LearnBitcoin

Bitcoin Dev Archive 2015

Proposal to add the bitcoin symbol to Unicode

8 messages, 5 Sep 2015 to 20 Jun 2017. Started by Ken Shirriff.

Ken Shirriff (2), Theo Chino (2), Richard Moore, Andreas Schildbach, Peter Todd, Danny Thorpe

Permalink Original thread on gnusha.org

Ken Shirriff permalink original

Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode. I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding. The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf

I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group, so I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.

Thanks, Ken

Theo Chino in reply to Ken Shirriff permalink original

Ken,

What do I do to second and join you ?

Theo Chino New York

On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 4:11 PM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev < bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org> wrote:

Quoted text (23 lines)
> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin
> symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal
> to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode.
> I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm
> familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding.
> The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>
> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group, so
> I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers
> will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this
> symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.
>
> Thanks,
> Ken
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>
>
Richard Moore in reply to Ken Shirriff permalink original

This might also be a useful page to look at:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_symbol

RicMoo

Sent from my self-aware iPhone

.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸><(((º>

Richard Moore ~ Founder Genetic Mistakes Software Inc. phone: (778) 882-6125 email: ricmoo@geneticmistakes•com www: http://GeneticMistakes.com

Quoted text (14 lines)
> On Sep 5, 2015, at 10:11 AM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org> wrote:
>
> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode. I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding. The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>
> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group, so I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.
>
> Thanks,
> Ken
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
Andreas Schildbach in reply to Ken Shirriff permalink original

Very cool! Thanks for tackling this.

On 09/05/2015 04:11 PM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev wrote:

Quoted text (23 lines)
> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin
> symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a
> proposal to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to
> Unicode. I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before,
> so I'm familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of
> succeeding. The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>
> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group,
> so I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin
> developers will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of
> adding this symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.
>
> Thanks,
> Ken
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>
Peter Todd in reply to Ken Shirriff permalink original

On Sat, Sep 05, 2015 at 07:11:27AM -0700, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev wrote:

Quoted text (11 lines)
> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin
> symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal
> to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode.
> I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm
> familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding.
> The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>
> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group, so I
> hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers will
> help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this symbol, so
> please let me know if you support this proposal.

ACK

Danny Thorpe in reply to Ken Shirriff permalink original

What of this prior effort, proposing B-with-horizontal-bar (Ƀ)? http://bitcoinsymbol.org/

They argue that B-with-2-vertical-bars is easily confused with the Thai Bhat currency symbol, which is a B with a single vertical bar.

I'm not terribly fond of the B-with-horizontal-bar as a symbol, but it does have the advantage that it is already in the Unicode glyph set, already available on most Unicode enabled devices.

-Danny

On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 7:11 AM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev < bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org> wrote:

Quoted text (23 lines)
> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin
> symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal
> to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode.
> I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm
> familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding.
> The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>
> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group, so
> I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers
> will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this
> symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.
>
> Thanks,
> Ken
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>
>
Ken Shirriff in reply to Danny Thorpe permalink original

On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 1:28 PM, Danny Thorpe <danny.thorpe@gmail•com> wrote:

Quoted text (6 lines)
> What of this prior effort, proposing B-with-horizontal-bar (Ƀ)?
> http://bitcoinsymbol.org/
>
> They argue that B-with-2-vertical-bars is easily confused with the Thai
> Bhat currency symbol, which is a B with a single vertical bar.
>

Actually that page argues that using the Thai Bhat currency symbol *for* Bitcoin causes confusion. From the page you linked to:

The Thai Baht (฿ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_baht>) is sometimes used to represent Bitcoin, but this certainly raises a problem of differenciation between the Thai Baht and Bitcoin.

Their main motivation for using the horizontal-bar Ƀ (which they admit is a hack) is they consider adding a character to Unicode to be a "really long and complicated process". My view is that adding the bitcoin sign to Unicode avoids confusion with the Thai Baht, avoids hacks such as Ƀ, and lets everyone use the standard symbol. Hopefully it won't be a really long and complicated process...

Ken

Quoted text (33 lines)
> I'm not terribly fond of the B-with-horizontal-bar as a symbol, but it
> does have the advantage that it is already in the Unicode glyph set,
> already available on most Unicode enabled devices.
>
> -Danny
>
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 7:11 AM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev <
> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org> wrote:
>
>> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin
>> symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal
>> to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode.
>> I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm
>> familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding.
>> The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>>
>> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group, so
>> I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers
>> will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this
>> symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ken
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>>
>>
>
Theo Chino in reply to Ken Shirriff permalink original

Ken and team,

Took some time but here it is ! *Bravo !*

And as usual reporter make up the shit they want ... Feel free to remind them that we had a working group and we worked on it. https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/20/15840008/new-emoji- unicode-consortium-version-10-bitcoin-symbol

The "Could be" is a bit too much. It's time we keep reporter in check so feel free to remind her in your own way. My way is "pissed off tweet", https://twitter.com/TheoBitcoin/status/ 877277497796198400 but used your own way.

A page is officially turned.

Regards, Theo

On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 5:05 PM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev < bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org> wrote:

Quoted text (69 lines)
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 1:28 PM, Danny Thorpe <danny.thorpe@gmail•com>
> wrote:
>
>> What of this prior effort, proposing B-with-horizontal-bar (Ƀ)?
>> http://bitcoinsymbol.org/
>>
>> They argue that B-with-2-vertical-bars is easily confused with the Thai
>> Bhat currency symbol, which is a B with a single vertical bar.
>>
>
> Actually that page argues that using the Thai Bhat currency symbol *for*
> Bitcoin causes confusion. From the page you linked to:
>
> The Thai Baht (฿ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_baht>) is sometimes
> used to represent Bitcoin, but this certainly raises a problem of
> differenciation between the Thai Baht and Bitcoin.
>
> Their main motivation for using the horizontal-bar Ƀ (which they admit is
> a hack) is they consider adding a character to Unicode to be a "really long
> and complicated process". My view is that adding the bitcoin sign to
> Unicode avoids confusion with the Thai Baht, avoids hacks such as Ƀ, and
> lets everyone use the standard symbol. Hopefully it won't be a really long
> and complicated process...
>
> Ken
>
>
>> I'm not terribly fond of the B-with-horizontal-bar as a symbol, but it
>> does have the advantage that it is already in the Unicode glyph set,
>> already available on most Unicode enabled devices.
>>
>> -Danny
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 7:11 AM, Ken Shirriff via bitcoin-dev <
>> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org> wrote:
>>
>>> Use of the bitcoin symbol in text is inconvenient, because the bitcoin
>>> symbol isn't in the Unicode standard. To fix this, I've written a proposal
>>> to have the common B-with-vertical-bars bitcoin symbol added to Unicode.
>>> I've successfully proposed a new character for Unicode before, so I'm
>>> familiar with the process and think this has a good chance of succeeding.
>>> The proposal is at http://righto.com/bitcoin-unicode.pdf
>>>
>>> I received a suggestion to run this proposal by the bitcoin-dev group,
>>> so I hope this email is appropriate here. Endorsement by Bitcoin developers
>>> will help the Unicode Committee realize the importance of adding this
>>> symbol, so please let me know if you support this proposal.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ken
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>>> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
>>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation•org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>
>