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I received this feedback as a comment to a now-deleted/closed question. Please illuminate my lack of understanding; is the "crypto" prefix a misnomer in some cases of digital currency or is there another meaning not related to hashing algorithms, etc.?

Please note that I am not looking for a redefinition of the word cryptocurrency. If the name as currently in popular use is inaccurate, I want to help correct that misperception.

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    $\begingroup$ "Cryptography is used in cryptocurrency" doesn't mean "everything that's used in cryptocurrency is cryptography" $\endgroup$
    – Mikero
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ We also have Bitcoin.SE for this type of question. $\endgroup$
    – Eugene Styer
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 16:20
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    $\begingroup$ What was the question? Was it "how difficult is it to find the private key for a public key on the block chain?", or was it "what are the appropriate strategies for doing currency speculation on bitcoin?" $\endgroup$
    – poncho
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 16:26
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    $\begingroup$ @EugeneStyer: the problem with the bitcoin stack-exchange is that it is bitcoin specific; it sounds inappropriate to send a hyperledger question there... $\endgroup$
    – poncho
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 16:29
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    $\begingroup$ @EugeneStyer Yep, bitcoin is not the generic cryptocurrency site it once was, for more information see here. It actually proposes Computer Science for more generic questions about the technology used (brethvoice: but beware that your org. question is still opinionated, I cannot vouch for your question to be well received). Please vote up my Q/A on meta, it needs to get more exposure! $\endgroup$
    – Maarten Bodewes Mod
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 16:33
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    $\begingroup$ @poncho the question was about directed acyclic graphs (DAG) and how ubiquitous I believe they are becoming. One example was about a new digital currency, $DAG, and another was a machine learning model, which Tensorflow engineers describe as another DAG (search here: tensorflow.org/tfx/tutorials/tfx/airflow_workshop). $\endgroup$
    – tdMJN6B2JtUe
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 17:25
  • $\begingroup$ @EugeneStyer you are correct about the $BTC substack; posting anything that appears to compete with their currency of choice is downvoted if not mocked. $\endgroup$
    – tdMJN6B2JtUe
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 17:30
  • $\begingroup$ @Mikero that is true. But could you deny that without cryptography, there is no such thing as digital currency, and that given the value proposition it might behoove this community to get more involved/stop closing related questions out of a desire to remain "ideologically pure" or something like that? $\endgroup$
    – tdMJN6B2JtUe
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 17:32

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The question was closed and deleted by the post author, is thus generally not viewable, and thus scheduled to vanish. My feedback in comment reads (with disputed assertion bolded):

Sorry, but "How important is the DAG data structure to the future of our world, given that it seems to be central to technologies which are revolutionizing it?" is opinion-based, and only distantly related to cryptography. Mind you, a concept being used in cryptocurrencies does not make it related to cryptography; which is our only subject. Please make this a factual cryptographic question, or remove it. See this meta on cryptocurrency-related questions.

Argument towards the disputed assertion: the concept of currency is obviously used in and related to cryptocurrencies; yet it's far from as obviously related to cryptography, per Merriam-Webster definitions of cryptography and related.

Admittedly using mathematical terms out of their charted territory: "related to" is a symmetric but non-transitive relation.

My comment and assertion were intended to help improve the question. I later realized I once used DAGs in a cryptanalytic attack (that's far from typical), and IIRC then rescinded my first and perhaps hasty closing, thinking it was possible to improve the question.

A comment by another contributor justifies closing the question with: "because it is a general and non-specific question about an elementary data structure used in countless applications throughout computer science, not just cryptography".

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