[dpryden]

I am finding this article and the comments here very surprising. Do a large number of people actually believe that the word "crypto" means exclusively "cryptocurrency"? Does anyone believe it means exclusively that?

To me it seems similar to how "auto" as a noun is generally short for "automobile", but most people are aware that other things can also be called "auto". When a camera says it is "auto focus" I cannot imagine that any normal person would assume that phrase has anything to do with automobiles.

It is incredibly common for the same word to have different meanings in different contexts. I personally have literally never had a conversation about cryptocurrency in which any person used the word "crypto" to mean "cryptocurrency", so I am clearly out of this loop. But if people decide to use it that way as slang in a certain context it certainly doesn't change the meaning of related words, or even mean it's impossible to use a different slang meaning in different contexts.

[colinmhayes]

> Does anyone believe it means exclusively that?

I'd say about 90% of people believe that since they don't know cryptography is a thing. Now if you're talking to people that work in tech it's a different story, and they'd probably accept both definitions.

[jrochkind1]

Yes. A large number of people who are not software engineers or mathematicians currently think "crypto" means "cryptocurrency", and don't know what "cryptography" is or think about it at all in and of itself. They think about cryptocurrency a lot, and call it "crypto".

I see it all the time on my social media feeds.