Hi,
I tried getting all the suggestions so far for a bitcoin symbol and have listed them there:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_symbol
May be easier to add pros and cons there until the choice becomes obvious (or not). I didn't add all the possibilities listed in this thread (missing the 8-based ones), however you are free to.
Topic: Official Bitcoin Unicode Character? - page 10. (Read 83734 times)
@ribuck
they look way to similar. But I like the concept. I still like the ฿ symbol. It is easy to read, and people instantly understand that it is money.
The ⓑ looks too much like the copywrite symbol; something that I don't like.
they look way to similar. But I like the concept. I still like the ฿ symbol. It is easy to read, and people instantly understand that it is money.
The ⓑ looks too much like the copywrite symbol; something that I don't like.
Something to consider is character code 164 (hex 00A4) which will display on virtually every computer even if there is no Unicode font installed.
The name of this character is "currency symbol", and it was intended for use with any new currency. It was never used much because new currencies such as the Euro designed a new character.
Here's the symbol: ¤.
The name of this character is "currency symbol", and it was intended for use with any new currency. It was never used much because new currencies such as the Euro designed a new character.
Here's the symbol: ¤.
Mhm, I mentioned it in IRC, though as b¤.
Let's consider the long-term, where we will need a smaller unit. I think it's best to have a separate name for this, rather than messing with long decimals like 0.00000247. For the purpose of this discussion, suppose a millionth of a bitcoin is called a satoshi. Then it makes sense to choose a letter symbol that comes in a "B" form and an "S" form.
Here's how it would look for large-to-small transactions, using circled-letter symbols. It might be worth seeing how other schemes would deal with the huge range of transaction sizes.
ⓑ24700 (twenty-four thousand seven hundred bitcoins)
ⓑ2470 (two thousand four hundred and seventy bitcoins)
ⓑ247 (two hundred and forty-seven bitcoins) [omit "and" in the USA]
ⓑ24.7 (twenty-four point seven bitcoins)
ⓑ2.47 (two point four seven bitcoins)
ⓢ247000 (two hundred and forty-seven thousand satoshis)
ⓢ24700 (twenty-four thousand seven hundred satoshis)
ⓢ2470 (two thousand four hundred and seventy satoshis)
ⓢ247 (two hundred and forty-seven satoshis)
ⓢ24.7 (twenty-four point seven satoshis)
ⓢ2.47 (two point four seven satoshis)
Here's how it would look for large-to-small transactions, using circled-letter symbols. It might be worth seeing how other schemes would deal with the huge range of transaction sizes.
ⓑ24700 (twenty-four thousand seven hundred bitcoins)
ⓑ2470 (two thousand four hundred and seventy bitcoins)
ⓑ247 (two hundred and forty-seven bitcoins) [omit "and" in the USA]
ⓑ24.7 (twenty-four point seven bitcoins)
ⓑ2.47 (two point four seven bitcoins)
ⓢ247000 (two hundred and forty-seven thousand satoshis)
ⓢ24700 (twenty-four thousand seven hundred satoshis)
ⓢ2470 (two thousand four hundred and seventy satoshis)
ⓢ247 (two hundred and forty-seven satoshis)
ⓢ24.7 (twenty-four point seven satoshis)
ⓢ2.47 (two point four seven satoshis)
Something to consider is character code 164 (hex 00A4) which will display on virtually every computer even if there is no Unicode font installed.
The name of this character is "currency symbol", and it was intended for use with any new currency. It was never used much because new currencies such as the Euro designed a new character.
Here's the symbol: ¤.
I don't like the look of the symbol myself, but I'm throwing it in for discussion.
The name of this character is "currency symbol", and it was intended for use with any new currency. It was never used much because new currencies such as the Euro designed a new character.
Here's the symbol: ¤.
I don't like the look of the symbol myself, but I'm throwing it in for discussion.
Ⓑ I think is the nicest and looks good for a Bit Coin coins being circular.
You’re seriously advising people to change their default character set to non-Unicode?
Nope. Those were just the defaults in my browser. It'll probably work either way. 
But, it’s imo better than co-opting something like ⓑ, even if it is awesome, because semantically it means nothing. its just a glyph in front of a number to computers.
It would make more sense to have BTC or (b) in common use and then, in the distant future, propose something more stylish to unicode c.
It would make more sense to have BTC or (b) in common use and then, in the distant future, propose something more stylish to unicode c.
I 100% agree. No point in adopting a symbol that wasn't designed to represent Bitcoin. Bitcoin deserves better.
IMHO none of these look good, with the exception of the Bhat symbol, which is, unfortunately, already taken.
Unsurprisingly, #bitcoin-dev has had another debate around the character for BTC
http://veritas.maximilianeum.ch/bitcoin/irc/logs/2010/12/15#l3479
So I read this thread, and surprised community hasn’t done a poll or anything to get opinions.
Seems people have contributed (Posts that didn’t get many +1s were ignored):
Predominately people have put it before the number, is that de facto enough to say it should be from now on?
Anyone else want to suggest things I missed or they want to add/remove?
Without wanting to curry things, I really dislike overloading the Bhat currency. If BTC ever becomes popular globally, how will Thai peeps know difference between ฿3 and ฿3?
Any new symbol needs a unicode number in the private use area (see Apple logo at U+F8FF ) until accepted into UCS, a font made, and people have to start using it… it’s a very hard choice.
But, it’s imo better than co-opting something like ⓑ, even if it is awesome, because semantically it means nothing. its just a glyph in front of a number to computers.
It would make more sense to have BTC or (b) in common use and then, in the distant future, propose something more stylish to unicode c.
http://veritas.maximilianeum.ch/bitcoin/irc/logs/2010/12/15#l3479
So I read this thread, and surprised community hasn’t done a poll or anything to get opinions.
Seems people have contributed (Posts that didn’t get many +1s were ignored):
- just use BTC
- ⓑ (U+24D1) a circled latin small letter b
- Ⓑ (U+24B7) a circled latin capital letter b
- http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x128/davehollis69/bcoin.png a circled, struck-through B
- ฿ (U+0E3F) the Bhat currency symbol
- http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5372/177pxiec5009standbysymb.png a rotated power symbol
- ␢ (U+2422) blank symbol
- ᴃ (U+1D03) small latin capital barred b
- 8 with a vertical strike-through
Predominately people have put it before the number, is that de facto enough to say it should be from now on?
Anyone else want to suggest things I missed or they want to add/remove?
Without wanting to curry things, I really dislike overloading the Bhat currency. If BTC ever becomes popular globally, how will Thai peeps know difference between ฿3 and ฿3?
Any new symbol needs a unicode number in the private use area (see Apple logo at U+F8FF ) until accepted into UCS, a font made, and people have to start using it… it’s a very hard choice.
But, it’s imo better than co-opting something like ⓑ, even if it is awesome, because semantically it means nothing. its just a glyph in front of a number to computers.
It would make more sense to have BTC or (b) in common use and then, in the distant future, propose something more stylish to unicode c.
7. Select 'Western (ISO-8859-1)' in the Default Character Encoding field.
8. Click the 'OK' button in the current window, and then again the next window.
8. Click the 'OK' button in the current window, and then again the next window.
You’re seriously advising people to change their default character set to non-Unicode? EUGH. That’s just soo wrong. Don’t do that.
Find a good font that will fill in your fallback characters (Everson Mono is a good choice), and default to Unicode UTF-8.
Hey! One thing anoying me with ฿ - is the fact it's for right2left text and browsers behaive funky with it )
I am looking through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unicode_characters
What's about - ઘ?
Can you share a screen shot?I am looking through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unicode_characters
What's about - ઘ?
Quote
Or: ϭ
Both of your suggestions seem a little random. The best suggestions try to incorporate some sort of association with bitcoins or the Bitcoin system.
Or: ϭ
Hey! One thing anoying me with ฿ - is the fact it's for right2left text and browsers behaive funky with it )
I am looking through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unicode_characters
What's about - ઘ?
I am looking through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unicode_characters
What's about - ઘ?
For those running Firefox on Windows XP for whom ⓑ, the unicode character 24D1, doesn't display properly, I have an easy fix:
1. Download the Quivira font from this page.
2. Extract the file and install the font according to this guide.
3. In Firefox, select Tools --> Options and then the Content tab. Under Fonts & Colors, click the Advanced button.
4. Select 'Other Languages' in the Fonts for drop down field.
5. Select 'Serif' in the Proportional field.
6. Select 'Quivira' in both the Serif and Sans-serif fields.
7. Select 'Western (ISO-8859-1)' in the Default Character Encoding field.
8. Click the 'OK' button in the current window, and then again the next window.
ⓑ should now display properly in your browser. If you have another font in mind that supports ⓑ, feel free to swap it for the one I suggested.
1. Download the Quivira font from this page.
2. Extract the file and install the font according to this guide.
3. In Firefox, select Tools --> Options and then the Content tab. Under Fonts & Colors, click the Advanced button.
4. Select 'Other Languages' in the Fonts for drop down field.
5. Select 'Serif' in the Proportional field.
6. Select 'Quivira' in both the Serif and Sans-serif fields.
7. Select 'Western (ISO-8859-1)' in the Default Character Encoding field.
8. Click the 'OK' button in the current window, and then again the next window.
ⓑ should now display properly in your browser. If you have another font in mind that supports ⓑ, feel free to swap it for the one I suggested.
Although I love some of the creative designs people have come up with here... The problem is, if the character doesn't already exist in standard-issue fonts... What are we going to do? Insert a JPG image next to a numeric value every time we want to type a Bitcoin amount...?
Let's say that ⓑ takes off. Websites wishing to display can host the necessary fonts for browsers. Typesetting programs should accommodate the symbol without much trouble for formal documents. For informal documents, people will get by with simply b or (b), as they do with the copyright symbol. One can easily tell Word to turn (b) into ⓑ on the fly as well.I suppose that when there can be no ambiguity, people will default to a currency code (BTC) as they do with every other currency.
I think it is time for a straw poll to determine the relative popularity of the competing designs proposed. Of course, this will not be an official vote...
Although I love some of the creative designs people have come up with here... The problem is, if the character doesn't already exist in standard-issue fonts... What are we going to do? Insert a JPG image next to a numeric value every time we want to type a Bitcoin amount...?
I quite like the C with dots which Hepatizon proposed. Plus, I agree that Bitcoin is more important than the Baht.
Maybe also something like that can be nicely processed by a typographer:
100
It might have good scaling properties...
Maybe also something like that can be nicely processed by a typographer:
100
It might have good scaling properties...
ⓑ25.50 or ฿25.50
subliminally... one of these looks like money... the other one looks like a copyright notice....
Any copyrights still in effect from the year twenty five and a half?subliminally... one of these looks like money... the other one looks like a copyright notice....
That ⓑ doesn't show properly for everyone bugs me, but for what it's worth, the symbol displays fine on four out of the five of the computers I use, although three of those run Ubuntu and one runs OS X. Anyone come up for a quick fix for getting unicode symbols to display properly on Windows computers?
Edit: Apparently, the issue only affects those who use fonts that don't support such characters. According to this page, that's basically anyone running Windows XP or earlier. Here's a list of fonts that support the enclosed alphanumeric range. I'll tell my browser on the offending computer to use one of them. Hopefully ⓑ will start displaying properly.
if course I'm joking around...ofcourse it is important to have a standardized, commonly agreed-upon and recognized symbol
The only standard we can reasonably hope for is a de facto one.Amen, Father McGruder!
+ 1.
Let's just wait and see which one will become most popular and simply use it.
Jump to: