Oddbean

Again - words are defined by their use. There is no other meaning that what the speaker uses it for. Many words changed their meaning. When people say "crypto", they don't mean hidden, although I personally like that meaning, when you utter this word, that's not what people understand. It is usually followed by a question "you mean something like Bitcoin?". That's the Schelling point aspect

You can use the word however you want. I would just answer: Yes, it's something *like bitcoin* Bitcoin & Crypto are novel nouns; we're defining them now as we go, hence the follow up question you mentioned when folks hear the word crypto is very typical. If you try to coalesce them into one thing, IMO you're not doing this space any favors failing to highlight bitcoins uniqueness.

You must work for a dictionary! It certainly depends where & when you live. If not, then murder has always been either naturally legal or naturally illegal. Can't understand anyway why you're hellbent on correcting folks who are otherwise simply trying to deliver a lesson to a person: bitcoin is singilarly unique, don't get distracted by the flashy lights at the crypto casino. Folks will hear your point about the falsity of the phrase, and digest the idea "bitcoin is indeed just like the rest" before they consider that you were just talking about the semantics of comma placement. Then, they'll feel better about their gambling. 😔

I'm not trying to coalesce the meaning. First - Meaning is created by how people understand words. You cannot create it, you can participate in it, but it's an emergent effect. It's the same as how you can't centrally control economy. economy and language are emergent phenomena. Second - being part of a category does not make everything equal. Water is a liquid, but that does not mean it's same as all other liquids, in fact, it's a very unique liquid, making life on this planet possible.