Is it "Bitcoin", "BitCoin" or "Bit Coin"?

[gigabytecoin]

Is it "Bitcoin", "BitCoin" or "Bit Coin"?

What do you think and why?

[Grinder]

It's Bitcoin, because it's more work to type the other alternatives.

[ribuck]

The name of the project is Bitcoin (with initial capital), and the currency units are bitcoins (without initial capital).

[reubgr]

The name of the project is Bitcoin (with initial capital), and the currency units are bitcoins (without initial capital).

I agree with ribuck. That's the distinction I made in my legal paper.

[eMansipater]

The convention I hold to quite carefully is to call the technology "BitCoin" and the money itself "bitcoins".  This is largely so that even at the beginning of a sentence it can be clear whether I am referring to specific coins or the technology as a whole.  It is an arbitrary choice, but I feel it improves communication of the concepts.

[Stephen Gornick]

The convention I hold to quite carefully is to call the technology "BitCoin" and the money itself "bitcoins".  This is largely so that even at the beginning of a sentence it can be clear whether I am referring to specific coins or the technology as a whole.  It is an arbitrary choice, but I feel it improves communication of the concepts.

Related thread:
  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2200.0

[mizerydearia]

The convention I hold to quite carefully is to call the technology "BitCoin" and the money itself "bitcoins".  This is largely so that even at the beginning of a sentence it can be clear whether I am referring to specific coins or the technology as a whole.  It is an arbitrary choice, but I feel it improves communication of the concepts.

"BitCoin" appears as a gross abuse of the generally consensused and originally established "Bitcoin."  I secretly (forget) established a filter to correct these types of abuses used at witcoin.

[Dusty]

Pronounciation
IPA: /bɪtkɔɪn/
Noun
Bitcoin (plural Bitcoins)
   1. the first decentralized crypto-currency

+1! :-)

[mizerydearia]

See http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7413.0;topicseen

[ribuck]

Pronounciation

IPA: /bɪtkɔɪn/

Noun

Bitcoin (plural Bitcoins)

   1. the first decentralized crypto-currency

I had a go at adding Bitcoin to Wiktionary, but for product names they want to see three independent uses spanning three years. Soon that will be possible.

[FatherMcGruder]

I can understand bitcoin in the Wiktionary, but not Bitcoin.

[xc]

The convention I hold to quite carefully is to call the technology "BitCoin" and the money itself "bitcoins".  This is largely so that even at the beginning of a sentence it can be clear whether I am referring to specific coins or the technology as a whole.  It is an arbitrary choice, but I feel it improves communication of the concepts.

Alternatively, try using Bitcoin for the technology and BTC for the money.  Though, for those of us familiar with Bitcoin, context is sufficient to differentiate Bitcoin the system and bitcoins the money.

"What a fascinating system Bitcoin is"
"I have 10 BTC or 10 bitcoins"

[ribuck]

...even at the beginning of a sentence it can be clear whether I am referring to specific coins or the technology as a whole.

There's no ambiguity at the beginning of a sentence, because the technology is singular ("Bitcoin is a fascinating technology") and the currency is normally plural ("Bitcoins are building up in my wallet"). In the case where the currency is singular ("one bitcoin") the word doesn't appear at the beginning of a sentence.

[bitcoinex]

bite coin

[eMansipater]

It's important to note that my use is not the historically "correct way".  The software calls itself "Bitcoin" and Satoshi interchanged both the capitalised and uncapitalised versions for the technology and the currency:  I know because I checked.  I was creating an arbitrary convention, like the one proposed by FatherMcGruder in December.  I'm not overly attached to it, I just did it to improve readability.

...even at the beginning of a sentence it can be clear whether I am referring to specific coins or the technology as a whole.

There's no ambiguity at the beginning of a sentence, because the technology is singular ("Bitcoin is a fascinating technology") and the currency is normally plural ("Bitcoins are building up in my wallet"). In the case where the currency is singular ("one bitcoin") the word doesn't appear at the beginning of a sentence.

This is not correct.  I made the choice the first time I ran into the ambiguity myself, and there are many possible ways it can come up.  For example,

Bitcoin rates exceeded....(exchange rates)
BitCoin rates exceeded....(network transaction volumes)

Bitcoin trading could mean exchanging USD for btc
BitCoin trading could mean a type of commerce based on encoding contracts and other data into scripted transactions.

Bitcoin domain names could refer to domain names whose market value is approximately one btc, as in "penny stocks" while
BitCoin domain names could refer to domain names stored in the blockchain via a bitDNS scheme

etc.