XBT vs BTC, what is the story?

[BillyBobZorton]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

[notbatman]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

It's not an arbitrary choice, they label it XBT for technical reasons. The first letter is a country code or something like that.

It's still BTC the 'B' is just obscured by the X. 

[Meuh6879]

XBT don't control BTC.
XBT is for the bankster.
BTC is for people.

simple.

[oblivi]

XBT don't control BTC.
XBT is for the bankster.
BTC is for people.

simple.

Mmm, I think you are confusing Ripple, which is XRP, which XBT, which is indeed Bitcoin, it just another way to tag it, but I also prefer BTC, because its sounds more like "Bitcoin", has all the important syllables.

[solex]

Some background

Bitcoin adoption is achieving a critical mass for exponential growth. To maintain this growth Bitcoin needs to be supported on the world's FX systems and seen on data-feeds such as Bloomberg and Reuters.

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: office@currency-iso.org
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!

[romjpn]

i think XBT is bitcoinXT ,or im wrong, i didn't saw any XBT tag on exchanger that i've visited before

It's used on Kraken for example. And not it's Bitcoin XT.

[ranochigo]

i think XBT is bitcoinXT ,or im wrong, i didn't saw any XBT tag on exchanger that i've visited before

BitcoinXT is just another client. XBT and BTC are quite the same, "BT" in "BTC" is used by Bhutan as their country code and is hence unable to be used as an ISO code. XBT is a ISO 4217 Currency code.

[gentlemand]

ISO set the currency abbreviations. As of yet they haven't done anything for BTC but if a currency isn't associated with a country they start it with an X. Gold is XAU, silver is XAG.

There's an article about it here - http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-gaining-market-based-legitimacy-xbt/

[zimmah]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

I can explain this.

BTC is prefered by many, because it sounds more like bitcoin, it just seems like a natural acronym.

But there's a problem.

In ISO standard, all 3 letter abbreviations for currencies have their first two letters be the country code (or region code), and the 3rd letter specifies which currency it is.

Some examples (some are old currencies):
NLG (Netherlands Guilder)
DEM (Deutsche Mark)
FRF (French Frank)
CHF (Swiss Frank) (country code for swiss is CH, don't ask me why)
CNY (Chinese Yuan)
JPY (Japanese Yen)
USD (United States Dollar)
CND (Canadian Dollar)
BRL (Brasilian Lire)
EUR (European Union Euro) (This one is a bit weird because it should be EUE, but this follows more like the 'BTC rule' of sounding cool)
And so on

So what do we do with currencies that aren't tied to a country?

Those get an X, like

XAU (Gold ounce (Au is gold on the periodic table))
XAG (Silver ounce)
and of course XBT (XBC was also suggested but lost out in popularity to XBT, (there's also already a currency using XBC))

BT is the country code for Bhutan, so BTC would be "Bhutan Coin"


Edit: It has been proposed by some to have XBT be the official tag for 1 µBTC (0.000001 bitcoin, or 100 satoshi) because this would be more compatible with most monetary standards that deal in currency and cents. (as there are 100 cents to an XBT). And the fear that some of those standards would break if they had to deal with tons of decimals.

[dothebeats]

A very thorough explanation made by zimmah. I agree with the ISO standards as it was the followed standard in almost everything lol. XBT is bitcoin not related to any country that's why it is marked as X on its first letter on the 3-letter abbreviation for currencies and BT for, well bitcoin.

[freedomno1]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

As others mentioned XBT means a currency not officially recognized by any country
X currencies get that abbreviation.
BTC is well the name we use

[Snorek]

In ISO standard, all 3 letter abbreviations for currencies have their first two letters be the country code (or region code), and the 3rd letter specifies which currency it is.

Some examples (some are old currencies):
NLG (Netherlands Guilder)
DEM (Deutsche Mark)
FRF (French Frank)
CHF (Swiss Frank) (country code for swiss is CH, don't ask me why)
CNY (Chinese Yuan)
JPY (Japanese Yen)
USD (United States Dollar)
CND (Canadian Dollar)
BRL (Brasilian Lire)
EUR (European Union Euro) (This one is a bit weird because it should be EUE, but this follows more like the 'BTC rule' of sounding cool)
And so on

CHF is a little confusing from people. The country's name is on all the coins as Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name of the Swiss Confederation, or Helvetia specified.

As for the bitcoin abbreviation I feel that BTC is simple, easy to understand and to use. XBT is more scientific and professional term as other commodities (gold, silver etc.) use similar ISO standard.

[7788bitcoin]

This is the reason XE.com uses XBT:

"Bitcoin Currency Code
 
Bitcoin is not recognized by the ISO and therefore does not have an official ISO 4217 code. A currency code is generally built from the two-digit ISO 3316 country code and a third letter for the currency. Although "BTC" is often used in the Bitcoin community, BT is the country code of Bhutan. An X-code reflects currencies that are used internationally and so, XE has chosen to use XBT to represent Bitcoin."

[btcusury]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

I can explain this.

BTC is prefered by many, because it sounds more like bitcoin, it just seems like a natural acronym.

But there's a problem.

No, there isn't.

As I explained here,

The XBT initialism places Bitcoin on the same list as the government-backed fiat currencies, by conforming to the ISO 4217 standard (X__ is reserved for non-government-backed currencies, e.g. XAU for gold). So using XBT instead of BTC is to tacitly place Bitcoin within the system that cryptocurrencies are in the process of obsoleting.

Using XBT would also mean that altcoins must also conform to ISO 4217, so Litecoin might be XLT or XLC. Can you imagine all cryptocurrency symbols starting with an X? Terrible idea. This would also limit the number of cryptocoin symbols to about 660 (26^2-16).

So why do some people use XBT over BTC? What's the reasoning?

Nobody in that thread was able to provide a reasonable reason. Read it for more info and ideas.

The reasoning seems to boil down to, "I don't mind conforming to the invisible bars of my prison."

[Mickeyb]

I don't like XBT and I have never in my life used it. BTC we are and it will stay this way if the community and people using Bitcoin want it this way. Screw governments, obsoleting and all other stuff they are trying to do to us.

[oblivi]

So it seems it's all because in order to comply with that international ISO it needs to be X as the first letter because Bitcoin is not from any country, I get it. XBT sounds cool to be honest, but I dont like the idea of noobs mistaking it for Bitcoin XT.

[zimmah]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

I can explain this.

BTC is prefered by many, because it sounds more like bitcoin, it just seems like a natural acronym.

But there's a problem.

No, there isn't.

As I explained here,

The XBT initialism places Bitcoin on the same list as the government-backed fiat currencies, by conforming to the ISO 4217 standard (X__ is reserved for non-government-backed currencies, e.g. XAU for gold). So using XBT instead of BTC is to tacitly place Bitcoin within the system that cryptocurrencies are in the process of obsoleting.

Using XBT would also mean that altcoins must also conform to ISO 4217, so Litecoin might be XLT or XLC. Can you imagine all cryptocurrency symbols starting with an X? Terrible idea. This would also limit the number of cryptocoin symbols to about 660 (26^2-16).

So why do some people use XBT over BTC? What's the reasoning?

Nobody in that thread was able to provide a reasonable reason. Read it for more info and ideas.

The reasoning seems to boil down to, "I don't mind conforming to the invisible bars of my prison."

It has nothing to do with government ssued or not, it is because of country codes (ISO 3166-1)

The first two letters of the code are the two letters of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes

The codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit (ECU), had the code XEU.

EUR is an exception (an exception to ISO 3166-1, not to ISO 4217), the European union filed a request for EU to be added as a "country code" for the European union.

Could bitcoin do the same? No because BT is already taken .

This has nothing to do with government propaganda, it's just following protocol.

I don't like XBT and I have never in my life used it. BTC we are and it will stay this way if the community and people using Bitcoin want it this way. Screw governments, obsoleting and all other stuff they are trying to do to us.

this has nothing to do with government, it's an international agreed standard just like the metric system.

it makes for easier communication.


standards are good, otherwise you get shit like having all kinds of diferent chargers (look at how many different chargers there are for phones and laptops for example).

Having one unified standard is a good thing.

[franky1]

I've seen since the early days some exchanges/people using the XBT tag, then I saw a lot of people using BTC. Nowadays i think BTC is the dominant tag. Anyway, whats the deal with this? I think BTC sounds better, XBT is confusing.

XBT = nasdaq symbol, BTC = common symbol, bitcoin = common name, btc = abbreviated name
much like
USD = nasdaq symbol, $ =  common symbol, dollar = common name, dosh = abbreviated name

[chek2fire]

is a fight between people and financial system as we know it until now. With practice like XBT the old financial system want to take the control of Bitcoin core.

[maokoto]

No idea about a XBT. Sounds like bitcoin xt, but not really now if it is so.