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Bitcoin is Stupid and Does Not Deserve an Emoji (blog post) (thedabbler.patatas.ca)
submitted 2 years ago* by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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35 crypto companies got together to make a change dot org petition called "Bitcoin Deserves an Emoji".

F that

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[–] 222 points 2 years ago (57 children)

I don't mind there being an emoji for cryptocurrency. It's a relevant thing in modern society whether we like it or not, so there's no reason it should be excluded. But just not Bitcoin, specifically. Even though Bitcoin is the one that kicked off crypto, it's still a brand name, which would result in auto-rejection according to the Unicode Consortium's guidelines.

If there was a more general-purpose icon/symbol that could represent cryptocurrency in general, that'd be more appropriate. But it can't be Bitcoin.

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  • [–] 111 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    They already have that, 💩

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  • [–] 43 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    💩🪙

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Poopmoon?

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Its a coin emoji, but its one of those emoji that get rendered wildly different depending on which device (and software version) you’re viewing it on

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (13 children)

    an emoji for cryptocurrency

    💩🪙

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    I mean it has its issues but a non regulated currency not controlled by a government is cool imo

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    Its supposed benefits are vastly overshadowed by their only practical application: allowing online crime to flourish.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Criminals use what works. So therefore that means that crypto actually does its job as a real currency that cannot be controlled. Criminals also have a habit of using auto mobiles, guns, computers, shoes, etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    If criminals only used cars from brand X and nobody else used brand X, it would be viewed the same.

    There are plenty of currencies out there, which normal people use. Cryptocurrencies are mainly used by criminals though.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Chain analysis companies whose whole reason for existing is selling exchanges and governments software to track illicit cryptocurrency transactions show that less than 1% of transactions are illicit in nature. So I don't know how that means the majority of crypto is used for illicit finance.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Had to go out and find a source myself.

    https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/Europol%20Spotlight%20-%20Cryptocurrencies%20-%20Tracing%20the%20evolution%20of%20criminal%20finances.pdf

    Private companies say less than 1%. Academia says around 20%. That's a huge difference to only cite one side of the story.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    That's a good point. It's pretty safe to assume that private companies would want to downplay it as much as possible and academia for governments and shit would want to play it up as much as possible. So the real number probably truly lies somewhere in between those two.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (18 children)

    I wouldn't think Bitcoin has, or can, be trademarked or copyrighted, as it is an open-source protocol/technology where even the creator is unknown?

    Either way there isn't a generic symbol for cryptocurrency. This emoji will go the way of the save icon, where in a couple generations most people will have no idea what it relates to, but know that it's a symbol for cryptos.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

    I wouldn't think Bitcoin has, or can, be trademarked or copyrighted, as it is an open-source protocol/technology where even the creator is unknown?

    It's still the name of a specific product/service. The issue is partly trademark/copyright, but also partly a matter of neutrality. The Unicode Consortium want to ensure that they're not directly or indirectly endorsing any specific products. If they added a Bitcoin logo, then you'd see every other crypto lining up to get their logos permanently installed on every person's devices, too. Free advertising for life on 99.99% of phones would be hard to pass up.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I mean, we have a symbol for effectively any currency that anyone can or wants to fill out the paperwork for and can demonstrate the basics of "this is a meaningful symbol with more than transient relevance".

    They added ₿ in 2016.

    https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/category/Sc

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    So, if there's already a symbol in Unicode, the petition doesn't make any sense. They should ask Google and Apple to display the symbol in the emoji list, with a control character to force it as emoji.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Totally. It's double weird, because it's not a petitionable issue, it's a form where you make your case and a committee decides, and they already have the symbol and they just seem to want it to be usable like 💲, which isn't a thing.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Surely the Tokyo tower is a specific product then? 🗼It costs money to visit, aren't the other towers jealous?

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html#Faulty_Comparison

    The Tokyo Tower🗼(a specific building) does not justify adding the Eiffel Tower.

    Many historical emoji violate current factors for inclusion. Once an emoji is encoded it cannot be removed from the Unicode Standard.

    It was added when Unicode Consortium had different guidelines. They don’t accept specific buildings anymore.

    Under automatically declined:

    Specific buildings, structures, landmarks, or other locations, whether fictional, historic, or modern.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (7 children)

    The creator of bitcoin is as unknown as batman's identity. The folks at the center of the main blockchain companies and stuff like that all know pretty well who created it, they just play along with the story.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Why in the world would you have "emojis" as part of Unicode anyway?

    We already have a way to have endless "emojis" without administrative stupidity, it's called JPEG.

    If you need to show text as that, we've had smileys since 90s.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Would you rather send an entire JPEG over text message for an emoji? Or just 4 bytes of unicode right inline where you want it? Unicode having a standard set of emoji is actually incredibly useful and reduces complexity. I guess it would disincentivize 👏 emoji 👏 spam 👏 to use JPEGs tho.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (4 children)

    I'd send :-} and :-\ and =P and D= instead of an emoji. As the founding fathers intended.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I don't think it should have an emoji either, but how does this rule apply to real currencies being emojis? I mean there is dollar banknote 💵 and yen banknote 💴 and euro banknote 💶 as separate emojis, not just a general money one. And honestly, even most of the emojis referencing anything that has to do with money uses dollar signs, i.e. $. Were these rules made after these emojis were already added?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    I saw this get brought up a lot. I think the difference is that currency symbols generally don't refer to a specific currency. USD and AUS both use the $ symbol, for example. "Dollar" and "American Dollar" aren't the same thing since other types of dollars exist, and the symbols are still technically multi-purpose, whereas the ₿ symbol technically refers only to Bitcoin.

    That's my theory on the reasoning, at least.

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