All the world's currencies have 3-letter ISO standard codes which are used to identify them in computer systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217
The first two letters must match the ISO standard country code .e.g. USx codes are reserved for the United States, hence the dollar is known as USD on all FX systems.
BTC is not available as it is reserved for the country of Bhutan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2
Transnational or world currencies begin with an X, for example XAU (gold) and XAG (silver)
XBC has been taken by the European central bank, which leaves only XBT as the most suitable ISO code for Bitcoin.
Below is the institution which needs to be lobbied to assign Bitcoin its currency code:
ISO 4217:2008
Codes for the representation of currencies and funds
Maintenance Agency
c/o SIX Interbank Clearing Ltd (acting on behalf of the Swiss Associa tion for Standardization)
P.O. Box
Hardturmstrasse 201
8021 Zurich
Switzerland
Tel: +41 58 399 4255
Fax: +41 58 499 4550
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.currency-iso.org
The Bloomberg screen used by tens of thousands of people who continually buy and sell the major currencies...
Let's see Bitcoin elbow its way onto this screen!