryptocurrency

Bitcoin and altcoin are part of digital currencies, while we all call cryptocurrency in particular. this is because the context of the mention of digital currencies is far wider and not only Crypto. At this time crypto had such a great appeal that the majority of users on the internet began to apply crypto in their financial transactions.

[bitmover]

Not all cryptocurrencies are using blockchain technology.

Iota fot example uses direct acyclic graphs, a different technology, butt it also uses cryptography.

Cryptocurrency is a more general terminology

[Biet12]

crypto is indeed very suitable to go to altcoin and bitcoin, for me all three are the same, as well as assets in digital

[Kopyleft]

we must have easy term for making it to main stream adoption yet it must have meaningful representation.

Cryptocurrency is not a complicated terminology and it surely is not hindering bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies from going mainstream, and is apt in representing what digiatal currencies represent.
Crypto- represents it's virtual state and also it's cryptographic design.

[bitvalak]

Not all cryptocurrencies are using blockchain technology.

Iota fot example uses direct acyclic graphs, a different technology, butt it also uses cryptography.

Cryptocurrency is a more general terminology

You are right, but many cryptocurrency adopt blockchain technology. Inevitably we have to admit that the blockchain is a pioneer of cyrptocurrency with all its features.

[davis196]

Why do you even care about this?
Cryptocurrency,blockchain money or digital coins,I don't care how should we call them.
We could call them decentralized money,if you want.Thiswould distinquish them from the centralized fiat money.

[johnny508]

Cryptography is the base theory for cryptocurrencies and when we talk about cryptocurrencies we can include both bitcoin and altcoins because all of them can be referred as digital currencies but most of the time today people tends to refer altcoins as cryptocurrencies and bitcoin as another currency and i think that is because of its popularity and the uniqueness but every one of them are digital currencies that uses a common blockchain technology 

[deisik]

Why do you even care about this?
Cryptocurrency,blockchain money or digital coins,I don't care how should we call them.
We could call them decentralized money,if you want.Thiswould distinquish them from the centralized fiat money.

Cryptocurrency is already an established term

So when someone mentions it, everyone and his dog (and probably his grandma too) understand what is being meant by that. However, I can't really agree with your use of the term "decentralized money" as some cryptocurrencies are not decentralized at all (like private coin issued by some company behind it in a centralized manner). On the other hand and strictly speaking, you can't call fiat a centralized currency either as it is mostly created by banks in a pretty decentralized manner

All in all, you may not want to use that distinction when referring to cryptocurrencies in general as it only adds unnecessary complexity possibly leading to misunderstanding and confusion

[Ucy]

Decentralized currency is better name if you ask me. Blockchain could transform into something more decentralized in the future, with different names.
The name decentralized currency may even help discourage developers from creating centralized coins and also help discourage major coin developers from temptatation of centralization.

[hatshepsut93]

Cryptography is used everywhere nowadays for securing communications and keeping data safe, but in cryptocurrencies it used for way more, in them cryptography is also used to make the protocols decentralized, and Proof-of-Work is used to prevent attacks while synchronizing the network. So, it don't see any reasons why cryptocurrency is a bad term. The only problem is that people often use it to mean "Bitcoin and altcoins" in a context that has different implications for them. Like, saying "Bitcoin and altcoins will increase in price in the next 5 years" is only partially true, because a lot of altcoins will be dead in 5 years.

[CryptoBry]

a cryptocurrency is a currency or payment system that is based on cryptography. so yeah, it is correct to use that term for both bitcoin and altcoins as long as the altcoin is also a "currency" although everything becomes a blur when it comes to altcoins since majority of them are purely pump and dumps so you can't consider them as "currencies".

using the term "blockchain" in it is false in my opinion because blockchain is only representing that "database" or the chain of blocks and is not necessarily used by "cryptocurrencies" it can be used for other purposes too. not to mention that cryptocurrencies don't have to be based on blockchain either. there are other technologies, for example AFAIK, DAG is not a blockchain but DAG coins are cryptocurrenices because they are using cryptography.

I think you nailed it right. We should not be confusing the blockchain with cryptocurrency though they can somehow be very much connected or even related. We know that blockchain can exist fine without cryptocurrency but I am not sure if cryptocurrency can exist without the blockchain. Anyway, this is just one of the many good facets we can discuss and that can enlighten and expand our horizon of understanding. The term 'cryptocurrency' is already accepted hence it can be difficult if we have to change it just for any minute ground we see.

[imstillthebest]

' snip '

I think you nailed it right. We should not be confusing the blockchain with cryptocurrency though they can somehow be very much connected or even related. We know that blockchain can exist fine without cryptocurrency but I am not sure if cryptocurrency can exist without the blockchain. Anyway, this is just one of the many good facets we can discuss and that can enlighten and expand our horizon of understanding. The term 'cryptocurrency' is already accepted hence it can be difficult if we have to change it just for any minute ground we see.

We should not be confusing the blockchain with cryptocurrency though they can somehow be very much connected or even related.

yes they are connected/related but it is obvious and all can easily tell the difference between a blockchain and a crypto . we must not use blockchain to refer crypto and we must not use crypto to refer blockchain  because they are just inapropriate and sounds ugly .

but I am not sure if cryptocurrency can exist without the blockchain.

it can . if devs decides to port crypto into a physical note's ( bank note ) just like what we have on fiats , im pretty sure that it can live and work independently without the help of blockchain technology .

The term 'cryptocurrency' is already accepted hence it can be difficult if we have to change it just for any minute ground we see.

its not bad to use other term aside from the word cryptos . people can still understand that you are refering to btc , alts and tokens  .

[pooya87]

The name decentralized currency may even help discourage developers from creating centralized coins and also help discourage major coin developers from temptatation of centralization.

there is nothing wrong with centralization, that is part of the world and we currently are using a ton of centralized things in our lives (banks and fiat, Visa, Paypal,...). as long as they don't advertise their coins with a lie as a decentralized one, i can see successful centralized cryptocurrencies.

[Kakmakr]

Crypto + Currency was combined for the simple reason, because it is a currency that are based on Cryptography. There has been other forms of digital currencies in the past, that was not based on Cryptography, so a distinction had to be made to define it properly and to distinguish it from those other types of tokens.

I think it is a excellent representation of this technology and we should not change anything now that this term has gone global.  It takes years for certain terminology to become the norm and widely accepted. 

[dothebeats]

Well for one, even the blockchain technology has cryptography for its fundamentals, so technically blockchain is also under the umbrella term 'crypto.' Without the necessary cryptographic algorithms and functions, the blockchain wouldn't exist, so does bitcoin. Besides, people have known the term 'cryptocurrency' for too long and have commonly associated it with bitcoin and altcoins, so why do you feel that the said term isn't apt for bitcoin and other coins?

[mindrust]

The name decentralized currency may even help discourage developers from creating centralized coins and also help discourage major coin developers from temptatation of centralization.

there is nothing wrong with centralization, that is part of the world and we currently are using a ton of centralized things in our lives (banks and fiat, Visa, Paypal,...). as long as they don't advertise their coins with a lie as a decentralized one, i can see successful centralized cryptocurrencies.

Centralization itself might look harmless but in the end everything depends on the person or the group which stays in the center. As long as that person or group makes fair choices, the system might survive for decades. We see it with the countries like Norway and Denmark.

See this article, it will help a lot.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-corruption-around-the-world/

Everything goes to shit when a corrupted person/group gets in charge. That's when we need a decentralized system and It is happening all around the world. Look at USA, even USA the world's most developed country, the tier 1, is on a spot between corrupted and clean. I'd say it getting worse there.

[deisik]

but I am not sure if cryptocurrency can exist without the blockchain

it can . if devs decides to port crypto into a physical note's ( bank note ) just like what we have on fiats , im pretty sure that it can live and work independently without the help of blockchain technology

It is possible to exist without the blockchain

As there are already a bunch of cryptocurrencies which are not following the blockchain paradigm (read, they don't have the blockchain as we understand it). But they are nevertheless called cryptocurrencies, and for a reason. Even without featuring the blockchain, they still make heavy use of cryptography. In this way, the word "cryptocurrency" seems to be the most appropriate and fitting term for what we understand by these currencies

I think it is a excellent representation of this technology and we should not change anything now that this term has gone global.  It takes years for certain terminology to become the norm and widely accepted

Agreed