As much as I cannot stand people discussing Bitcioin in terms of returns (Vomit) - it burns me even more when people describe those terms using bastardized language - either preying on peoples lack of rigor with that language or lacking that rigor themselves.

I’m coming to correct people who are misusing the word “asymmetric” with regard to returns. Asymmetric doesn’t merely mean that one side doesn’t match the other. There are already several words for that: unequal, itreflexive, greater than, less than, etc.

Symmetry and asymmetry have specific meanings with regard to what they are saying about a relationship. To say 2 sets are asymmetric is to say that one direction says absolutely nothing about the other direction.

A hash is asymmetric. Its power is in its absoluteness and rigor. It’s not describing a relationship between two worlds - it uses asymmetry to impose a ruthless fact and to either disabuse people of the notion that there can be any relation in the other direction or challenge them to disprove that notion.

The blurring lines between cryptography and finance already do damage to our society - we would be wise to be careful with the language we use to limit the damage.