Bitcoin Currency Symbol ฿

[NewLibertyStandard]

I propose that we adopt the Thai baht currency symbol, ฿, as the official bitcoin currency symbol and BTC as the official bitcoin three letter currency code.

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[Sabunir]

I think that using any existing currency's symbol will cause potential confusion. Another disadvantage of that symbol is that it is not a key on most keyboards, so it would not be able to be typed easily. I would think that the ampersand (&) would be a better choice.

I agree that its three-letter code could be BTC.

[NewLibertyStandard]

There's nothing wrong with multiple currencies using the same symbol. Many different currencies use the dollar sign, $. The ampersand, &, already has many very well defined meanings, including multiple uses as a prefix. It absolutely is not a currency symbol and using it as such would cause a lot more confusion than using an already existent obscure currency symbol. There is a generic currency symbol, ¤, which I considered using until I noticed the very beautiful ฿. You can type ฿ in Ubuntu by pressing Ctrl-Shift-U 0E3F and in Windows by pressing Alt 0E3F. I will be using it and I hope it catches on.

[BitcoinFX]

BTC has already become the standard for the three-letter code I think and it makes a lot of sense.

Using ฿ as the currency symbol I think is acceptable and I approve of the choice.

The fact that it is not on many keyboards could easily be overcome by including it in a copy / paste box in the Bitcoin application in future versions, if it is adopted as the official symbol.

For any windows or mac users that don't have M$ Office products the symbol is available using OpenOffice.org free and open productivity suite alternative.

Insert > Special Characters ( Font = Tahoma , Subset = Thai )



P.S. Maybe one day we might be able to trade BTCUSD in a Meta Trader style application ! 

[BitcoinFX]

I guess if we need to make it a bit more distinguishable then we could adopt the italic version.

฿

[sirius]

Do as you see fit, but personally I'd just go with bc or btc to avoid confusion.

[SmokeTooMuch]

i will stick to BTC, too.

[I-am-not-anonymous]

The Baht symbol alone Could Cause some Confusion yes, but combine it with the symbol for the Costa Rican Colón and you get;

฿₡

so you could say, please send me ฿₡50.00.  

It is not unheard of to use two or more symbols to represent a currency, for example:

the Nicaraguan Cordobas uses: C$
the Dominican Peso uses: RD$

EDIT: Remember when you could buy a shave and a haircut for "two bits"?  Well that day may soon come again.

[The Madhatter]

It is probably best to price your goods in whatever fiat currency you are dealing with online (usually USD). It is less confusing to the consumer. Trust me on this one. Once the customer has agreed to purchase whatever you are selling -- exchange it on the fly and show them the total in BCs.

This is most likely the way I am going to do it.

Cheers!

[devondad93]

There's nothing wrong with multiple currencies using the same symbol. But I think you are going to spend more times having that proposal. But for me, I will support you on that idea. Good luck!

[Timo Y]

I would say: Use whatever you feel like using!

The spirit of Bitcoin is that there is no need for a central authority or "official" policy as with other currencies.

There is no reason why we can't have multiple interchangeable symbols/notations for the same currency.

And even if we do adopt an "official" symbol, users might not stick with it anyhow. 

We should just let it evolve organically, like a word in a natural language, and not worry too much about it at this early stage.

[Anonymous]

I would say: Use whatever you feel like using!

The spirit of Bitcoin is that there is no need for a central authority or "official" policy as with other currencies.

There is no reason why we can't have multiple interchangeable symbols/notations for the same currency.

And even if we do adopt an "official" symbol, users might not stick with it anyhow. 

We should just let it evolve organically, like a word in a natural language, and not worry too much about it at this early stage.

I agree.Let the market decide.

Standards dont come from force......

[Stephen Gornick]

Interesting list:
  Top 10 not-so-famous currency symbols
  http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/2185-4.html#view_start

[hook]

You simply cannot use an already existing currency symbol for a new currency. Period.

Also I'm not to partial to the "let's use a letter and put one or two stripes through it" idea. I associate it with a certain fiat currency and subjectively makes me feel like it's not something serious. Don't know why, but it bothers me.

[bittersweet]

Seriously, I don't think there is a need to re-invent the wheel here.



Whether you like it or not, the reality is that the serif "B" with 4 stripes is already used as Bitcoin logo by many people, so why not use it as a currency symbol? Currency symbol MUST be unique, you can't use existing ฿ unless you want to confuse someone during transaction - you don't want to confuse people when they trade, especially when they trade money.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, I don't think there is a need to re-invent the wheel here.



Whether you like it or not, the reality is that the serif "B" with 4 stripes is already used as Bitcoin logo by many people, so why not use it as a currency symbol? Currency symbol MUST be unique, you can't use existing ฿ unless you want to confuse someone during transaction - you don't want to confuse people when they trade, especially when they trade money.

Great Idea. It seems we had it staring us in the face the whole time.

[Hal]

Interestingly, the dollar sign originated with two vertical bars rather than one, according to several theories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cifrão

Also, supposedly Unicode allows the character to be rendered either with one line or two, entirely depending on the taste of the font designer.

[mikegogulski]

You simply cannot use an already existing currency symbol for a new currency. Period.

Currency symbol MUST be unique, you can't use existing ฿ unless you want to confuse someone during transaction

Hogwash to both of you. Go tell that to the Mexicans, who don't seem to have much trouble distinguishing their $ (peso) from $ (USD). Or to the Canadians or Australians or Kiwis who use $ for dollar. Or to the Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders and Estonians, all of which use(d) "kr" for local variations of "crown". Or the Costa Ricans and Salvadorans, both of whom use ₡ for their currency symbol.

IMHO, introducing a new symbol that's not already in Unicode is a poor idea. It took a year and a half for the € (euro currency) symbol to be included in the Unicode standard after the European Commission released the design, and that's the kind of lead time you might look forward to for an "official" government currency.

There are a whole bunch of viable existing "b" codes already in Unicode. Some of them here: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/search.htm?q=B&preview=entity I'm partial to the circle-b/B ones myself.

[hook]

What about ❂ (U+2742) — it's coin-shaped and has 8 spikes, which makes it look like a "piece of eight", which makes sense with the "bit" bit of bitcoin and the fact that it can be fractured up to 8 digits.

[davux]

What about ❂ (U+2742) — it's coin-shaped and has 8 spikes, which makes it look like a "piece of eight", which makes sense with the "bit" bit of bitcoin and the fact that it can be fractured up to 8 digits.

It's a great idea – the problem is, this character is a little difficult to read. On my computer, all I see is a circle with a thick, textured, grey-ish border.