proposal for currency symbol for 'bits' (=1/1000000 BTC)

[LiteCoinGuy]

its a nice idea 

[Hufflepuff]

In 5 years this will be on all modern keyboards.

[ALXBOB]

nice!

[arnuschky]

Have to admit, I do like that symbol however I don't really see bitcoin needing a symbol at least not yet, may be in the near future.

Same here. We haven't even sorted out which one to use for bitcoin (as we're currently just using the one
that happens to look "close enough" and is in unicode. But yeah, nice initiative.

[minimalB]

There was quite a lot of talk in the news about this "bits" adoption thing, but I'm not seeing many wallets actually using it.

Is there any consensus regarding using "bits" as a standard?

On topic: I like the proposed bit symbol a lot!

[9kv]

Put the second line going all the way through it. Every single other currency symbol has the line going through it, because it's easier to draw

$¥€

[e4xit]

...snip...
You are trying to pin down a moving target and give a permanent symbol to a temporary slang name.  It seems rather silly.

Sure, right now some people (including yourself) have decided that micro-bitcoins (aka "bits") "will be the basic denomination coded into many systems, with satoshi 'cents'", but this is only because that makes sense for the current scale.  If a few years from now (or 5, or ten years from now), the value of bitcoins grows to the point where you can buy what today would be thought of as a $300,000 house for 3 "bits", then the scale will have moved and nobody will be see "bits" as "fundamental, in that it will likely be the predominant usage down the line".  They'll simply move to a new slang name for a new scale.
...snip...

Danny, you say below that you like using Mikes, micro etc.

So what will be your slang for when 3 bits=$300,000 (your own example)? Will you just continue on to nano/pico...

Actually, a nano-bit doesn't sound half bad, perhaps we should just jump right to that?

Also, I can tell that your name is not Mike!

[DannyHamilton]

Danny, you say below that you like using Mikes, micro etc.

So what will be your slang for when 3 bits=$300,000 (your own example)? Will you just continue on to nano/pico...

Why not?

Actually, a nano-bit doesn't sound half bad, perhaps we should just jump right to that?

Sure, except that at the moment the smallest division of a bitcoin supported in the protocol is 10 nano-bitcoins.

As for slang names, how about "nans", or "nanoes", or "en-bees", or "ens"?

Also, I can tell that your name is not Mike!

Nope.  It's Danny. 

[9kv]

Danny, you say below that you like using Mikes, micro etc.

So what will be your slang for when 3 bits=$300,000 (your own example)? Will you just continue on to nano/pico...

Why not?

Actually, a nano-bit doesn't sound half bad, perhaps we should just jump right to that?

Sure, except that at the moment the smallest division of a bitcoin supported in the protocol is 10 nano-bitcoins.

As for slang names, how about "nans", or "nanoes", or "en-bees", or "ens"?

Also, I can tell that your name is not Mike!

Nope.  It's Danny. 

Those sound terrible.
 You have to consider that professionals will be using this terminology. CEOs of companies are not going to be going around and saying "Our new product should cost 30 en-bees".

[DannyHamilton]

Those sound terrible.
 You have to consider that professionals will be using this terminology. CEOs of companies are not going to be going around and saying "Our new product should cost 30 en-bees".

And yet they are perfectly happy to say that their product should cost 30 "doll-ors", 30 "you-rows", or 30 "pay-soes"?

[9kv]

Those sound terrible.
 You have to consider that professionals will be using this terminology. CEOs of companies are not going to be going around and saying "Our new product should cost 30 en-bees".

And yet they are perfectly happy to say that their product should cost 30 "doll-ors", 30 "you-rows", or 30 "pay-soes"?

Yes.

dol·lar
Origin

from early Flemish or Low German daler, from German T(h)aler, short for Joachimsthaler, a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal (‘Joachim's valley’), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish American colonies, which was also widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American Revolution, hence adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century

en·bee
Origin

a term made up by Internet user DannyHamilton that has no real meaning and no real history

[CryptoCurrencyInc.com]

With momentum really starting to build behind using 'bits' as the primary unit for Bitcoin (as pointed out elsewhere, two decimals fits much better into legacy finance systems) I've been pondering symbols.

I was trying to tie in greek letter mu (µ) as the SI unit for a millionth, but nothing seemed to work.

Above all else, I wanted it to have an explicit relationship to the dominant Bitcoin symbol (and pursue the optimal route, of coming up with something unique rather than just cludge-repurposing some existing unicode char.

Please comment, remix, argue, encourage, discourage, as you feel appropriate below.

I like your symbol design, here's what I created based on your design just for fun.

[mlferro]

With momentum really starting to build behind using 'bits' as the primary unit for Bitcoin (as pointed out elsewhere, two decimals fits much better into legacy finance systems) I've been pondering symbols.

I was trying to tie in greek letter mu (µ) as the SI unit for a millionth, but nothing seemed to work.

Above all else, I wanted it to have an explicit relationship to the dominant Bitcoin symbol (and pursue the optimal route, of coming up with something unique rather than just cludge-repurposing some existing unicode char.

Please comment, remix, argue, encourage, discourage, as you feel appropriate below.

I like your symbol design, here's what I created based on your design just for fun.

the second is best

[Wary]

There are a few Unicode symbols that can in principle be reused.
Ђ    Ы Ԁ Ԃ Ҍ Ѣ Ъ ৳ ɓ ɓ̥ β ȶ ɓ ♭

[9kv]

This one:

Ъ

Goes nicely with BTCЪ

[R2D221]

Those sound terrible.
 You have to consider that professionals will be using this terminology. CEOs of companies are not going to be going around and saying "Our new product should cost 30 en-bees".

And yet they are perfectly happy to say that their product should cost 30 "doll-ors", 30 "you-rows", or 30 "pay-soes"?

Yes.

dol·lar
Origin

from early Flemish or Low German daler, from German T(h)aler, short for Joachimsthaler, a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal (‘Joachim's valley’), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish American colonies, which was also widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American Revolution, hence adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century

en·bee
Origin

a term made up by Internet user DannyHamilton that has no real meaning and no real history

Whoa, wait a second. What exactly are you discussing? Etymology, or sound? Because “Those sound terrible” say NOTHING about etymology, but then you're saying the reason they sound terrible is because of their etymology.

[Jaymax]

What's good, is that it's based on "b". It's intuitive in 3 ways:
1. "b" - for bit
2. Related with bitcoin ("B" and "b")
3. Related in right way ("B" for bigger unit and "b" for smaller one).

What's not so good is the graphical view of the symbol:
1. There is no standard ASCII symbol for it.

This is a GOOD THING.  Why co-opt something with entrenched historical meaning for something totally new?  Generally, I think all the uses of various existing UNICODE B's and b-shaped symbols is daft.  It's not hard to get something added into unicode if we can show it's being used.  The Bitcoin B-double-bar was under discussion previously; the only reason it's not already part of the unicode char set is that the person making the case for it never responded to the unicode committee's questions.

2. The vertical bars have different width. IMO, if they were the same width it would be more laconic, more harmonic and easier to draw.

I think it's more important to make it resonate with the B-double-bar, which has different stroke widths for the vertical bars and the stem.

[Jaymax]

Have to admit, I do like that symbol however I don't really see bitcoin needing a symbol at least not yet, may be in the near future.

Same here. We haven't even sorted out which one to use for bitcoin (as we're currently just using the one that happens to look "close enough" and is in unicode. But yeah, nice initiative.

Who's this 'we'?  A quick google search shows that 99% are using the B-double-bar.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bitcoin&tbm=isch&qscrl=1

And that doesn't exist in Unicode, although in a few comprehensive and well implemented fonts, B͈̎ (0x0042, 0x030E , 0x0348) can work sort-of okay.

It's been 'locked in' as part of FontAwesome, which is something of a de-facto collection of useful 'dingbats' that haven't made it into unicode.



And even here on bitcointalk.org, putting BTC in square brackets in a post gives BTC

There might be some holdouts, but consensus was reached on the symbol for Bitcoin over a year ago.

[Jaymax]

Put the second line going all the way through it. Every single other currency symbol has the line going through it, because it's easier to draw

$¥€

Except bitcoin's?

BTC

I wanted to stay true to the one that's already known by most people.

My suggestion is for a 'reference design' which will naturally be reinterpreted by typeface designers

This might or might not work, depending on your installed fonts, but here for example is $ in Calibri $ and Courier New $

[CryptoCarmen]

You will use whatever you will get understood at. Officially is all already set perfectly fine.