It has been stamped on buses, engraved on physical coins, and pasted in shop windows around the world. The Bitcoin logo, a slanted B in a joyous circle, has become a marketing phenomenon and a vital tool in promoting the world’s largest cryptocurrency even though Bitcoin price is so volatile.
The creation process of the BTC logo
Creating a globally recognized logo that can be distinguished at a glance is no small feat; Companies like Starbucks and Apple spend millions of dollars on dedicated teams of graphic designers, brainstorming ideas and workshops to make the smallest adjustments to their logos.
The visible face of BTC has gone through some changes throughout its history. The first logo of this crypto active was created by Satoshi Nakamoto himself, and as expected, its author did not reveal further details of its meaning or symbolism.
This initial logo consisted only of BC letters in white on a gold background Something quite simple that, as you can see, kept the golden color as a reference to gold, a mineral that inspired Nakamoto in the creation of Bitcoin.
However, Nakamoto would not take long to modify this logo, leaving only the B and adding the well-known double bars that cross it somewhat similar to the original dollar symbol, crossed by two bars.
The Bitcoin emblem has achieved that level of recognition without any team overseeing the design process, much less the marketing budget of a corporate giant.
During the exhaustive process of creating the bitcoin logo, they proposed using the Thai baht symbol (฿). However, there were diverse opinions where they supported the ampersand (&), others suggested adding a letter T to the already established BC, and thus finally they trusted in establishing the letters BTC as the symbol of the digital currency with the most impact worldwide
Some so many models somehow represented what bitcoin intended to expose. Still, only one version was the one that described the concept that it desired to convey, represented by the Thai baht symbol, the letter B with two vertical lines.
Well, despite Satoshi’s efforts, many operators had no worries about critiquing the version of the new logo, in some cases in a pretty straight and persistent way.
The creation and establishment of symbolism for such a controversial digital asset had to represent somehow the financial and socioeconomic impact that it brought with it. But, unfortunately, Bitcoin is a multipurpose tool where the real impact it brings has not reached its full splendor.
Before the creation and final approval of the BITCOIN logo, all users gave the creator, who is none other than a network user who under the pseudonym of “BIG BOY,” managed to reflect what bitcoin represents visually.
This ingenious user decided to use the symbol that Satoshi had established the letter B previously raised, only that the latter figured it in white and around an orange circle, where the symbol ฿ was inclined to the right. And that is how the emblem would represent bitcoin so far from its creation established.
Notably, the Bitcoin logo now resembles that of other payment methods, leaving no doubt about its intended use.
Although BITBOY’s design for the Bitcoin logo has endured, not everyone is happy to leave it at that.
One group, in particular, has lobbied for a logo change for the past six years. The “BITCOIN SYMBOL” movement has argued that more than a logo, what Bitcoin needs is a representation such as a dollar, the euro, or the yen.
His suggestion, first put forward in 2014, was the letter Ƀ, which appears in various alphabets. Several Bitcoin startups adopted the new symbol, but the idea fell through.
Conclusion
The Bitcoin logo works by its simplicity, and by the monetary association of the double vertical lines, similar to the monetary signs such as the dollar, the yen, the euro, the lira, etc. But there are aspects of the logo that could be improved, so this is where all the opinions and suggestions around the famous BITCOIN logo start to mix.
Although many are those who want to change this symbol that has worked efficiently for the objectives of the bitcoin platform, others prefer to leave it as is since it has many important characteristics such as volatility or prediction of its value over time.