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Linux Inventor Says He Doesn’t Believe in Crypto (u.today)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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  • Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
  • Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
  • Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
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[–] 145 points 2 years ago (9 children)

Crypto means cryptography, stop using it to talk about cryptocurrency.

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  • [–] 60 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Crypto means hidden, stop using it to talk about cryptography.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Crypto currencies doesn't mean "hidden currency", it means currency based on cryptography.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    They meant that choosing one possible definition and saying it’s what the word means is stupid. Words mean pretty much what everyone agrees they mean. Look at all the words that have basically flipped definitions since their inception. Just because the modern derivative of a word means something literally everyone understands but is slightly different than what it used to mean doesn’t mean the oldest answer is the correct one. Unwad your jock.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Yeah, that headline is very misleading. Crypto(graphy) is essential for the digital world to exist whereas the other stuff is a pyramid & money laundering scheme.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It's not "misleading," because the vast majority of people understand what the current colloquial use of crypto is.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    It’s useful for buying drugs online on the dark web so I for one like it

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "Have you invested in crypto?"

    Do you think anyone anywhere will misunderstand this as investing in cryptographic research/development?

    The mainstream usage of the word isn't always aligned with what is good for society or even the original usage of the word.

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  • [+] -18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    So the equivalent of the population of the United States plus 40% are money-londerers. Because somewhere between five and seven percent of the world's population uses cryptocurrency and that's 400 million to 550 million people.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I doubt it

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Increasing demographics might initially be attributed to a rise in the number of accounts and improvements in identification. In 2021, however, crypto adoption continued as companies like Tesla and Mastercard announced their interest in cryptocurrency. Consumers in Africa, Asia, and South America were most likely to be an owner of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in 2022.

    That's functionally the nut of it. People in countries that lack a traditional western banking sector but enjoy internet access can piggyback on the network of banks with crypto-interfaces. This is more a consequence of the unregulated wing of the financial sector than an raw utility of cryptocurrency itself.

    If WellsFargo won't ratify me as a client, but Coinbase will, I'm stuck dealing in bitcoin simply because I can't get a credit card denominated in USD.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Ok based upon one dude's opinion I'll purposely create a communication problem between me and anyone who ever tries to discuss this stuff with me.

    Or I could just toss this opinion in the garbage...

    Decisions decisions

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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Never heard it commonly used as a short form for "cryptography". But did hear it commonly used for "Cryptocurrency". Why not let the morons have it? Do you have a scam running that relies on "Crypto" being short for "Cryptography"? Using "cool" brevs is the mark of the amateur anyway, if someone said "crypto" to me when he meant cryptography, I'd forever judge them as a silly person.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    Before 2010 it was almost exclusively used to refer to cryptography, outside of some even more niche fields (parts of biology, political sciences, etc)

    I run /r/crypto on reddit, for cryptography, and the spam is horrendous and the flood of idiots is never ending

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