I know this isn’t research, but I wasn’t sure where else to put it.
I’ve never liked the Ξ symbol for the Ether currency—basically because no one uses it.
I have a future symbol, as well as a stop-gap symbol while we wait for our new symbol to be included in Unicode.
The new symbol is the .svg below:
Unfortunately, it takes 1-2 years to get a new symbol added to Unicode. So until we get into Unicode, I propose we use this symbol below:
⧫ or ⧫ (depending on your chosen font)
So in practice this will look:
“Hello my crypto-comrade. I’m going to send you ⧫5.”
or, if you prefer a bigger lozenge, you can put it in teletext, which yields the result,
“Hello my crypto-comrade. I’m going to send you ⧫5.”
I personally like the larger lozenge. But I suppose if someone prefers the smaller lozenge, that’s okay too and users will just figure it out from context.
With the final version, once it’s included in Unicode, will be a more polished version of:
“Hello my crypto-comrade. I’m going to send you 5.”
@karl suggested using the white lozenge on the old discourse board. I agree. More natural to write that way.
See here.
This is the copied text from the old discourse site:
Looking at
“Hello my crypto-comrade. I’m going to send you ⧫5.”
Makes me think it might be nice to use the white lozenge. Somehow this looks more natural:
“Hello my crypto-comrade. I’m going to send you ⬨5 / ⬫5.”
Maybe it’s because if someone were to write it down by hand, it wouldn’t make sense for them to fill in the diamond. It also almost feels more natural to do something like “ϵ5” though clearly that’s less Ethereum-y.
Agreed on the social consensus bit–wouldn’t be surprised if people just continue writing “5 ETH”
I believe ₿ symbol has been added to Unicode in 2016/2017 and there were proposals for it since 2011
I couldn’t find any proposal regarding Ether in Unicode mailing list, and while preparing to submit one two things come to my attention:
IMO Ethereum logo to be used as currency symbol would look odd among other currency symbols attachedhttps://unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-10.0/U100-20A0.pdf
For a long time, we market ETHER as ‘fuel’, crypto-fuel etc, and NOT as currency the old/new let’s-not-upset bitcoiner language and it is a complement rather than a competitor // Ethereum foundation ether page was right for its time, but things changed,
Today I -and the vast majority on their day to day- use Ether as a Currency(that can be used as fuel) rather than Fuel(that can be used as currency), and keeping it under ‘fuel’ umbrella has no significant benefit.
The lozenge symbol makes me feel like we are in a video game. I love it .
As pointed by @djrtwo it is important for it be easy to handwrite.
I looked at my handwriting speed for different symbols:
It’s unclear to me that it needs to be an easily writeable symbol. Sure, some people will want to write it, but the vast majority will be typing it and looking at it on a screen. Ergo, if there’s a substantially more pleasant design that is harder to write, I personally would still favour it.
Of these, I vote for (1) or (2). I downvote (3) because it looks jumbled when rendered small.
Between (1) and (2), I vote for (2) simply for being more distinctive and more closely resembling the actual logo, but I’m open to changing my mind. I would suggest rendering each one within text and just see how it looks.
If we decide on one we like, I am open to doing the work with the Unicode consortium to get the glyph added.
IMO, Ethereum logo, looks nothing like a currency symbol, we could have ETHER Symbol as separate something from Ethereum Logo, currently we’re using ΞGreek uppercase Xi character apparently didn’t get traction, why? I guess because it doesn’t look like a currency symbol!
If I had the required designed skills -which I don’t-, I would create/propose a new symbol for Ether that does look like Currency Symbol and ideally incorporating the current symbol Ξ someway how and upgrade Ξ rebranding …
I suspect there are numerous causes behind Ξ not being adopted. My personal guess is that it’s not obvious that Ξ means Ethereum. So I wanted to use the straight-up ethereum logo to make it super obvious. This may be overkill, but given how simple the Ethereum logo is, and without any other obvious contenders, the current logo is what I suggest.
If we stop 100 people and ask what this __ symbol stands for:
£ , ¥ , ֏ , ฿ , ₡ , ₤ , ₺ , ₮ , ₱ or ₿
They may know or may not know what this symbol stands for, but don’t you agree a decent % would assume it’s some sort of Currency?
doing the same exercise about these symbols Ξ , ⬨ , ⧫
it’s a binary answer they know it (as Ether) or not, and if they don’t they wouldn’t assume it’s a currency even telling someone for the first time this is a currency called Ether, I can see many saying sort “a currency really”?
What I wish for: a currency symbol for Ether that intuitively would let people assume it’s a currency (even if never heard of Ethereum before) then adding it to Unicode and eventually with adoption and use, enforcing the currency aspect of Ether
This conversation is very specific. There will be thousands of currencies and tokens for users to keep track of, to write on paper, to type in, to read about. How about solving the general problem of reading, typing, and writing what cryptocurrecy or cryptotoken a number is denominated in?
I would argue that Ξ , ⬨ , ⧫ are all cute but inappropriate for business use. Difficult to type, difficult to read.
Difficult for new people to understand.
Easy to mess up. We don’t want someone to read ⬨5 when they were supposed to read ⬫5.
Capitalizing readable, but short words for the currencies and tokens is a better way. Much like airports, the context conveys to the reader what is going on and the flow is better reading and reading aloud.
“Please send me 5 ETH, I’ll need it before I fly out of JFK.”
Thinking about this a bit more, I may have gone too far from convention.
People do like to write and type $5. Perhaps there can be a universal symbol for cryptocurrencies, prefixed with the capital letters. I will use a # in the example below, but it would be nice if there were a symbol that could be universally recognized, and would end up on keyboards.
5.”
.
