"Cryptocurrency" - A failure of language usage.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Whether you use an altcoin (or bitcoin) for a long or short-term investment, or because it satisfies you as a medium of exchange, it'd be misleading to call it a "currency". I don't know who began this terrible start of the use "currency" after "crypto", but, in my opinion, it shouldn't be formulated like that since none of them are currencies.

A currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country. For example fiat. Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. This is how the state works.

Naming them "coins" isn't false, they can be considered as "coins" (Hence "altcoins"). In ancient times, people used to exchange goods with gold coins and there were times when they passed over their national currency with those coins. And that's because they were broadly accepted by anyone, since they were made out of gold.

I just wanted to state that I find it falsely to use the term "currency" over something that can be used by anyone in the world and it is definitely not determined or even acceptable by a nation.

I think that this should be a correct sub-board for this thread.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Whether you use an altcoin for a long or short-term investment, or because it satisfies you as a medium of exchange, it'd be misleading to call it a "currency". I don't know who began this terrible start of the use "currency" after "crypto", but, in my opinion, it shouldn't be formulated like that since none of them are currencies.

A currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country. For example fiat. Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. This is how the state works.

Naming them "coins" isn't false, they can be considered as "coins" (Hence "altcoins"). In ancient times, people used to exchange goods with gold coins and there were times when they passed over their national currency with those coins. And that's because they were broadly accepted by anyone, since they were made out of gold.

I just wanted to state that I find it falsely to use the term "currency" over something that can be used by anyone in the world and it is definitely not determined or even acceptable by a nation.

I think that this should be a correct sub-board for this thread.

Put exact, technical and mathematical mind into crypto market and he start to create fascinating things. He will become rich. He will start to change word.

Put humanistic mind into crypto market and he will waste time on nomenclature. Who cares man

"A currency[a] in the most specific sense is money in any form when in use or circulation as a medium of exchange,"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency

You can use bitcoin as well as majority of altcoins as medium of exchange so ... they are currencies. They are not currencies if you monopolize this word such as governments did. We are here to be able to use a medium of exchange that is not inflated and restricted by single entity. For us, crypto believers/enthusiasts, bitcoin is more a currency than fiats are.

[DapanasFruit]

We have to understand that Bitcoin or the concept behind it is surely evolving. I am sure that in the past, Bitcoin was more of a medium of transferring money and not so much as money in itself or a currency (though there are some who are arguing the difference between money and currency). Now, with that famous Pizza story, it has become obvious that the day of Bitcoin as a currency started. In the simplest understanding, what can be utilized as a medium of exchange can be considered as a currency. It is therefore easy to conclude why a growing number of people are viewing Bitcoin and the growing number of alts as currency without anybody recognizing its legal standing for that matter like what is reserved for any state. We have to understand that there are many technical understanding in the past that had already undergone transformation or mutation depending on developments affecting it. Hence, the meaning of "farming" today here in the cryptocurrency marketplace is so different from its original meaning...this is just an example of what I mean. Right now, Sushi or Pancake is already not something you can eat.

[Altcoinsintel]

It is not false at all. I don't know where you want to drag this conversation and what you have been told but a currency is the method you use for your purchases and payments. It represents value and is transferable, thus any cryptocurrency is named correctly as such. A currency is also a store of value because it represents a certain amount of value at a selected time. You are probably trying falsely to push the agenda that tells you Bitcoin is not to be used for transaction and with this post try to make a case that other cryptocurrencies aren't exactly currencies either.

Bitcoin is still being used as a currency but in very limited way. In the future with the yearly increasing average fees it probably won't, as if fees reach thousands of dollars, then it won't be used to buy not even a Tesla. But I see that you try in vain to make a case that other cryptocurrencies don't exist and they are named falsely like that. Nobody said that cryptocurerrencies are national currencies. You need to evaluate a lot when talking about this scale.

[mk4]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's because the term "crypto currency" existed really early on, even when bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency project running. And when stuff like Ethereum and other projects arose, they were pretty much just all put into one category despite a lot of other projects not actually being created as a 'currency'.

[7788bitcoin]

I just wanted to state that I find it falsely to use the term "currency" over something that can be used by anyone in the world and it is definitely not determined or even acceptable by a nation.

Even if you take the meaning of currency from google it is a medium that can be exchanged for goods and services and you think that the term currency is a false claim  . Cryptocurrency is included in the new sub section of virtual currencies and you do not need a nation to be called them a currency, it is called evolution with changing times .

[BlackHatCoiner]

You are probably trying falsely to push the agenda that tells you Bitcoin is not to be used for transaction and with this post try to make a case that other cryptocurrencies aren't exactly currencies either.

No, I don't. I'm just following the definition of currency. Don't get me wrong, I didn't say that altcoins (including Bitcoin) aren't money or mediums of exchange. I said that they're not currencies. They don't represent a nation and a nation can't control them to handle the economy. Some of them don't even accept them. I just believe that the word "cryptocurrency" is being formulated falsely and since they gain more and more reputation every day, we should be aware of the sensitivity of the chosen words.

A currency is not the same with a medium of exchange. A gold coin isn't a currency, but it's a medium of exchange. I guess, same thing happens with cryptos. Saying that Bitcoin is a currency means that, hypothetically, it could replace a national currency if the nation said so. But it can't. Despite the fees and any other of its functionalities:  It can't be controlled by the nation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's because the term "crypto currency" existed really early on, even when bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency project running.

I don't know, it may existed before Bitcoin. What does it matter? No, I'm not referring to Ethereum, this discussion could be exclusively for Bitcoin. It's usually referred as a "cryptocurrency".

To avoid any (other) hating and meaningless replies: I AM A BITCOIN ENTHUSIAST TOO!

[Kakmakr]

You clearly do not know what a "Currency" or a "Reserve currency" is...

The "Reserve Currency" is issued by the government and it is centralized and controlled by the government. They mint the coins and print the money and they determine the amount that are printed.

A currency is a medium of exchange and it can be anything that are widely accepted as a payment option. I think Bitcoin is slowly but surely going in that direction, because a lot of services and products can be bought with it. (Online & Retail stores)

Most of the governments does not want to define it as a currency, because they do not want any competition for their local reserve currency. They define it as a "Commodity"  

[kryptqnick]

I disagree with the statement that 'currency' is inappropriate for cryptos. You're saying that a currency is "a system of money in general use in a particular country", but what about the word 'currency' signifies that it's necessarily used in a particular country? If fiat is associated with countries, it doesn't mean that everything that falls into the category of 'currency' should also be this way. Moreover, this isn't even the case for all fiat because under your definition EUR isn't a currency either because it's in general use in multiple countries rather than one and isn't issued by the authority of one particular country.
Moving back to cryptos and currencies, for instance, Investopedia defines currency as

a medium of exchange for goods and services.

And in this case, Bitcoin falls perfectly into the realm of currencies.

[Wind_FURY]

Whether you use an altcoin (or bitcoin) for a long or short-term investment, or because it satisfies you as a medium of exchange, it'd be misleading to call it a "currency". I don't know who began this terrible start of the use "currency" after "crypto", but, in my opinion, it shouldn't be formulated like that since none of them are currencies.

A currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country. For example fiat. Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. This is how the state works.

By who’s narrative? The State? The Central Bankers? Cowrie shells were used as currency 3,000 years ago. Why not the units of a permissionless, censorship-resistant ledger?

Naming them "coins" isn't false, they can be considered as "coins" (Hence "altcoins"). In ancient times, people used to exchange goods with gold coins and there were times when they passed over their national currency with those coins. And that's because they were broadly accepted by anyone, since they were made out of gold.

Technically the Goldcoins were used as currency, like the cowrie shells thousands of years before Gold.

[hatshepsut93]

A lot of altcoins are striving to have non-monetary usage, like being a smart-contract platform, hosting files, managing domain names and so on - I think such projects shouldn't call themselves "currency", because you don't want your money to be mixed with some experimental use-cases and features - money should be focused on security, transaction speeds, retention of value.

[aoluain]

... I don't know who began this terrible start of the use "currency" after "crypto", but, in my opinion, it shouldn't be formulated like that since none of them are currencies.

The Cypherpunks!

The combination of Crypto and Currency came about from different projects the Cypherpunks
were working on combining Cryptography, Privacy and the idea of a digital currency.

Bitcoin has progressed from being a digital currency even though it can still be used as such.
We need to stop focussing on what Bitcoin is, it has become more than was envisaged
and will become more than it is now.

I created a post last year about the Cypherpunks quoted below to give an idea of how Bitcoin
and the Crypto & Currency came about.

As with any form of research there are many avenues leading away from any one point so I have
tried to keep on a single avenue leading to the formation of Bitcoin. I will leave it up to each reader
to create their own journey and create their own paths in the complex and extremely interesting
area of cryptography, resistance and power reclamation, This post is merely a whetting of the appetite.
 
On my journey back to the foundation of Bitcoin and before I am learning about the key players in the
development of Bitcoin, the key players who no doubtedly influenced Satoshi’s idea and probably helped
indirectly without knowing they were contributing to it, but of course this is not proven and along with
countless other theories has been debated to death.
These key people were members of “The Cypherpunks” who were a group made up of computer scientist,
programmers and developers heavily interested in Privacy and cryptography, for the benefit of
anyone who was interested. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk

The person who really started the ball rolling was David Chaum who wrote in the 1980’s various papers,
these were described as “Security without Identification: Transaction Systems to Make Big Brother Obsolete”.
Already by this title we can see the origins of Bitcoin.

By the early 1990’s Chaum’s ideas had brought about the formation of the Cypherpunks and the release of
the Cypherpunk Manifesto by Eric Hughes. The manifesto opens with this first powerful line
” Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy.
A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is
something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”

With the formation of the Cypherpunks a new chapter in “Crypto Wars” began. Intelligence
agencies from the U.S and the world have been at odds with the Cypherpunks and have waged
a war of decrypting information ever since encryption was used by the public.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars

The following key points in the cryptography/Cypherpunk timeline shows how they were making
developments on what David Chaum’s transaction systems ideas had sparked and which most definitely
created the stepping stones to Bitcoin.
1997 – HASHCASH is created by Adam Back and is formally referred to as “"Hashcash - A Denial of Service Counter-Measure"
1998 – BITGOLD is created by Nick Szabo. This was a decentralised digital currency which was never launched.
1998 – B MONEY essay is created by Wei Dai and referenced a type of “proof of work” system to create an anonymous and distributed digital currency.
The next notable leap towards Bitcoins launch came in 2004 when Hal Finney created the first Reusable Proof of Work [RPOW],
an early version of what Bitcoin is based on, Proof of Work [POW].

Jump forward to 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto was working on Bitcoin he reportedly invited Adam Back and Wei Dai to help with the creation of Bitcoin…

2008 - 18th August - bitcoin.org domain name was registered
2008 – 31st October - a link to the Bitcoin whitepaper was posted
2009 – 3rd January – Bitcoins Genesis Block created

My Key People in order of appearance

David Chaum
Pioneer in Cryptography and privacy-based technologies and creator of ECash
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chaum

Eric Hughes
One of the founders of the Cypherpunk movement, created the first anonymous remailer and author of The Cypherpunk Manifesto.
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hughes_(cypherpunk)
Manifesto: https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html

Adam Back
Inventor of HashCash, a POW system similar to Bitcoin, Invited by Satoshi to be involved in the creation of Bitcoin
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Back

Nick Szabo
Cypherpunk, a pre-Bitcoin developer of “cryptocurrency” and involvement in the creation of Bitcoin
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickszabo4

Wei Dai
Author of B Money, Invited by Satoshi to be involved in the creation of Bitcoin
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Dai
Bitcointalk Posts: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1954;sa=showPosts

Hal Finney
Cypherpunk, Creator or RPOW, PGP 2.0, Involvement in the creation of Bitcoin and the first person to receive Bitcoin tokens from Satoshi
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist)
Bitcointalk Posts: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2436;sa=showPosts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/halfin

Satoshi Nakamoto:
The anonymous person or persons, male and/or female who developed and created Bitcoin
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto
Bitcointalk Posts: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3;sa=showPosts
P2pfoundation posts: 11/02/2009: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source
Whitepaper, e-mails, posts & more: https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/

To continue your exploration I recommend that you visit the Bitcoin Prehistory Thread
created by VB101 > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5126554.0

[Fesatmas]

one that stands out and differentiates between the two between digital currency and cryptocurrency. for example in terms of transparency, which is where digital currency is, we cannot see all evidence of transactions between digital currencies, while cryptocurrency itself has a transparent nature where anyone can see proof of transactions that have been made can be recorded on the blockchain.

but in essence Cryptocurrency can also be said to be a Digital Currency, but not all Digital Currency is a Cryptocurrency (creation and basis of learning algorithms).
then from several other characteristics of Digital Currency that are not crypto-based.

so that there is no wrong analogy between Digital Currency and Cryptocurrency.

[dkbit98]

I just wanted to state that I find it falsely to use the term "currency" over something that can be used by anyone in the world and it is definitely not determined or even acceptable by a nation.

I think that Satoshi Nakamoto was one of the first people who said that Bitcoin is P2P cryptocurrency back in 2010,
soon after that Liberty Reserve Exchange and everyone else started to use the same term and I don't see anything wrong with words we are all using.

You can buy Tesla vehicle with Bitcoin and you can buy other things using crypto, but you can also hold it as a store of value especially when fees are high like they are now.

Announcing version 0.3 of Bitcoin, the P2P cryptocurrency!  Bitcoin is a digital currency using cryptography and a distributed network to replace the need for a trusted central server.  Escape the arbitrary inflation risk of centrally managed currencies!  Bitcoin's total circulation is limited to 21 million coins.  The coins are gradually released to the network's nodes based on the CPU power they contribute, so you can get a share of them by contributing your idle CPU time.

[DannyHamilton]

I don't think "currency" means what you seem to think it means.

A "national currency" is just one type of currency.  Something doesn't need to be under the control of a government to be a currency.  A currency is any money that is in common use.

[hd49728]

Bitcoin and altcoins are currencies. You can call them as digital currencies or crypto currencies but I would prefer to call them as cryptocurrencies. Digital is not enough to describe them technically.

They are currencies from the usages as means for exchanges, peer to peer, on centralized exchanges or decentralized exchanges.

Nevertheless, I consider one different usage for bitcoin: storage. Bitcoin is a mean store your asset as same as physical gold bars. Some people will consider some top altcoins have same usage but I don't agree with them. Altcoins are more volatile and vulnerable in price, regulations as they are basically centralized altcoins.

[pooya87]

Whether you use an altcoin (or bitcoin) for a long or short-term investment, or because it satisfies you as a medium of exchange, it'd be misleading to call it a "currency".

If you use a fork to scratch your back, that doesn't mean a fork is no longer a kitchen utensil.

A currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country.

Wrong, that is the definition of fiat issued by government not the meaning of a currency. And you are using the dictionary definition here.
A currency is simply any medium of exchange. For example in a game the gold coins your character earns is a currency since you can use them as a medium of exchange in that world to buy goods such as an armor!

altcoins (including Bitcoin)

Your terminology is all over the place!
Altcoins or more precisely alternative cryptocurrencies are cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. They don't "include" bitcoin.

Saying that Bitcoin is a currency means that, hypothetically, it could replace a national currency if the nation said so.

No it does not mean that.
Saying bitcoin is a currency means you can use bitcoin as a medium of exchange

[davis196]

You can call it whatever you want-cryptocurrency,crypto asset,crypto coins,etc...
We have been calling Bitcoin/altcoins "cryptocurrencies" for the last 10 years.Do you think that you will change this,just because you want to?Does it even matter,if it's right or wrong?
The crypto industry has way bigger problems than this one.Mass adoption,handling multiple transactions without the fees going thru the roof,dealing with crypto scams,etc...
I don't like the term "cryptocurrency" because it's too long,but "crypto coins" doesn't seem accurate to me as well.

[mbe48]

I understand what you mean, but I also have an understanding of Cryptocurrency which means an asset that can be used in all fiat currencies. I know Crypto as the digital form of Foreign Exchange. But I wonder if in the future there will be a Fiat currency that is digital but has a stable price? Because basically fiat currencies are regulated by the country .. This is just my opinion, if there is an error please correct it ...

[NeuroticFish]

Whether you use an altcoin (or bitcoin) for a long or short-term investment, or because it satisfies you as a medium of exchange, it'd be misleading to call it a "currency". I don't know who began this terrible start of the use "currency" after "crypto", but, in my opinion, it shouldn't be formulated like that since none of them are currencies.

A currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country. For example fiat. Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. This is how the state works.

For the sake of discussion, I'll ignore the fact that you are many years too late and this naming won't change.
I'll come to the fact that your... assumptions... are wrong.

Merriam-Webster doesn't really take country/government in discussion when it defines currency. Even more, it tells that in the past even furs were used as currency.

1
a : circulation as a medium of exchange
b : general use, acceptance, or prevalence
     // a story gaining currency
c : the quality or state of being current : currentness
     // needed to check the accuracy and currency of the information
2
a : something (such as coins, treasury notes, and banknotes) that is in circulation as a medium of exchange
b : paper money in circulation
c : a common article for bartering
     // Furs were once used as currency.
d : a medium of verbal or intellectual expression …
     // neither side possessed any currency but clichés …— Jan Struther