The Sat Symbol

The sat symbol was originally a compliment graphic for an awareness campaign that folks can buy a fraction of a bitcoin; check out the hashtag #StartTalkingInSats if you want to see the history of that campaign.I’ve been a professional illustrator/designer/typophile for over two decades. I’m also a bitcoiner. Some years back I purchased a new calligraphy brush pen and I thought a good first test would be to mimic Zhenshu character writing. My very first attempt resulted in three ascending stacked lines bookmarked between two shorter vertical lines. It wasn’t a conscious or creative choice, it just happened. I liked it and I was curious what I wrote.

I began to look for the character in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy sites, but there were no matches anywhere. I couldn’t believe that this simple symbol had no character counterpart. So I began to ask native Japanese and Mandarin speakers if they knew a match. They couldn’t find a match either, but someone told me this symbol 丰 (Fēng) was similar and it meant “bountiful, abundant, lush, plenty, luxurious growth of grass.”I knew then it was meant to be the Sat symbol. More importantly, I knew it had to be free and unrestricted to everyone as Satoshi would have wanted.

The drawing was assessed by a professional designer half way across the globe who made suggestions to make the design better, both commercially and as a proper currency symbol. She redesigned the logo to make it accessible to online exchanges and partnered with me to promote it. She made the current version of the sat symbol that fits within the bitcoin ₿ like a key in a lock. Sats became the structure of bitcoin, literally and figuratively. We are co-designers and work together to evangelize the sat worldwide.

The very first adopter of the symbol was Reddit user LNTipBot. They created an automated sat tipping bot and used the symbol in the Reddit wiki. This gave us the push we needed to approach everyone we could to adopt the symbol.Today you can see it on Thunderhub, Kraken, OKCoin, Bitcoin Machines, and now – happy to say – Coinbits. It’s also received some amazing endorsements from Satoshi Labs (Trezor), Michael Saylor, and Jack.

Most designers have typeset the symbol precisely as it should be – naturally and without rigid guidelines. Another nod to its ease of adoption and simplicity. Many people have used it freely in merchandise like tees and stickers and put their own personal creative flair on it. There’s no rules how to use it, just use it. The tattoos have really been a flattering surprise and make me smile every time I see a fresh one.

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I’m also aware of the controversy, often called the ‘Kebab’ by naysayers. The name has become a term of endearment for myself and for many fans of the symbol. I welcome other candidates for the sat symbol design, honestly there are a couple I really like. In the end the choice will happen organically as, I assume, Satoshi would have wanted as well.

To embed the Sat Symbol on your site, visit satsymbol.com/fontawesome.