Over the last few days, cryptocurrency advocates have been discussing the Sat Symbol initiative, a goal that aims to get a specifically designed symbol to represent the smallest unit of bitcoin and also get the symbol widely adopted. The Sat Symbol has been promoted by a number of crypto luminaries but others have offered alternative ideas.
Initiative Attempts to Tie Symbol to Bitcoinâs Smallest UnitMost people know that Satoshi Nakamoto is the inventor of the Bitcoin protocol, the âpurely peer-to-peer version of electronic cashâ that was launched on January 3, 2009. The word Satoshi has Japanese roots and the name translates into definitions such as âquick-witted,â âclear thinkingâ, and âwise.â Furthermore, the popular anime PokĂŠmonâs lead human character Ash Ketchumâs name is âSatoshiâ in Japanese. While the name was used by Bitcoinâs inventor, the term âsatoshiâ (lowercase) is also the smallest unit of bitcoin. The term satoshi, when referring to bitcoinâs smallest unit, has been adopted far and wide by the crypto community at large. Around two years ago in mid-October 2019, Oxford University Press published its quarterly report explaining the word satoshi was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) database. The cryptocurrency bitcoin is divisible by up to eight decimal points. Each bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis and the protocol has a supply cap of roughly 21 million bitcoin. Now thereâs an initiative that is attempting to get a symbol for bitcoinâs smallest unit adopted by the community at large. The web portal called satsymbol.com showcases the idea as three parallel horizontal lines and thereâs a small vertical line above and below the stack of horizontal lines. The website shows the orange âBâ bitcoin symbol and how it relates to the satoshi design concept in animated fashion. âSupport the bitcoin design initiative to make this the official satoshi symbol â open, free, and unrestricted as Satoshi would have wanted â please share if you agree,â the satsymbol.com website details.
Satoshi Symbol Discussion Re-IgnitesOn Thursday evening around 7 p.m. (EST), the term âsatoshiâ was trending with a large quantity of trending tweets sharing the Sat Symbol initiativeâs design. Microstrategyâs Michael Saylor shared the web domain on Twitter and said: âMay satoshi be with you.â The crypto pundit and self-proclaimed âbitcoin maximalistâ Max Keiser decided to share an alternative idea that could represent the satoshi symbol. âSymbol for satoshi should be a tilde. It looks enough like the sign for infinity â and itâs on every keyboard. ~ 1,000,000 = 1 million sats,â Keiser added.
We all have the true satoshi symbol embedded in our minds. This was a prophecy. pic.twitter.com/mGo3NAD4Cp
â MancHODL âĄď¸ â/21M (@MancHODL) October 7, 2021
Others shared the old-school S symbol (âCool S,â also known as the âStussy S,â or âSuper Sâ) all the cool kids used to draw back in the day. Bitcoin proponent ââDennis Porter said he agreed with Keiserâs idea. âI agree with Max Keiser on the satoshi symbol. This is on every keyboard which will make it backward compatible,â Porter wrote. However, another person disagreed with Keiserâs take on the symbol and one person replied to Porter and said: âMax isnât often wrong. Heâs wrong on this one. This symbol is better,â while sharing a screenshot of the Sat Symbol initiative picture. A number of others tweeted about the Sat Symbol initiative on Thursday evening. The idea to call the smallest unit of bitcoin satoshi was conceived back in 2010 when an individual dubbed âRibuckâ proposed that one-hundredth of a bitcoin should be called satoshi to honor the protocolâs inventor. Ribuckâs idea has stuck around and most people use the term satoshi to represent the smallest unit of bitcoin but as far as the symbol goes, a widely adopted idea may not come to fruition. The attempt to tether a symbol to the term has been tried on many occasions but every one so far has ultimately failed. In July 2019, Square Crypto initiated a trend on Twitter when it asked people to share designs that could represent the smallest increment of bitcoin. One person told Square that he designed a fairly popular idea that had gained some traction. What do you think about the Sat Symbol initiative and the many attempts to get a symbol tied to bitcoinâs smallest unit? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.