35 crypto companies got together to make a change dot org petition called “Bitcoin Deserves an Emoji”.

F that

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    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.

      • Zetta@mander.xyz
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        4 months ago

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

        • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

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

          • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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            4 months ago

            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.

        • lad@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          The main issue is that it tries to fix government trust issues with private actors trust issues. It’s still trust issues

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      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.

      • Chozo@fedia.io
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        4 months ago

        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.

        • beeb@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

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

          • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
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            4 months ago

            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.

        • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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          4 months ago

          It’s a specific type of thing, but it’s not a brand. Nobody owns the trademark for Bitcoin. Anyone can buy, sell, or mine Bitcoin. It’s no more a specific product than dollars are a specific product.

          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.

          Is there a problem with that? This isn’t “advertising”, these are unicode symbols. There are unicode symbols for all kinds of things. Every currency has unicode symbols, why not cryptocurrencies?

    • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
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      4 months ago

      The problem with having cryptocurrency as emoji is agreeing on the specification how it should be drawn, and also make it different enough from already existing emojis such as coin 🪙. It is not exactly a tangible thing.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Just make it the B symbol they use in the coin? None of the others would exist in their current fashion, without Bitcoin anyway.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          4 months ago

          Bitcoin is a brand name there which means they can’t do that. Also if bitcoin deserves its own symbol (and I don’t think it necessarily does) then all the cryptocurrencies such as ethereum also deserve one.

        • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          Windows wouldn’t have existed without DOS so it’s logo should be the DOS logo. Likewise the USD emoji should be a pile of gold. \s

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      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.

      • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Hmm, why do we need a corporation to be arbitter of the written language anyway ? If they want to use it, they should just use it.If they can’t because of some central authority then Unicode is is to be abolished and replace with a system where you can usev wherever squiggle that you want and nobody gets a second opinion. You just do it.

    • qaz@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It makes a lot more sense to implement this the way country flags are implemented in Unicode.