Official Bitcoin Unicode Character?

[johndrinkwater]

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):

• 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.

[Mahkul]

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.

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.

[FatherMcGruder]

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.

[bober182]

Ⓑ I think is the nicest and looks good for a Bit Coin coins being circular.

[ribuck]

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.

[ribuck]

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)

[johndrinkwater]

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: ¤.

Mhm, I mentioned it in IRC, though as b¤.

[da2ce7]

@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.

[MagicalTux]

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.

[BitCoinX]

I vote for this:

U+0243    
Ƀ
   Ƀ    Latin Capital Letter B with stroke

Dont believe it is in use by another currency and is already in the charset

Example:

Ƀ12.00 Monthly
Ƀ24.00 Quarterly
Ƀ46.00 Semi-Annually
Ƀ88.00 Annually

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Ⓑ I think is the nicest and looks good for a Bit Coin coins being circular.

+ 1.

It would be really nice if the OP created a poll btw.

[S3052]

just an idea that I'd like to share:

We could create a pitch for creative agencies to create this symbol.

The benefit for an agency would be that they could be the first and one and only creator of this symbol for this groundbreaking digital invention. Having worked with many agencies in the past years  I sense that some of them may be very excited because it would create buzz for them.
they would likely issue a press release.

The benefit for bitcoin would be that we would profit from this buzz and dont need to pay anything (while we can still donate them some coins)
as a client, we could still chose whichever symbol we want from the agencys proposals.

[Mahkul]

just an idea that I'd like to share:

We could create a pitch for creative agencies to create this symbol.

The benefit for an agency would be that they could be the first and one and only creator of this symbol for this groundbreaking digital invention. Having worked with many agencies in the past years  I sense that some of them may be very excited because it would create buzz for them.
they would likely issue a press release.

The benefit for bitcoin would be that we would profit from this buzz and dont need to pay anything (while we can still donate them some coins)
as a client, we could still chose whichever symbol we want from the agencys proposals.

That's a great idea, but how would you incorporate that symbol into Unicode?

[just a man]

What's wrong with BTC or BTC$?
Still, no harm in it I guess. Any idea on a cool character? Perhaps the omega character?

I don't like the idea of having the dollar symbol in there, first off I'm not an American, and I've no interest in being made to feel like I'm using American money, no offense. Besides bitcoin has no more reasonh to be associated with the US dollar than it does the Thai Bhat.

Secondly, why associate bitcoin with something inferior, so no BTPound either.

[S3052]

That's a great idea, but how would you incorporate that symbol into Unicode?

Great question, but to be honest, I am a non-IT person, so it would even be difficult for me to understand what unicode exactly is..
If not feasible, discard my idea.

[Gavin Andresen]

It would be really nice if the OP created a poll btw.

Done.

[mizerydearia]

Wiao... I created a poll!

Wiao... I created a poll!

Was that the first poll in Your life or what ?

It was the first poll I created without doing anything. ^_^

* mizerydearia wonders why there are strings attached

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Wiao... I created a poll!

Was that the first poll in Your life or what ?

[bitcool]

I propose something along these lines:


         

A C (or stylized C) with something representing a bit inside.  At some point an actual fontist / graphic designer would need to work on it, though.

How about a power symbol rotated 90 degrees clockwise?

Apple might sue you for that 

-- it's like a B, it's binary, it's a diamond, it's a compass...

Or, this existing unicode: U+25EA   ◪   

[FatherMcGruder]

just an idea that I'd like to share:

We could create a pitch for creative agencies to create this symbol.

The benefit for an agency would be that they could be the first and one and only creator of this symbol for this groundbreaking digital invention. Having worked with many agencies in the past years  I sense that some of them may be very excited because it would create buzz for them.
they would likely issue a press release.

The benefit for bitcoin would be that we would profit from this buzz and dont need to pay anything (while we can still donate them some coins)
as a client, we could still chose whichever symbol we want from the agencys proposals.

I probably wouldn't use any such symbol as long as it didn't belong to the public domain. I definitely wouldn't if it came with a license more restrictive than CC-BY-SA. See the Flag of New England, as copyrighted by some douche named K. Albert Ebinger.